Wildfire is a dominant ridge to reef threat to human and natural communities in the Hawaiian Islands, with impacts to natural and cultural resources and ecoystem services. Fire regimes in Hawai’i have shifted from very infrequent wildfire occurrence prior to human arrival to greatly increased frequency, intensity, and size over the past 100+ years, almost all of which is driven by anthropogenic ignitions and wildland fuels associated with invasive species, particularly grasses. Recent fire science has greatly increased understanding of contemporary drivers of fire in Hawaiʻi; however, the social dimensions and historical perspectives from Hawaiian language primary sources have not been integrated into synthetic understanding of fire in Hawaiʻi. The regional PICASC Future of Fire project focused on how Hawaiian language informs contemporary wildfire science in the Hawaiian Islands. We synthesized how fire and subsequent impacts on natural resources have changed over time by utilizing Hawaiian language archival materials for historical records on fire history and perceptions of these impacts. We also extended information to fire prone geographies in Hawaiʻi using a multiple knowledge-systems approach to support manager planning for alternative futures, intervention actions, and potential consequences of decisions. The complexities of wildfire drivers, including anthropogenic ignitions, novel fuel types, and extreme heterogeneity in climate over short spatial scales, pose significant challenges to fire risk assessment and fire management, and conservation and restoration of endemic biodiversity. As island communities face increased wildfire risk due to climate change and continued plant 2 invasion, collaborative bio-cultural stewardship approaches to adaptation and mitigation will be critical to wildfire management.
