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A University of Hawaii professor’s dream to plant a million native trees per year in Hawaii could soon get backing from the state Legislature, but he warns that proper planning is vital. Read more

A University of Hawaii professor’s dream to plant a million native trees per year in Hawaii could soon get backing from the state Legislature, but he warns that proper planning is vital for success.

Senate Bill 2077, which is set to cross over into the House of Representatives, would put the state Department of Land and Natural Resources in charge of a program to plant 1 million “non-invasive” trees in the state per year.

The bill came to fruition because of the efforts of Camilo Mora, an associate professor of geography at the University of Hawaii.

With the help of many volunteers, Mora led a joint initiative between the university and other organizations, called The Carbon Neutrality Challenge, to plant 11,000 trees in a day in December to offset Hawaii’s carbon emissions. It came a year after planting 1,000 trees in two hours. Before that it was 100 trees.

Mora said the initiative was born from an idea his daughter had when she was 7.

He said he has been working on the tree-planting project for five years and is scaling up every year. He is looking to plant 100,000 trees this year and work his way up to 1 million in 2021.

“Planting a million trees is a piece of cake once we sort out how to do it,” he said. “The reality is it’s not hard at all.”

Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka), who introduced SB 2077, added that the trees could provide shade, combat invasive species and restore Hawaii’s ecosystem.

“There’s so many reasons why that makes sense, and the more we can plant native trees so that we can perpetuate our own indigenous ecosystems, that help keeps Hawaii unique,” he said.

Dela Cruz had met with former Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who attended a seminar by Mora detailing the project. Abercrombie praised Mora’s method for being simple, cost-effective and attractive to the public.

“You get in fights over windmills, and you get in arguments about tax relief for solar and electric cars are too expensive, and here all along there’s a proposition that says, ‘No, we can take youth groups, senior groups, volunteers and a little paid staff and we can actually reduce the carbon footprint in the state,’” Abercrombie said.

Mora said 2,000 volunteers helped plant the 11,000 trees, each with a $4 patent-pending watering system that can be reused for 10 years.

Mora has learned how to grow trees several times faster than they would naturally and now is looking to improve the germination success of the plants.

Though nobody supporting the bill or Mora’s work believes planting 1 million trees is impossible or even particularly daunting, history suggests there is good reason to be diligent.

In the 1980s former Hawaii first lady Jean Ariyoshi was one of the leaders of an effort similar to Mora’s — the “A Million Trees of Aloha” campaign, which led to the planting of over a million trees across the state, including on Diamond Head.

“At Diamond Head in particular, they planted, I believe, around 1,000 or so trees. … Of that planting, one tree survived,” said Yara Lamadrid-Rose, Diamond Head Park coordinator. “A lot of it is weather-dependent: You plant the trees, you irrigate them and once you cut the irrigation … they tend to die, especially in Diamond Head.”

Lamadrid-Rose said the lone tree, a monkeypod, may have survived because it “tapped into a waterline.”

It serves as a cautionary tale that highlights the importance of planning.

“It’s possible that Diamond Head was never a good place to plant trees to begin with,” Mora said. “That’s part of the research and development we have to do.”

In addition to location, research would also determine what species to grow, as some native species like koa are easier to grow than others. Further research would make it possible to grow tougher species like sandalwood and ohia.

But “trying to get there without doing the homework is just a recipe for disaster,” Mora said, adding that possible failure might be used as an excuse not to try again in the future.

Mora has reservations about SB 2077 because he said he does not believe enough planning has been done to keep most of the trees alive. In the meantime he will continue working on his own stepwise project with the university.

“The dream of my project and my family is to get there, but I’m going to go one step at a time,” Mora said. “We don’t want to expose ourselves to failure.”

Reporter Nina Wu contributed to this report.