Year of Our Coastal Kuleana

Season 2 begins. A shared kuleana continues.

We’re kicking off Season Two of Hawaiʻi Conservation Kuleana with a powerful, cross-division conversation on 2026: The Year of Our Coastal Kuleana.

DLNR leaders from Forestry & Wildlife, Aquatic Resources, State Parks, and Boating & Ocean Recreation come together to talk story about what kuleana means and how every person who lives, works, or visits Hawaiʻi plays a role in caring for our coasts.

From beach cleanups and wetland restoration to education, culture, and community partnerships, this episode explores how conservation is strongest when we work as one hui.

Listen now and learn how you can be part of Hawaiʻi’s coastal future.

Find out more: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/coasts 

Transcript

[Music]

Patti Jette: Aloha and welcome to Hawaii Conservation Kuleana, brought to you from Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources. I'm Patti Jette. We're here to explore conservation issues from land to sea, with expert insights and stories from the field.

[Music]

Kekai Mar: The coasts or the shorelines and the forests or mountains were never seen separate in our stories, our moʻolelo. I mean, our kinolau, there's always dualities, right? What is in the ocean all the way up to mauka is also present from the very beginning in Kumulipo or creation story. So, I mean, with that theme itself, if you look at traditional stories and Hawaiian culture here, I feel that our divisions are really reflecting that in this theme.

[Music]

Patti: Today we're starting season two. We have an extra large panel of guests here to talk about the Year of Our Coastal Kuleana, which kicked off this week with a proclamation by Governor Josh Green. With me today are Josh Atwood from the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Charles Lee from the Division of Aquatic Resources. Kekai Mar from the Division of State Parks, and Brad Sagucio from the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation. Aloha mai kakou, all right. Thank you for being here all of you. Wow, I've got a lot to a lot of you guys to get into this. Josh, we'll start with you. What is the year of coastal kuleana? And why are we focusing on this for 2026?

Josh Atwood: Sure, so year of our coastal kuleana is a celebration. It's a time to think about how rich our coastal ecosystems are with resources, how rich they are with human resources and assets for us as an island community, and it's a time for people to get involved. So all of these year of campaigns, it's partially about awareness and making sure that people know about the resources around them, but it's also about providing and promoting opportunities for people to volunteer and take a hand in caring for the areas around them.

Patti: And I'll open this up to anyone who would like to answer. But what is our responsibility to our coasts as you see it?

Charles Lee: So following in the traditions of old Hawai'i, we have to take care of our environment in order for it to take care of us. And this goes beyond recreation. Obviously, both kamaʻaina and visitors alike flock to the coast, whether it's the beaches or the reefs, but these coastlines are also not only where we build our homes, but they're also a source of food for us, with regards to our natural resources, they're a source of economic benefit. And of course, since we're including the reefs, it also includes protection from natural disasters. And let's face it, we live here in Hawaiʻi on these magical islands, and the coastlines are what's partially responsible for the way of life we do have here in Hawaii.

Patti: That's right. How many miles of coastline do we actually have in the state? Anybody know? I've thrown a pop quiz in there.

Josh: I do, but only because I recently looked it up. But we have 1052 miles of coastline in the state, and I believe we have over 400 beaches and so, yeah, it's it's something that all of us share as a common resource and relationship. 100% of the land area of Hawaiʻi is designated as coastal zone. So every resident in Hawaiʻi lives in the coastal zone. We all live in an ahupuaʻa that includes mauka and makai areas, and the coast is what bridges those two realms.

Patti: So we heard from Charles talking about the responsibility to our coast. What about you guys, Kekai, like, what, how do you see it? I mean, State Parks, how does that sort of relate to our coastlines?

Kekai Mar: Yeah, a lot of our coastal kuleana and our larger responsibilities. I mean, if we look at our state parks, we have over 50 parks, and a good majority of them are along our coastal strands. So understanding that our coasts are really the location where a lot of our streams, a lot of our trails, a lot of our parks and people connect. It's integral that we establish this idea of kuleana within this year campaign, because we have so many people that utilize this space. May it be for resources, for food, for recreation and enjoyment, and of course, for the stewardship of our natural and cultural resources. As this coastline intersects with so many different resources, it's important, I think, to provide this our state parks as a learning place for visitors, for locals, users of the park, people who harvest and enjoy this space. That kuleana is so important for us in order to continue to live in this space and enjoy these resources. So for state parks, it really has to do with interpretation and education and opportunities for stewardship within these parks, so that people can enjoy these spaces and continue to enjoy them for generations to come.

Patti: And Brad, how about you? I mean, boating and ocean recreation is pretty essential to our coastlines. How does it relate to your division?

Brad Sagucio: Yeah, so on the boating perspective, it is on our coast. You know, all the boaters navigate from and to wherever they're going to go fishing or just to hang out on the water. So it is our kuleana for all all people on the water to respect it, use the boats, as well as any facility, facilities responsibly and making sure that everyone is having a great time on the water. You know, the coast is, like you guys said, it is part of the ahupuaʻa, where all of us intersect. So from mauka to makai, I believe it's very important for all of us just to respect and remember the cultural and traditional significance of our coasts.

Patti: So I’d just like to go around the entire table now and just ask, what is your division doing as part of our year of coastal kuleana? So what are the different some of the different things that are going on and Josh, we'll start with you.

Josh: Yeah. So our division is forestry and wildlife, and so we are primarily focusing on some of our coastal forest areas and coastal dune habitats and shrub lands, the plants and insects that live there, but also sea birds and water birds. In the year of our coastal kuleana, we're including in the definition of coasts, wetlands and other coastal habitats that are really important for our native wildlife. So we're looking at those species. We're trying to promote awareness. I think that, you know, for me, I always find that I feel more connected to an environment when I know the names of things. And especially in Hawaiʻi, we're trying to get people to use the ʻOlelo Hawaii names for the different species of plants and animals that they interact with. So just the base level of making sure people know what those coastal forest and wildlife resources are is something that's really important to us. And then beyond that, we're trying to encourage you know, pono behaviors at the coast, keeping your distance from wildlife, keeping your dog on a leash, etc. And then, you know, kind of the next step is encouraging people to engage in those resources through volunteering or recreation. That's our focus.

Patti: And Charles, how about you?

Charles: Coming from the Division of Aquatic Resources, we obviously have a huge presence on the coasts, and there are just so many ideas we have planned for this upcoming year. For example, our friends in the protected species team is already putting together a statewide, I believe it's the first statewide cleanup of beaches, and we're aiming for June 6 for that one. In addition, we are trying to partner with several of our schools to create outreach materials to share with our community. And this isn't specifically just our division, it is more of a department wide effort, but we are trying to connect with the Hawaii Tourism Authority as well to share this message of kuleana with the visitors of Hawaiʻi, so that they can also continue to not only enjoy but to protect our coastlines. 

Patti: All right. And Brad, how about you guys?

Brad: Yeah. So for us, we are on the boating side. We are promoting our education and outreach, just because before, we weren't really too involved within schools, as well as educating the public, or, more specifically, the children's side, just because they're growing up here, we want them to always be safe on the water, or just in general, be safe. And we're also doing community outreach events, working with a lot of nonprofit organizations as well as you know, working with DAR, state parks, like Charles said, it is a department wide mission, and yeah, it's just trying to get out there, get our message out to the public.

Patti: And anything for you. Kekai, you talked about it a little bit in your last answer.

Kekai: In state parks, we're looking to work with a lot of our community partners, so we're grateful to work with our curators and our adopt a park partners that are organized within our state parks throughout the island, and a lot of the state park focus is going to be on interpretation, education and stewardship with our community partners. And so majority of their work is going to be focused or highlighted with cleanups on shorelines, cleanups in beaches, in our sand dunes, and then also with estuary and fish pond restoration, there'll also be interpretive exhibits and programs that will be highlighted and offered to the public. And it's really a great opportunity to get a lot of visitors and locals in Hawaii to utilize and appreciate their state parks, to be able to be able to garner this appreciation and kuleana and take that with them into their into their everyday life. It's something that we're looking to provide and highlight new programs. So one, for example, is our care for the crater program at Leahi Diamond Head state monument. So we're really excited to continue that program, which involves a lot of our community partners throughout the crater, both the mauka makai and within the crater, there'll be different engagement from planting native species, removing invasives to prevent wildfires on this coastline of our crater. And what's really unique about this year integrating our care for the crater program is that we're going to offer incentives for the volunteer participants, which can include really fun things like State Park swag. It could include also unique experiences or native seeds or plants from the crater to share with the community. So we're excited to really engage with our community within our state parks, to highlight these important resources, and then also looking forward to sharing and collaborating with our divisions and within our agency partners in conservation as well with our state park projects.

Josh: So for forestry and wildlife, our focus for year of our coastal kuleana is really on the forest, coastal forests and dunes and wetland ecosystems that are near the coast as well as some of the, you know, beach and anchialine pool resources we manage. But what we're doing as a division for this year, we're really focused on providing resources for educators. So there's a part of the website where teachers can reach out to us for classroom presentations or field trips, and then we're also providing new educational products. So we're providing virtual field trips. So a lot of our coastal areas are sea bird sanctuaries that you can't visit in person, especially with a classroom of students. And so we have these 360 degree experiences where people can go to offshore islets. We just released one for Lehua islet off the west side of Kauaʻi and some of our wetlands as well. So between that and our field trips and some of the volunteer experiences that we're doing with partners, that's kind of our strategy, to get people to just be, you know, have a baseline awareness of what their coastal species are, and then hopefully take that next step to get involved through volunteering or just pono behaviors when you're, you know, recreating at the coast.

Patti: So I'm pretty stoked about today's podcast, because all of season one, we did the administrators of the different divisions, and this is our first podcast to feature a bunch of people from multiple different divisions together. So this is pretty cool. And I know in the past, our year of themes have been a bit DOFAW centric, I would say, like the forest birds, year of the forest birds. This past year, the previous year was year of the community forests. So talk to me, guys, a little bit about how this year's theme works across divisions, and we've got a lot of sort of cross pollination going on instead of just being in silos.

Josh: Yeah, well, I was thinking about this question and how with ecosystems and with human communities, the connections are complex, and you know, the way these systems are set up, it's really inherent that everything is connected to one another. So the idea of divisions within DLNR, or trying to divvy up the topics that we deal with, you know, this division does aquatic resources, and we do terrestrial forests, and they do state parks, and they do boating, that's a human construct. And you know, the work we do is so much more complex than that. And while we are from different divisions, we work together all the time, and we have these areas that overlap. The coast is really one of the major nexus points for that. So for example, Kekai and state parks, they work with the nalo mele naoli, the yellow face bee in coastal parks around Hawaii. And that's something that we have entomologists working on as well. So that's a partnership area with DAR you know, we work sometimes with monk seal protections as well. As, you know, their teams are doing that as well. So, you know, there's lots of areas of overlap, and a lot of that overlap thematically happens geographically within the coast.

Charles: And as Josh mentioned earlier, pretty much all of Hawaii's lands are considered coastal lands. So even if you are living up on a hill, you are still a part of the coast and you're connected to it. And honestly, there is no better way to describe it, than the traditional ahupuaʻa system, where everything is connected through nature and through these natural resources. And again, we might be different divisions, we are all DLNR. 

Kekai: Absolutely, I love that you guys mentioned ahupuaʻa and that that cross section between resources and ecosystems. Because a lot of times in Hawaiian thinking it's the coasts or the shorelines and the forests or mountains, we're never seen separate in our stories, or moʻolelo. I mean, in our kinolau, there's always dualities, right? What is in the ocean all the way up to mauka is also present from the very beginning in Kumulipo or creation story. So I mean, with that theme itself, if we look at traditional stories and Hawaiian culture here, I feel that our divisions are really reflecting that in this theme, and that a lot of our resources, they actually do traverse these jurisdictions, if we will, that Josh alluded to, the man made constructs, and that their resources are not going to stay within the parks or within the forest, though they're shorelines or reefs, and so it's our kuleana as divisions to then collaborate and work together, as we did traditionally, to also do it contemporarily, to protect these resources. And I think that's what's so beautiful about this year's kuleana, is that this campaign really focuses on this collaboration. To have kuleana, I think it sets a lot of precedence where you need to work as an ohana. You need to be a hui to really push kuleana. But you know, with that being said, I think it doesn't take much for one to show kuleana to really embody or live it. I think by participating in these events or even on people’s, with families on their own, it's also important to then raise awareness, to learn a little bit about these species, about these cultural sites, about these educational practice in recreation and hiking and boating and fishing so that they can have a sense of responsibility when they go out and enjoy these spaces. So kuleana, I think, is something that is so much more naturally done when you're with community, but it's also easily done independently or with an ohana as well.

Brad: I totally agree with what all you guys said about us interconnecting, intersecting, but yet, I believe our coast, you know, it's where all of us meet. This what all the divisions do, from mauka to makai, we have the freshwater streams all the way down to the ocean. You know, even like DAR, they have the wildlife. State parks, got the parks, so it's just, it's a great place where all of us meet. It's just where we all experience Hawaii, and that's a very important part of our kuleana to make sure we have it for our future generations.

Patti: So I wanted to get a little bit more personal with all of you guys. You've had some amazing answers so far, and I think we really appreciate that. But for you, what does this theme mean to you personally? You know, personally here, we all live here. We're all together on these islands. And so what, how does this theme connect to you?

Kekai: You know, I really grew up with this idea of lead by example, or to actually give to a place and treat things with responsibility. And so one ʻolelo noeau that comes up in mine is ma kahana ka ike, you know, through action, one learns, and by that ʻolelo noeau, I feel that it really guided me to become the person I am today in this idea of protecting and caring for our resources, right? I remember growing up, often going to the beach was automatic for our family. You know, fishing, boogie boarding, surfing, and then one thing I always enjoyed, though, on shore, in addition to like throwing sand balls at my brothers, was hanging out on the shoreline, but specifically where the stream met the ocean our estuaries, my dad would always take us to those places, and because it was so fun for myself and my brothers to explore the ocean, to hang out in the waves, but then we got to also explore upstream with my dad, and then we would see and find and smell and feel the different temperature of the water and see what species are different. And my dad would teach us like whatever plants we see or what's in the water. And that was just a memory that always stood with me. I think those experiences and that guiding ʻolelo noeau really helped to push these actions that today I'm here to have the option and opportunity to share that with other people, right? It's, it's, it's nice to be able to experience on your own, but I think what I am so thankful for is to be able to share these experiences with other people, through interpretation, through education, to really get people to create their own memories and appreciation in a space like how I had the privilege to do as well.

Patti: Anybody else? How else? How else are you connecting with this theme?

Josh: Yeah, I can say I have a very different life experience not having been born here. I grew up in Maine and also in a coastal area, and I gotta say it's a very different relationship with coasts here. The coastal Maine is beautiful. It still provides, you know, sustenance to people. I think that's something that we have in common. But there it's a very rugged, harsh environment. And you know, that's something we can take pride in. But I think even in summer, you can get hypothermia in the ocean in Maine. And so to live in a place now where the coast is inviting and, you know, it's a place to relax year round and recreate. It really brings back to me how lucky we are to live in Hawaii. And even though I'm not from here, my wife's family is, and so now I'm raising my kids here and seeing them go to the coast. I mean, that's some of the best memories I have with them, is going to the beach or exploring tide pools or going fishing. I mean, you can see in kids, it's got to be something that is just instinctual to humans, that connection to coast, because they love it. I mean, I love hiking. I take them into the forest as well. But you take a kid to the beach and they're just happy. So yeah, I think for me personally, the year of our coastal kuleana, I view it through the lens of being a dad and just enjoying those coastal environments with my kids is super important.

Patti: How about you Brad?

Brad: yeah, I can totally agree with you on that. You know, being a father, I have a son as well. He's just turning four, and he really loves the beach. You know, growing up here, born and raised, I was always at the beach, whether I'm fishing, diving, surfing, you know, I would even cut class to go to beach. But, you know, it's just basically a second home for me. I just want everybody to use it respectfully, you know, so we can enjoy it for, you know, my son, everyone's children, and you know, 100 years from now, it'll be the same experience for everyone.

Charles: In general, I already consider it my life's purpose just to share how amazing our natural world with is, with everyone around us, but the coasts in particular, do hold a very special place in my heart, just because, like some of you, growing up, I spent a lot of time there. And what really strikes me is that the more you grow, the further you push, the more you discover it's not just this one thing. There are multiple layers to it. You know, you start off face down in a kiddie pool, and then gradually you move beyond that, to the beach, into the deeper water. You move up the streams. And each time you're exploring something new, you're making these discoveries for the first time and better appreciating better understanding this environment you're in. And this is something I hope that everyone in Hawaii has the opportunity to do.

Patti: So I'll say for my personal since I made you all talk personally, I'll also share. So I grew up in a very mountainous area, so I grew up hiking, cross country skiing and all these kinds of things that involve the woodlands. And then moving here was really my first time interacting with serious ocean. And so I had been an outrigger paddler elsewhere, but only on flat water. So coming here and connecting with the ocean, I ended up becoming a scuba diver. So I'm a self proclaimed fish nerd. I love looking at the fish, identifying the fish, checking out the coral. And so this theme really resonates with me, and it really keeps me in mind of my past as a hiker and my present as a diver, and that ridge to reef connection. So I'm looking forward to all these different events and all the connections that are being made for this particular year's theme. I think it's pretty cool. Let's talk about the partners who are going to be involved in this, who are some of the partners, and what are, are some of their initiatives that you know about so far?

Josh: Yeah, I can say that one of my favorite parts of doing these year of campaigns is that each year we focus on a different topic, and that means that we're working with a different external partner network, and so we get to really spend more time with different groups. And I love that, because you get to meet more people and learn more about their their work areas. So for our division, we've started reaching out to some of our external partners and hearing more about what they plan to do next year. We're working with, for example, Pacific Birds Joint Venture. They're doing a big campaign on ʻalae ʻula awareness next year, and the fact that there's only 700 of these birds left in the world. We're working with Hawaii Audubon Society. They're working on a speaker series, and also some new guidance to coastal homeowners, who are, you know, trying to navigate the relationship with nesting sea birds that sometimes go on to private property, and how we can better facilitate that connection. We're also working with big partners like Bishop Museum and so they're theming their science and sustainability festival next year, around the year of our coastal kuleana. Same for the Hawaiʻi State Library System. They're going to work with us for their summer reading series and have presentations at libraries around the state about coasts and coastal resources. So yeah, a lot of great partners. We're working with some loʻi communities as well, and posting their loʻi work days on our website so that people can get into more of the wetland habitat and food aspect of coasts. So yeah, lots of great partners and lots of great events planned for next year.

Patti: All right, anybody else? 

Kekai: Yeah, and a lot of our partners within state parks are coming from our curators and adopt the park partners within the different islands. So a lot of these have really committed, a passionate commitment for these state parks in these areas of parks or full parks, and some of the kuleana that comes to play, as far as their main activities that are offered to the public involve beach and shoreline cleanups, and some are also focused more on fish pond restoration, and a lot of them seem to be more community based partnerships. A lot are residents and cultural practitioners or descendants of the parks or the spaces around the parks. And so with state parks, it's really important, with a lot of these cultural resources to amplify the voice of our our cultural significance of the space, and to give that opportunity for the community to engage, have access and to share with the general public these really incredible resources. So being able to highlight these spaces that are important to our community and the work they do is so incredibly significant for the park. It both connects that bio cultural gap, right? It's allowing a lot of the cultural resources and natural resources to be stewarded. It gives the voice to that place, and really it. Our community partners are the heartbeat for this initiative with state parks, and so we really want to highlight the community-based partnerships that we have through our adopt the park and curator programs.

Patti: Yeah, we really can't get by without our communityʻs help and all of our partners. So I'm glad that you mentioned that, because, boy, they really do a lot for us, and we cannot do it all ourselves.

Charles: Building on that, one of my favorite quotes is that conservation is a community effort, and since we're talking about community, just because DAR is aquatic resources, we already have a vast community of partners to work with. For example, from the wildlife perspective, we'll be partnering with the Hawaii marine animal response from the education side, there's UH Sea Grant, and my apologies to all of these partners. I cannot name all of you, simply because there are so many wonderful groups, and many of them are exclusive to particular islands, because there are different islands here in Hawaiʻi. We have different partners on each one, one particular group of partners I do want to highlight, though, are the schools, simply because, and I'm sorry if this is going off on a tangent, but even before we started meeting about year of our coastal kuleana, we received a large envelope from a certain school, which, again, I didn't get their permission to use their name right now, so I'll protect their privacy, but in this envelope were multiple drawings and letters from their third grade students depicting awareness of our coasts and our coral reefs to help people understand just how important they are. And that really inspired me to reach out to them and several of the other schools, just so that they have an opportunity to share their voice more for this year of our coastal kuleana,

Patti: That's wonderful. I'm getting chicken skin hearing that story. So not a tangent at all. Thank you, Charles.

Brad: Yeah, and I'm building off of what Charles was saying about schools. One of our partners our schools as well, we have been, you know, going out to different public schools as well as private schools, just to promote any safety awareness that we have. Another partner we do have is our US Coast Guard as well as the Coast Guard Auxiliary. They help us kind of find where spills are, marine debris, you know, any wreckages that are out there that need to be reported. And, yeah, we also work with a lot of nonprofits, Nā Kama Kai is one I can name. We just worked with them at the hua kea on Sand Island this past week, I believe. So it was a really great event, you know, to get ourselves out there with the community and making sure they're following DLNR’s rules, regulations, and, you know, all these safety standards we have,

Patti: All right, so let's talk schedules. I'm sure this year is going to be packed with events. What are some of the events you know about already? What's happening and when I know we've already had one already occur earlier this year. So what do we have going on? 

Kekai: We had our first day hike, and that's always an exciting opportunity where state parks in Hawaii get to jointly celebrate our state parks on the first day of the year with parks throughout the country. And so our first day hike is always at Makapuʻu, our Kaiwi State Sceninc Shoreline, the Makapuʻu trail, and the two mile hike seems to bring in over 500 people each year, and it's such an enjoyable time to bring up the new sun throughout the New Year, and it's a short hike. Welcome to families. And up top, there's ʻoli there's hula, there's also taiko drums. That's really exciting, and it seems to almost drum and beat with the sun as it's rising. And so we it was such an exciting event, and we're looking forward to a vast amount of activities throughout the year with a lot of our coastal partners. And so some that we're looking forward to within Leahi Diamond Head State Monument are going to be the Kids to Park Day that we have in May. This is a great opportunity to bring a lot of partners and families into the parks, and then also highlighting our community partnerships around the crater through our Care for the Crater events, which for state parks, runs on the first and third Saturdays of each month. But a lot of our partners often have more frequent days throughout the month as well, and on some of the other islands within Hawaiʻi Island, within Kauaʻi, we're happy to celebrate with our partners there, our lessees and our curators in dune systems and within a lot of campgrounds which have really significant, significant anchialine pools nearby as well. So being able to highlight their opportunities that and education and awareness that they share with visitors is going to be really important and such an opportunity with this campaign, especially so we're excited to work with a lot of our community partners, the universities, the canoe clubs and schools as well within our state parks.

Patti: How about you Brad?

Brad: Yes, some events we have, not too much on the boating end, but it is going to be boating safety month in May of 2026 we also do have an ongoing thing where we're pushing our boating safety education classes. People can go online learn about navigation rules, wildlife protection and all of that type of thing. So yeah, it's just ongoing thing. We want to keep pushing all of our people to do.

Charles: I apologize for repeating myself. I mentioned June 6, we're going to have the statewide beach cleanup, and by all means, our partners are also going to be hosting respective events for major times during the year, such as World Oceans Day. There is usually going to be a hukilau scheduled twice a year. So we had one in November. There's going to be one in spring, I think around April as well. But I do want to point out though it's not just the major events that make this the year of our coastal kuleana. It's the small, personal ones as well. And so that's why DAR continues to offer these opportunities for any groups interested, whether you want us to come present at your library or classroom, whether you want to actually join us out in the field to explore the tide pools or the coasts in person or even on the coral reef. We want to make these events happen for you.

Josh: Yeah, for forestry and wildlife and some of our partners, we have events coming up in February. So world Wetlands Day is February 2, so we have our division and state parks and a few others are partnering on taking the public but also some school groups to some of our really beautiful wetland areas on Windward Oahu, Hamakua and Kawainui marshes. Then February 7, we're working with Livable Maunalua Hui at Keawawa wetlands, they have a huge network of partners that will also be celebrating World Wetlands Day. Getting into the later spring, we'll have lots of events around Earth Day in April, Bishop Museum, science and sustainability festival is typically in May nowadays, and then the summer will be the time when we're working with the State Library System on their summer reading challenge and library presentations across the state, as well as the Summer Fun program here on Oahu with City and County of Honolulu, we do a lot of presentations with them. In the fall, we have some partners that are based on Kauaʻi, with the Kauaʻi forest bird Recovery Project and Kauaʻi endangered sea bird recovery project that we'll be doing like an art exhibit and contest that is related to this theme. And we'll also probably be doing some education focused art contests and kind of creative work throughout the year. We, in the past, have done student video challenges where we encourage students to create artwork that explains their connection to the theme. So I think we'll be looking at that this year.

Patti: So now that we've gotten everybody excited about what's going on, how can people find out more about the year of our coastal kuleana?

Josh: I'm so glad you asked. They can go to DLNR.Hawaii.gov/coasts we have a campaign web page there that's divided into a few different sections, the first being kind of general educational information about coasts. So if you are a student of any age that wants to learn about coastal birds or limu or fish or where our parks are, what the boating ocean regulations are. That's all front and center on the web page. The next section is classroom resources. I really love the educational side of this campaign, and so that's where teachers can find. We have free classroom posters and sticker packs featuring coastal assets. We have lesson plans and curricula that are related to coasts to really facilitate them bringing coasts into their classrooms. The next section is general guidance for people about how to be pono near the coasts, whether at home or if you're going to beach parks. You know what you can do to make sure you're giving native wildlife the appropriate space, and, you know, not contributing to the decline of some of these coastal resources. And then the last two sections are really fun. That's where we have swag and merch. So a lot of our partners have online stores where they sell, you know, seabirds stuffed animals, or stickers related to coastal areas, so you can support them through their nonprofit stores, or there's donation options, including to DLNR, where you can support some of that work financially. And then the last section is a combined calendar for all of these events that we're talking about. And while there are a lot of you know, one off events that people can go to and celebrate. There are just a ton of recurring events with community partners that have, you know, weekly work days at different sites, and so hundreds of opportunities to engage with coasts throughout the year.

Patti: All right, so those are all of my questions. Does anyone else have any additional thoughts or impressions that you'd like to share about 2026 our year of coastal kuleana?

Kekai: I think the biggest thing with kuleana is, you know, you don't need to be an expert. You just need to show up. You need to learn what you want. As there's so many resources available and that caring and contributing is really enough to really show and embody this idea of kuleana, and that it's something that a lot of people here in Hawaiʻi live on every day, and we welcome visitors that are exploring a lot of these very significant places to also view these spaces as not just a destination, but as a responsibility and something they can show in in the best way possible, if it's picking up, we call it the rule of three with interpretation. As you're hiking out at a park, you know, if you can pick up three different articles or pieces of rubbish on the way in or out, that's great. But, you know, engage with staff, engage with the interpretive signs. Explore these volunteer calendars as visitors and locals and try to garner this larger appreciation for these really important coastlines that we have here in Hawaii.

Charles: As I like to say, don't just be a tourist, be a visitor. I think that's what you're really emphasizing, Keikai. So thank you for that. And I also want to add that while 2026 is going to be our year of our coastal kuleana. Obviously, this kuleana isn't just going to be constrained to this year. We want to make it last for generations to come, and this is just our launching point, just a way to get as many people as we can involved and just get this ball steam rolling all the way through.

Josh: Yeah, I guess just closing thoughts. You know, we spent a lot of time talking amongst the the DLNR staff about what this campaign was going to be, and I'm so thankful that we landed on including kuleana in the title, because it brings in that human aspect. I think a lot of us have backgrounds in science, and there's this tendency to look at things in isolation and just focus on the the species that you're working with, but in reality, these are landscapes that we live in, and we're all connected to, and humans are not separate from that. So this idea that we are focusing on the kuleana that we have living in Island communities as part of learning about those ecosystems is, I think, really exciting, and I'm super looking forward to how people receive this and how people engage with the campaign throughout the year.

Brad: You know, having that word kuleana in the title really does help us remember what we're here to do is a meeting point for everybody. And like Charles said, don't be a tourist, be a visitor. I really like that. How you said that, because you know that really shows how much respect that everyone should have when they come to these islands.

Patti: All right. Well, mahalo to all of you for being part of my super sized podcast today.

Group: Appreciate it. Thanks for having us

Patti: And Mahalo to our listeners for joining us today on Hawaii Conservation Kuleana, our music is provided by Kawika Kahiapo.  A hui ho!

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