"The Rain Follows the Forest"
The Adopt-A-Tree program is brought to you by Ahu Lani Sanctuary, a forestry and community center located on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii. We have been planting trees at Ahu Lani Sanctuary since our inception in 2002.
Our People
John Lindelow and Roz Rapozo
The owners of Ahu Lani, John Lindelow and Roz Rapozo, are long time conservationists. They co-founded the World Turtle Trust in 1989, a Hawaii-based organization dedicated to the preservation of sea turtles throughout the world. John also served as Executive Director of Earthtrust, an organization dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins, and other endangered animals. John has also served as a Project Manager for NASA for an image processing system aboard the Galileo space probe. In 1997 John and Roz started a business called Travel Hawaii which they still operate and which provides highly automated booking services for people wishing to visit Hawaii. And in 2002 they acquired Ahu Lani Sanctuary to further their visions of conservation and community-building. John holds a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from the University of Oregon and a Master's Degree in Information & Computer Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. John currently manages Ahu Lani Sanctuary.
Roz Rapozo, Dave DeEsch and John Lindelow visiting a koa tree on Christmas (Note Dave's Santa hat)
Dave DeEsch
Dave DeEsch is a highly experienced horticulturist (Delaware Valley College, 1976) with an extensive background in the plant world. He is also a wonderful teacher of outdoor skills, survival, and habitat protection, with many years experience at Headwater's Outdoor School in Mt. Shasta teaching young people about the great outdoors, and about themselves. Since 2003 Dave has been managing the day-to-day operations at Ahu Lani Sanctuary, and is Ahu Lani's greatest treasure. Dave's special interests, other than plants and teaching, are raising bees and chickens.
Brynn Burbach
Brynn Burbach is a talented social media marketing director with experience in a multitude of industries. Brynn has studied marketing and business administration at the University of Colorado Denver and is in her final semester working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Marketing from Dickinson State University while residing at Ahu Lani Sanctuary.
Our Vision
There is a saying in Hawaiian: Hahai no ka ua i ka ulula'au, which translates as "The Rain Follows the Forest". This ancient saying describes the symbiotic relationship between forests and rain: destroy the forests and the rain will cease falling and the streams will stop flowing. We have living proof of this at Ahu Lani Sanctuary. Elders from our area, called kapunas in Hawaiian, remember when the stream that borders Ahu Lani (called Kalopa Stream) flowed all the time. Today it only flows after heavy rainfall. The reason: the forests upland from Ahu Lani have been steadily destroyed over the past 150 years by cattle ranching. Cows like young plants of all sorts and will quickly devour them. What happened in our area was that cattle existed within the forest, the trees eventually got old, died, and fell down, but no new trees could regenerate because they were quickly eaten by the cattle. Only on steep banks, where cattle couldn't go, did parts of the native forest survive.
Our larger vision is to assist in the re-forestation of these areas upland of Ahu Lani, so that one day the stream bordering our land will once again flow every day. We are dedicated to the reforestation and preservation of native Hawaiian forests.
Our Forest Workers
Through the past several years, we have been assisted in our re-forestation efforts by many excellent volunteers. Most have come from the Hawaii WWOOFer program, under which Ahu Lani Sanctuary serves as a host site, providing food, shelter, adventure, and forestry and farming education in exchange for 30 hours of work per week. Many thanks to all of you! We plan to continue our volunteer program for many years to come.
Rob
Michael
Lena
Shen
Kaitlin
Chris U
Carolyn
Raleigh
Jen
Emile
Xander
Lincoln
Brendan
Deoyani
Mirabai
Matt S
Clayton
Lizzie
Jenni
Alexis
Liz
Daniel
Brynn
Chris B
Jordan
Our Credentials
HFIA
Ahu Lani Sanctuary is a member of the Hawaii Forest Industry Association which is dedicated to responsible forest management. HFIA offers an annual woodworking exhibition, sponsors the Hawaii's Wood trademark, and serves as an advocate for Hawaii's diverse forest industry -- from tree planting and harvesting to creating and selling wood products.
CREP: Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
Ahu Lani Sanctuary was the first participant in the CREP program in Hawaii. The underlying philosophy of CREP is truly inspiring and is 100% in alignment with our philosophy: take care of Earth and the Earth will take care of you.
John Lindelow speaking about Ahu Lani Sanctuary's reforestation efforts at an assembly of Federal and State officials held at the Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie's office in May 2011. The officials were gathered to "announce a partnership to strengthen cooperation and coordination to help Hawaii landowners and managers conserve forest lands" and John was there to speak from a landowner's perspective.
WWOOF Hawaii
Ahu Lani Sanctuary is a host site for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, under which we host and educate individuals who are interested in learning about organic farming and (in our case) native forest restoration. We have had around 20 individual students join us over the past 5 years, and many have become part of our long-term ohana (family).
PMKCA
We are active in our local community association, called the Paauilo-Mauka Kalopa Community Association. As part of our involvement, we gave a presentation at the 2012 annual meeting of the PMKCA on our reforestation efforts, and invited other landowners to consult with us and perhaps start their own reforestation efforts. Some are doing just that. Our senior horticulturist Dave also volunteers his time down at Kalopa State Park, parts of which are maintained by the PMKCA. Kalopa State Park has a very nice stand of native Hawaiian trees. John also volunteers as the webmaster for the PMKCA web site.
