By Staff Reports
(Oahu)– The effort to restore Kailua Beach Park’s dune is advancing like a rising tide, and now we need your help to install over 1,000 native plants to help preserve this popular shoreline!
Volunteers are requested to assist with our second community planting event, scheduled for Saturday, September 27, 2025 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This time we’ll be focusing on the beach fronting the bathroom building near the park’s Kawailoa Road parking lot.
During our first community planting event on May 31 dozens of volunteers placed 344 plants of three varieties along the beach, including: ‘aki‘aki, ‘ākulikuli, and pōhinahina. With this second effort potentially seeing four times the amount of plant life (including additional native species of nanea and pōhuehue), we’ll need many more helping hands to get sandy and assist! If you, your ‘ohana, or friends are interested in participating, please sign-up online at: bit.ly/kailuaduneplanting
“Since the beginning of this dune restoration effort in November 2024 we have emphasized involving the community in several ways, including through our Community Advisory Group and volunteer events such as this,” said Amy Wirts, a Sea Grant agent and lead restoration coordinator who works with the State of Hawai‘i’s Department of Land and Natural Resources Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands. “Our first planting event yielded some great results, and valuable insight, and now we hope to expand on that success while also sharing that knowledge through the project’s new dedicated website. Our hope is to keep the community educated and engaged in this effort, instilling a sense of pride and shared responsibility for environmental stewardship.”
The Kailua Beach Dune Restoration website is now available at: bit.ly/KailuaDune
There you’ll find past accomplishments, present actions, and future plans for this collaborative effort between City, State, and community groups. This includes how you can be part of the Community Advisory Group, locations of future tree plantings, and on-going updates of beach efforts for this dynamic Kailua coastline.
With this multi-faceted project seeing significant progress in such a quick manner, we hope the website serves as a valuable resource to keep track of the effort and inspire participation in the restoration and preservation of our treasured Kailua Beach. Mahalo in advance to our amazing community of volunteers. We hope to see you at the beach September 27!
If you need an auxiliary aid/service, other accommodations due to a disability, or an interpreter for a language other than English in reference to this announcement, please contact the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation at 808-768-3003 on weekdays from 7:45 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. or email parks@honolulu.gov at least three business days before the scheduled event. Without sufficient advanced notice, it may not be possible to fulfill requests.