Grant will help restore fishponds

A $33,000 grant will help The Nature Conservancy and its community partner, Hui Aloha Kiholo, begin restoration work at two fishponds.

The grant, from the Hawaii Community Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Community Restoration Partnership program and the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, was announced last month and will be awarded to the organizations in January, the conservancy’s Hawaii Island marine coordinator, Chad Wiggins, said Friday.

“Fishponds were a practical system,” Wiggins said. “The cultural, historical and social benefits of restoring them are tangible and understandable.”

The work, on land The Nature Conservancy acquired last year at Kiholo Bay’s northern end, will begin with the removal of vegetation from around the ponds. Wiggins said the community will be able to “derive a direct benefit” from helping with the work, because many of the plants, including kiawe, are plants community members would be able to use.

The long-term plan, which will require more fundraising, is restoration of structures, such as rock walls, and pumping sediment from the ponds, Wiggins said.

Hui Aloha Kiholo is a stewardship group active at Kiholo Bay, Wiggins said. The organization provides educational activities, including a camp, as well as works to keep the area clean.

Plans for the fish ponds’ restoration came from community discussions about The Nature Conservancy’s acquisition of the property, Wiggins said.

Those conversations also shaped the multiphased restoration plan approach, he said.

Since 2002, the partnership of the community foundation, the NOAA program and the Castle foundation have provided $2.2 million in funding to community organizations repairing fishponds, removing invasive species and preventing polluted runoff in coastal waters on all major Hawaiian islands.