Beginning as saplings and seedlings nine years ago, the 12,000 trees and plants at the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in North Kona represent the loved ones of the approximately 4,000 people whose hands carefully patted them into place.
This diverse collection of native foliage is part of an ongoing dryland reforestation effort, made possible by Hawaii Island residents and visitors who voluntarily spend time bringing life to the damaged land.
The cemetery was hot, dry, almost devoid of trees and in disrepair when established in 1994. Twenty years later, it is one of only three state-owned veterans cemeteries in the country awarded “shrine status” by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
During each work day, Richard Stevens, a University of Hawaii Center at West Hawaii professor who serves as the cemetery’s reforestation project coordinator, invites volunteers to plant their trees, shrubs or ground-cover plants in honor of friends and family. Thursday morning, Stevens also encouraged them to plant in memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the thousands of military personnel still listed as prisoners of war or missing in action.
Thursday’s planting occurred at the site of the new POW/MIA memorial, which will be a place for recognizing and honoring the more than 83,000 Americans unaccounted for while serving in conflicts including World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War and Gulf War. When completed, the POW/MIA memorial will have a garden, three benches, a water feature powered by a solar panel and places to leave flowers. A bronze plaque with the national POW/MIA symbol will be installed next month on an existing wall, said Awapuhi Huihui-Graffe, a Kona resident who helped spearhead the effort to install the memorial. Thursday morning, P.A. Harris Electric was on-site, donating its services and parts, helping make the water feature a reality, she added.
The more than 100 volunteers participated in the work day, helping create an oasis at the cemetery and perform “Hawaiian plant rescue — also known as weeding,” Stevens said. Participants included the West Hawaii Veterans Cemetery Development and Expansion Association; members of the 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment; Pohakuloa Training Area military personnel; veterans; UH students; Na Kahumoku; Hawaii Island Youth Corps; U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service; and state Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The plants came from Sunshine Nursery and Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden. After this work day on the roughly quarter-acre site, irrigation will be set up, followed by mulching and weeding, said Kealakai Knoche of DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife.
What Anthony Savvis of Na Kahumoku and Hawaii Island Youth Corps liked best about Thursday’s work day is how it brought “many hands together to make long-lasting positive impacts that help our dryland forests, which are one of the most threatened and endangered ecosystems in Hawaii,” as well as provided opportunities for people to come together, laugh and share.