High up on the slopes above Lahaina, students at Lahainaluna High School are quietly growing part of the town’s future. The Lahainaluna Agricultural Learning Center has partnered with nonprofit Treecovery Hawaiʻi to turn a hillside behind campus into a grow hub, where students raise native and fruit trees for neighbors rebuilding after the 2023 wildfires. The first round of young trees is already taking root on campus and will be donated to homeowners once they are strong enough to transplant.
Students Turn Hillside Into Living Classroom
On a recent planting day, more than 30 students dug in, planting 15 trees and transplanting over 100 saplings. Agricultural students will care for those young plants until they are ready to be gifted to homeowners working through rebuild projects. The work is part of the school’s Agricultural Learning Center programming and was captured on camera by the hosts of HGTV’s Renovation Aloha, according to Maui Now.
Clubs, Schools And Rotarians Team Up
The project was organized by the Lahainaluna High School Interact Club and sponsored by the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset and the Agricultural Learning Center, as detailed by the Rotary Club of Lahaina Sunset. Local volunteers and service groups showed up with seedlings, tools, and on-the-ground guidance so students could get real hands-on experience. Club leaders describe the effort as part of a broader push to connect youth education with visible, on-the-land rebuilding work in West Maui.
Tree Hub Joins Islandwide Network
Treecovery Hawaiʻi runs a network of grow hubs across Maui that shelter young trees on resort properties, airport lands and community spaces until they are sturdy enough to move into yards. Those hubs supply fruit and native trees to homeowners in Lahaina and Kula, and the new Lahainaluna site plugs students directly into that islandwide pipeline, according to Treecovery Hawaiʻi.
Why These Saplings Matter
Rebuilding Lahaina’s tree canopy is not a one-day kind of job. Reporting from Civil Beat outlines how extensively the 2023 fires stripped the town of shade and greenery and how long and costly the replanting effort will be. The Lahainaluna hub ties two big goals together: practical workforce training for students and a neighborhood-based source of culturally important trees that restore food, shade, and a sense of place as rebuilding continues.
For more information on the project, Maui Now lists Lahainaluna and Rotary contact Laura Stanton at [email protected]. Educators say programs like this let students learn traditional Hawaiian agricultural practices alongside modern sustainability techniques while providing real plants for families who are re-creating yards and livelihoods from the ground up.
