FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Rubbish littered the edges of Pouhala Marsh in Waipahu on Sunday. A coalition of government and private agencies plans to spend at least $1.2 million to restore the marsh and lure back threatened and endangered water birds.

Pouhala Marsh is planned
to become prized wetland

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

If all goes as planned for Pouhala Marsh, in a few years Iuogafa Malaki's children will be studying the ecosystem of a Hawaiian wetland there.

Waipahu resident Malaki likes the idea, he said last week as he waited to deposit rubbish at the refuse transfer station on Waipahu Depot Road.

The 70-acre marsh is just across the road, behind a line of trees and a rickety bridge over Kapakahi Stream. It has a history of neglect, including one-time plans to make it a city dump.

Despite the piles of rubbish and a reputation as a drug-deal haven, proponents say the marsh has a lot of potential.

"This is a natural wetland, intact. It's a place people can literally take their kids outside their back door to see endangered species and water birds," said Sharon Reilly, Hawaii wetlands conservation manager for Ducks Unlimited.

A coalition of government and private agencies plans to pump at least $1.2 million into the marsh over the next few years, in hopes of luring more threatened and endangered water birds, like the Hawaiian coot, stilt and duck, and other birds who winter here. Students then can study the marshland and its inhabitants.

The project has a human element, too, since it "is tied in with some of the community improvement projects around Waipahu, like the Pearl Harbor Historic Trail," which will be right next to the wetland, Reilly said.

Darrlyn Bunda, executive director of the Waipahu Community Association and a Honolulu City Council member, said restoring the marsh fits with other recent Waipahu improvements, such as improvements to Hans L'Orange Park, the old mill town, the Filipino Community Center and more.

"It's really an integral part," Bunda said. "It's going to be beautiful."

Reilly said improvements will include:

>> Installing fences to keep out cats and dogs that prey on the water birds' chicks.
>> Removing large bulky rubbish and approximately 7,600 cubic yards of fill dirt.
>> Clearing mangroves from Kapakahi Stream and the marsh.
>> Creating ponds to provide year-round water sources for birds.
>> Removing non-native plants and planting native ones.
>> Maintenance and oversight by state wildlife officials.

Participants in the plan include the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife (manpower and land), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ($260,000), Ducks Unlimited ($126,000), the City and County of Honolulu and the Navy.

Chevron is contributing $800,000 in remediation funds stemming from a 1996 oil spill in Pearl Harbor.

A $176,000 grant also is being sought from the North American Wetlands Conservation Council, which could be awarded this month.

Other players include students at Waipahu High School, who plan to do science experiments there, and those served by the Hawaii Nature Center, which plans to bring third-graders on field trips to the marsh.

The Nature Center has a $120,000 grant from the state Health Department, which it has to match with an equal amount of other money, Executive Director Gregory Dunn said. That money would go for salaries for instructors at the field trips, building a bridge to the marsh and a covered teaching area, he said.

The effort has been in the planning stages for almost a decade but moves into the action phase with a volunteer stream cleanup tomorrow.

Fifty or more volunteers organized by the Hawaii Nature Center plan to clean the banks of Kapakahi Stream of debris and non-native plants as part of the Aloha United Way's Day of Caring, said Ati Jeffers-Fabro, Hawaii Nature Center education director.