Hidden Garden

Kauai's $21 million botanical center will grow and protect native plants

The National Tropical Botanical Garden expects to break ground in January for a new, $21 million Botanical Research Center on Kauai.

The 20,000-square-foot center will house the nonprofit conservation organization's extensive preserved plant collection and botanical library, plus provide more room for its scientific and educational programs, Director Charles R. "Chipper" Wichman said.

The National Tropical Botanical Garden is a group of five gardens that cover a total of 1,800 acres. Three of its gardens are on Kauai, one on Maui and one in South Florida.

Established as an independent, nonprofit entity by Congress, the garden is not government supported, Wichman said.

"The NTBG is really at forefront of preserving the botanical heritage of Hawaii and the Pacific," Wichman said in a recent interview.

"We're in the business of preserving ecosystems as well as endangered species and cultural knowledge," he said. "We do it through three overlapping programs: conservation, science and education."

The new building will be the first U.S. Green Building Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certified building on Kauai, Wichman said.

"For us, being that we're all about conservation, I thought we really had to do that, lead by example," Wichman said.

And because it will house irreplaceable specimens of rare and endangered tropical plants from Hawaii and the Pacific region, the building will be built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, he said.

The two-story building "is basically a beautiful and environmentally friendly 'concrete bunker' that is designed to last at least 100 years," Wichman said.

The roof will feature solar panels that will produce electricity and a rainwater collection system, which will be used to water nearby landscapes.

The building is designed to handle 50 years of growth of the herbarium (preserved plant specimens) and library collections. The herbarium is crowded now into an inadequate 4,000-foot space, with overflow in a sealed shipping container, Wichman said.

"We currently have the most active herbarium in Pacific," with more than 2,000 specimens per year being added to the already extensive collection, he said.

The garden has 112 full-time employees and regularly hosts visiting research scientists, Wichman said.

One example of the NTBG's work is a project to propagate breadfruit plants for export to tropical areas that need more sustainable agriculture, Wichman said.

Instead of spending millions on food aid to needy countries, Wichman said, "What if you could give them a tree that would help them to help themselves?"

Another project is to establish a work-study mentoring program in cooperation with Kauai Community College. It is hoped that the program would encourage Kauai residents who might not otherwise attend college to get into the conservation field, he said.

Hawaii has more endangered species -- most of which are plants -- than any other state. The garden takes its mission to try and save endangered species very seriously, Wichman said.

Kauai-based Unlimited Construction has the general contract for the new building, which is to be completed by the end of 2007, Wichman said.

About $12 million of the building's cost has been raised, Wichman said. The organization will be seeking contributions from individuals, foundations and government programs.