Puakea Ranch teams with Hawaiian Reforestation Project to help replant, nurture native sandalwood trees

At Puakea Ranch in Hawi, renewable efforts to preserve the natural beauty of the region are central to the experience.

The ranch is taking its next step toward regenerative practices through a partnership with Mark Hanson and the Hawaiian Reforestation Program in an effort to re-establish the area’s sandalwood trees.

“Travel has an environmental impact that can’t be ignored,” says Puakea Ranch’s Christie Cash. “We wanted to offset some of that impact with an initiative that would help re-establish our indigenous forests and have guests feel invested in the process.”

In partnership with the Hawaiian Reforestation Program, guests who stay at Puakea Ranch will have a tree planted on their behalf.

This can happen in several different ways.

For each visitor, Puakea Ranch will make a cash donation to HRP that will directly fund seedlings and germinating trees. Guests will also have the opportunity to volunteer with HRP on tree planting days — a great way to explore the island while making a difference. Puakea Ranch is also collecting seeds and germinating trees on the ranch.

Additionally, guests can choose a sapling and help plant it on the property.

Hawaii has six unique sandalwood species that exist nowhere else in the world. The landscape of the Big Island was once covered in a closed-canopy, sandalwood-dominated forest that grew from 10,000 feet in elevation all the way down to the coast. Almost all of the sandalwoods throughout the Hawaiian Islands were cut down for profit, rendering the indigenous forests of Hawaii all but extinct.

To learn more about Puakea Ranch and its initiatives, visit www.puakearanch.com/green-practices/.

Learn more about the Hawaii Reforestation Program at https://hawaiianreforestation.org/.