In 2002, outdoor enthusiast Danny Boren launched Skyline Eco-Adventures (now Skyline Hawaii), the first commercial zip-line operator in the United States, and the Skyline Conservation Initiative (SCI) to further his commitment to environmental preservation. Since then, SCI’s Pohakuokala Gulch Community Forest Restoration Project has removed invasive eucalyptus and wattle trees and restored 10 acres of native greenery in the forest that borders Skyline Hawaii’s tour site, 4,000 feet up the slopes of Haleakala volcano.
Among the trees, plants, ferns, and shrubs now flourishing there are koa, iliahi, aalii, ulei, maile, mamaki, and ohia lehua. Many of the 13,000 reintroduced trees tower 30 feet high, recharging the watershed and providing a safe, healthy home for native wildlife, including the amakihi, a rare honeycreeper.
The forest is on private land that’s accessible only during three of Skyline Hawaii’s zip-line tours and two-to three-hour SCI workdays, which enable volunteers to not only see a montane mesic Hawaiian ecosystem but also to literally lend a hand to restore it.
Info: Skyline Conservation Initiative. Meet at Skyline Hawaii’s Haleakala zip-line course, 18303 Crater Road (Highway 378), Kula. (808) 878-8400. At press time, the 2021 schedule had not been confirmed. Call, email joe@skylineconservation.org, or check the website for dates.