Environment & Ecology

Molokai’s Kākāwahie: A Lost Species

Wednesday, December 8th, 2021

By Catherine Cluett Pactol

Blazing orange feathers flash among ‘ohia foliage of Molokai’s lower forests. The bird’s “chip chip chip” call is punctuated with its beak tapping on branches looking for insects, which it also finds deep within liko lehua, or buds. 

This is the kākāwahie, or Molokai creeper, an endemic bird found only on Molokai. But it isn’t a sight or sound we can ever experience. The kākāwahie hasn’t been seen since 1963, and it’s about to be declared extinct.

“It has been such a long time since the kākāwahie graced the lowland forests of Molokai that perhaps no one in living memory can say what the bird looked like, or recall its song,” said Sam Gon, a scientist and cultural practitioner at The Nature Conservancy Hawaii.…

Wet Season Outlook

Wednesday, October 20th, 2021

By Catherine Cluett Pactol

With the winter season approaching, weather forecasters have released predictions for how much rain we might see in the coming months. Kevin Kodama, a senior hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Honolulu, said similar to last year, we may not see significant rain until January. With Molokai coming out of “exceptional drought” conditions over the summer, the island may not fully recover from drought before next dry season. 

Weather experts say this is the second year of La Nina conditions, which are marked by cool sea surface temperatures near the Equator – as distinct from El Nino, which has warm sea surface temperatures.…