Māla lā‘au coming to Wailuā Homesteads Park on Kaua‘i; nonprofit wants neighborhood input

A county park on the East Side of Kaua‘i is set to add something unprecedented: A māla lā‘au, or forest garden, bringing well-being to the community around it.

The māla lā‘au will be located at Wailuā Homesteads Park, a popular site already home to athletic fields, basketball and tennis courts, playground equipment and a dog park.

Kaua‘i-based conservation and education nonprofit Understory Alliance – joined by supporters including Kaua‘i County personnel and Get Fit Kaua‘i – held an open house at the park on June 19 to solicit community input needed to shape the project going forward.

“The purpose of this is not just to feed our community, but also take care of our place,” Sari Pastore, executive director of Understory Alliance and a lifelong resident of Hāʻena on the North Shore of the Garden Isle, told dozens of Wailuā Homesteads residents in attendance Wednesday evening.

“A food forest is very human-centric; it’s thinking about just what people need. And then we have conservation areas, which are also important, thinking about what that place needs,” Pastore continued. “But this project takes care of our whole ecosystem, including the people in the community who live here and the place … It helps reduce stormwater runoff, it helps lower our pollution, it increases food security and really is amazing for our mental health.”

Pastore is a career educator who spent years as a preschool teacher in Hanalei before joining the staff of the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s nearby Limahuli Garden and Preserve, which includes functioning Native Hawaiian agricultural systems. She founded Understory Alliance in 2022, and since then, has helmed the creation of a māla lā‘au at the Kaua‘i Animal Education Farm in Kapa‘a; “mini māla lā‘au” in planters and tree grates on Rice Street in Līhu‘e; and internships and workshops in partnership with Kaua‘i Community College.

The Wailuā Homesteads māla lā‘au will occupy approximately .7 acres at the rear of the nearly 17-acre park. Plants grown at the site – which rests at the bottom of a gentle slope topped by the park’s athletic fields – will be determined by the neighborhood community. However, NTBG ecologist and Understory Alliance board member Uma Nagendra was present Wednesday to discuss possible selections.

“The goal is to have a mix of native plants, food plants, medicinal plants, lei plants, Polynesian-introduced plants – all of which have a purpose,” she said. “Do people want to have a lot of lei plants to be able to gather from and make lei … Do people want to be able to come here and pick lemons, vegetables and fruits from trees?”

Understory Alliance was met on Wednesday with widespread enthusiasm. Pohaku Kekaualua, a 32-year-old lifelong resident of the Wailuā Homesteads, remembers a garden once occupied the space currently slated for the māla lā‘au.

“It was a community garden but wasn’t designated as such. It would have an uncle [a common term for an elder in Hawai‘i] come down here weeding all the time,” Kekaualua said, gesturing to the now overgrown area. “That’s where these bananas came from.”

Kekaualua plans to volunteer at the māla lā‘au and may even apply for a potential paid stewardship position.

“I hope there’s more projects like this … This area is perfect because it’s alongside a water source,” he said in reference to an adjacent stream. “Having the connection from the ʻāina [land] to the wai [water] is definitely something that needs to be done.”

Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation Wally Rezentes Jr. is another member of the local neighborhood. He and his colleagues reviewed several sites with Understory Alliance before the nonprofit gravitated toward Wailuā Homesteads Park.

“It’s something different. We’ve never done anything like this,” Rezentes Jr. said of his department’s relationship with Understory Alliance. “We’ve had stewardships and similar type stuff in parks, but a lot of that is mainly about maintenance … This is pretty unique for us.”

Rezentes Jr. wants the Wailuā Homesteads project to succeed. If Pastore – who hopes to plant a māla lā‘au in every Kaua‘i community – can find interest elsewhere on the island, he will be amenable.

“The concept, I like. It’s not going to be closed off. There’s not going to be, ‘Hey, this is ours. We’re going to board it up,'” Rezentes Jr. said. “Although there’s going to be a fence, everyone is going to be invited. It’s not going to be under lock and key.”

The Wailuā Homesteads māla lā‘au will indeed be open to the public 24-7. The fence, to be paid for through a Kaua‘i County grant, is needed to keep destructive pigs – not people – out. Residents will be welcome to cultivate or otherwise enjoy the site at any time, although Understory Alliance will organize monthly volunteer workdays, according to Pastore.

The nonprofit leader envisions the māla lā‘au as a relatively self-sustaining endeavor that will demand little but provide much.

“I kept hearing the same thing over and over again [at Limahuli Garden and Preserve], that it was so hard for the people of Kaua‘i to get out there to access something that is so special,” Pastore said. “How we live is too over-scheduled, too busy … We don’t have the ability to stop what we’re doing and go take ourselves into nature.

“If it’s in your own backyard, like a community park, then you’re not driving anywhere, you don’t have to take off work … How can we care for our collective and not burden individuals? How do we make sure our needs are met?” she continued. “By having healthy bodies and healthy spirits. How do we not make more work? How do we make less? This project literally does all of those things.”

But before Understory Alliance breaks ground, the nonprofit wants to hear from the Wailuā Homesteads community: Residents are now invited to complete an online survey open through mid-July. Those who miss the survey deadline, or who wish to further engage with Understory Alliance, may email the nonprofit at aloha@understoryalliance.org.