Early work has begun on a project that’s being referred to as “the Summit-to-Sea restoration of the Olowalu Reef” on Maui.

Work to restore what is known as “Maui’s mother reef” began this week with a contractor starting to drill test bores for a possible retention basin in Manawaipueo Gulch.

The work is being described as a small step, but when thinking about what’s being called “the Summit-to-Sea restoration of the Olowalu Reef” on Maui’s southwestern shore, Tamara Farnsworth of The Nature Conservancy is all-in.

“My dream, which was shared by Auntie Wiki Kaluna-Palafox, is to see clear streams running. My dream is to see healthy fisheries developing, to see brighter and more diverse corals on the reef,” Farnsworth said in a news release. “The really big dream is to see limu return to these shores. I think that’s a wonderful vision for us to work toward, is very abundant limu here back in the ocean and on the shores.”

According to Farnsworth, they are doing some preliminary work for what is proposed in our NOAA transformational habitat grant after NOAA was awarded $10.5 million to, among other projects, reduce sediment reaching the reef.

During runoff periods the ocean turns brown and huge amounts of muddy sediment can choke the Olowalu reef.

“We are looking at ways to capture the sediment before it reaches the ocean,” Farnsworth said. “We are taking baby steps to understand if it makes sense at this time, in this place, to possibly build a small retention basin. We’ve done cultural, literature, environmental and scientific reviews. Now we’re taking soil and core samples to help us understand the depth of a potential sediment basin and to understand if it even makes sense.”

TNC is one of numerous partners that will lead various projects in partnership with the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Other projects planned during the three-year Summit-to-Sea restoration grant period include addressing major sources of erosion; additional fencing to keep hooved animals out; the eradication of non-native goats, deer and sheep; reforestation; riparian habitat restoration (rivers, streams, body of water); dip tanks for wildland firefighting and additional fire breaks.

Separate research and funding is targeted at developing “super reefs.”

Rising sea temperatures have caused mass coral bleaching across the Hawaiian Islands, and the super reefs project is aimed at gaining better understanding of coral species that can tolerate rising temperatures the best.

“It hasn’t been that long ago since we saw the kinds of limu population that we hear about from our kūpuna and folks who’ve lived in this area,” Farnsworth said. “They remember the limu piling up. They remember limu being part of everybody’s diet just a generation ago.”

Project managers say stopping land-based threats is the first step toward the restoration of Maui’s mother reef and solving the problem will be a long-term venture.