Residents of Maui looking to learn more about the wet season outlook can plug into an upcoming event with an expert from the National Weather Service.

According to event organizers, the National Weather Service’s Wet Weather Outlook for Maui will include a free Zoom presentation at 6 p.m. Thursday led by Kevin Kodama, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service’s Honolulu Forecast Office.

The talk will be hosted online by Kula Community Watershed Alliance, a nonprofit community organization that’s working to stabilize, protect, restore and maintain the areas of Kula impacted in the August 2023 wildfire.

Kodama has served as the senior service hydrologist in Honolulu since 1998 and has been working on rainfall data and heavy rain events in various capacities since 1993. He will be available for questions from the audience after his presentation. To register for the free presentation, go to bit.ly/2024WetSeasonOutlook.

The Kula Community Watershed Alliance was formed in 2023 by survivors of the Kula wildfires after seeing the environmental effects of the fire, in addition to the homes that were destroyed and damaged.

“The fire’s intensity combined with drought prior to the fire left us with soil in Kula’s burned areas that is lacking in organic matter and prone to being washed away during rainstorms,” Sara Tekula, the alliance’s executive director, said in a statement.

“We are very interested in Kodama’s outlook for the upcoming wet weather season because heavy rains during the wet weather season are likely to cause sediment runoff from Kula’s unstable soils,” Tekula continued. “This runoff typically ends up in the ocean, where it causes harm to coral reefs along South Maui’s coast.”

To protect Maui’s corals, there will need to be efforts to prevent sediment runoff, she said.

As a result, the Kula Community Watershed Alliance is working to stabilize soils in Kula’s burn scar by applying a mulch treatment made of woody material collected and chipped from nearby trees that were partly burned, dead or are fire-prone invasive species.

The alliance says the mulch provides a protective blanket over the soil, slowing water down along the slopes, filtering rainwater and nutrients into the ground below and getting it ready for planting.

The next step in the alliance’s process is to restore a healthy watershed environment to the burn scar areas by using native plants and trees. Fencing will be installed to protect the plantings from the axis deer and feral pig populations.

The free Zoom presentation will include photos of the new “living laboratory” area the alliance has created in Kula to demonstrate restoration techniques. Attendees will also learn about the group’s plans to install two greenhouses to serve as a nursery for raising native plants and KCWA’s partnerships with local organizations and individuals who have been growing plants for the effort over the past year.

For more about Kula Community Watershed Alliance, go to kulacommunitywatershed.org.