The Army Natural Resources Program, Oʻahu (ANRPO) protects many endangered species in remote mountainous locations across Oʻahu. However, these remote locations limit the numbers of individuals and groups that can see these native species in their natural habitat. To accommodate groups who want to learn about native ecosystems in a more accessible manner, ANRPO has developed an interpretive garden at our facility on Schofield Barracks. The interpretive garden hosts a number of native plants from a variety of management units ANRPO protects. Originally, the garden layout was designed to display each management unit as a separate section and had a sign providing information about the ecology and cultural uses of these plants. Over time these signs have become highly worn and our usage of the garden has changed, prompting a demand for new signs and an updated format that can convey more information as the number of species within the garden has significantly increased. 

The interpretive garden now functions as a living collection of some of the rarest plants native to Oʻahu, many of them being federally listed endangered species. These living collections are particularly important in accomplishing goals for genetic storage. In the case that stochastic events destroy a rare plant population, material from known sources can be utilized to recreate that population. ANRPO typically has three replicates of each founder plant from multiple populations for dozens of species, resulting in thousands of plants being kept in living collections. As some of these plants are trees, this requires a lot of space, especially if kept in large pots within the greenhouse. In order to alleviate space constraints of the greenhouse, ANRPO staff have been test planting these trees within the garden to great success. This has improved the health of the individual plants and has even promoted more flowering and seeding success. Volunteers will have an opportunity to learn from skilled ANRPO staff about invasive and native species found in various ecosystem within O'ahu. From invasive species removal, rare plant outplanting, and seed processing, volunteers will explore the challenges conservationists face when protecting and preserving our natural resources.

We will be hosting two different workdays, one in the fall and one in the spring. Please review the workday details:

• Saturday, October 12: Part 1-Native Hawaiian Renovation, Schofield Barracks, 9am-3pm

             Activities include: Invasive species control using small hand tools (trowels, grass sickles, pruners, and handsaws), planting native and rare                       Hawaiian plants, replacing old interpretive signs, and touring the seedlab and greenhouse.

• Saturday, March 1: Part 2-Seed Processing Workshop, Schofield Barracks, 9am-12pm

            Activities include: native seed processing using different methods and tools, such as a seed debearder and touring the seedlab and                                  greenhouse

Please sign up using the URL, https://oanrp.ivolunteer.com/npld_2024

You will receive an email from the Outreach & Volunteer Program Specialist with further instructions and details about the project/prepare for the workday.