For many people, Hawaii is a paradise. With its balmy weather, pristine beaches and breathtaking views of volcanoes and native plants and animals you can't find anywhere else, Hawaii is a place to escape to, a place to explore.
It's also a place to protect.
The Conservation Fund works with the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and private landowners to protect nearly 5,000 acres of Hawaii's most treasured coastal and mountain landscapes.
When the National Park Service requested our assistance, we helped to expand Haleakala National Park by more than 4,100 acres. This addition protected habitat for threatened species and opened land for public enjoyment for the first time in more than 100 years.
Haleakala National Park, on the island of Maui, is more than 30,000 acres—80 percent of which is designated wilderness—and extends from sea level to more than 10,000 feet at the volcano summit. Within the park are fragile native Hawaiian ecosystems, rare and endangered species, numerous cultural sites and Haleakala volcano.
We assisted the National Park Service in acquiring the largest undeveloped privately-owned parcel in the park. The property, a former ranch, adds almost a mile of frontage on the Pacific Ocean and rises more than 6,000 feet to the rim of the Haleakala Crater.
Significant portions of the property are also within the Kahikunui Forest Reserve, which includes remnants of the biologically diverse koa forest ecosystem that once dominated the island. The reserve provides critical habitat for the rare po’ouli bird and Maui parrotbill. The lower elevations have intact, dry wiliwili forests that provide habitat for the endangered Blackburn’s sphinx moth and Hawaiian hoary bat.
In addition to providing habitat to threatened species, the property also has three recorded heiau, or ancient Hawaiian temples, that are both historically and culturally significant.
Our work expanding Haleakala preserves and protects a valuable part of our nation’s heritage and offers excellent recreational opportunities and breathtaking views to nearly 2 million visitors each year.
Photo: Jon Degenhardt/Flickr (top); Kaupo Gap, Maui/Photo: Conor Dupre-Neary (bottom)
To date the Fund has helped to conserve nearly 325,000 acres of Alaska’s most extraordinary landscapes—land valued at more than $134 million. Working with public and private partners throughout the state, our conservation work has achieved multiple goals including protection of important fish and wildlife habitat; providing public access for fishing, hunting, hiking and other uses, and preserving economic opportunities for local communities.
The city of Anchorage has expanded right up to the borders of Chugach State Park. Along the western boundary and immediately adjacent to suburban Anchorage lies the 149-acre Near Point property, an access point for the park. First slated to become an antenna farm and then for residential development, we worked with the community to acquire the property and in the process of raising funds to transfer it to the park.
With hundreds of pristine rivers, lakes and streams, the southwest Alaska region abounds with natural resources, diverse habitats, world-class recreation spots and a rich culture and history. Covering an area the size of Washington state, this 40 million acre region supports a wide variety of fish and wildlife. Our Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Initiative, the largest land protection project of its kind, offers an exciting opportunity to conserve one of the greatest natural landscapes in North America.
For more information about the initiative, click here.
Learn about the initiative's efforts in Wood-Tikchik State Park.
Every year nearly half a million Western Arctic Caribou migrate through Kobuk Valley National Park. When a landowner needed to sell his property and the National Park Service wanted to buy it, they asked for the Fund's assistance.
See images of the caribou crossing and learn more about this project >>
Internationally recognized for the importance of its wetlands, Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, at the tip of the Alaskan peninsula contains one of the largest eelgrass beds in the world. Threatened Steller's eider and more than 90 percent of the world's Pacific brant population feed on eelgrass here in fall and winter. Emperor geese, caribou, sea otter, brown bear and harbor seal are also found here.
In 2008, the Fund and its partners protected more than 12,500 acres of wetlands on the Alaska Peninsula. The area covers more than 100 miles of Pacific Ocean coastline and over 200 miles of fish streams and rivers that teem with five species of Pacific salmon. In 1999 The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, in partnership with us, donated a nearly 8,500-acre addition to the refuge. Our decade of conservation efforts has transferred a total of 71,511 acres to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Though Alaska is a state known for its expansive open and natural areas, small places matter too. We worked to save land at both Cape Bingham and Windham Bay. Learn more about our efforts >>
Point Possession, just 15 miles southwest of Anchorage, is a magnificent piece of wild Alaska. Its waters shelter major runs of red and silver salmon, and it is exceptional habitat for moose, brown and black bear, and tundra swans. In partnership with the Point Possession Native Group and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Fund helped secure 4,247 acres of the point, which lies within a designated wilderness area in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Help us protect your favorite places before they become just a memory. Make a donation today.
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Powered by: Phase2 TechnologyThe Conservation Fund National Office
1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1300
Arlington, Virginia 22209-3199
Phone: 703-525-6300
Fax: 703-525-4610
Email: postmaster@conservationfund.org
