UPCOUNTRY MAUI >> Though the fire that destroyed Lahaina and killed more than 100 people was the most destructive of the Aug. 8, 2023, Maui wildfires, the first blazes were reported in Upcountry Maui and burned for weeks afterward.

Community members worked together the day of the fire to battle back flames from their properties. While many successfully saved their homes, the Kula fire ultimately destroyed 19 residences and severely damaged water pipes, putting several businesses in the area out of operation for months.

In the case of the Kula Sandalwoods Inn &Cafe, it has been out of business for a year due to damage to its pipes and the surrounding land, though the fire miraculously spared the main building. On the anniversary of the fire, the Sandalwoods’ owners, the Loui family, marked the occasion by planting a native sandalwood tree on a slope that had been charred during the fire.

“This mountain used to be forested with a lot of native trees, and today we restart that cycle,” Monica Loui told community members who gathered for the occasion. “So the the future is in the past.”

It’s part of a larger effort by the Kula Community Watershed Alliance, a group that formed in the aftermath of the fires made up of residents who lost homes, as well as Kula residents with experience in land restoration and ecology.

“This disaster started way before August 8,” said Sara Tekula, founding executive director of the Watershed Alliance. “The destruction of our forests, the deforestation and the decertification of our land by various different entities and forces is really what fueled this and led to this, and it is why the island is more dry now than it was and it’s why we’re seeing more fires.”

Invasive eucalyptus trees, which were introduced by the U.S. government as part of a forestry experiment when Hawaii was still a territory, played a huge role in the Upcountry fires. The trees came from Australia and are adapted for the harsh outback. They absorb huge amounts of water, drying the soil and making it difficult for native plants to grow.

“Most people who were affected by this particular fire didn’t really know that they were surrounded by such a threat,” Tekula said. “They saw the trees and they thought, ‘Oh great, I have this forest around my home. It feels secluded. I feel tucked into the forest.’ And it’s actually like this really, really invasive tree called the Australian black wattle.”

A year later there already are fires in Upcountry again, though none have yet threatened property or human life.

“We’ve already done a lot of seed collection missions and seed propagation workshops with the community, which has been really great activities to do, getting people out in nature and and thinking about the future of the forest and how renewal is possible.”

Nina Rivers, whose family owns a farm off Olinda Road that her great-grandfather bought in 1957, said that while she’s happy to see groups in Kula get resources, she feels the community in Olinda has been largely ignored.

“Olinda had like 1,000-plus acres (burned) that I think people forget because it was mostly contained in the state forest, which is the problem in of itself,” she said. Her family’s farm is next to the state forest, which is filled with eucalyptus.

“This wasn’t like the first fire we’ve dealt with as a family,” Rivers said. “I remember at least 10 fires in there coming out of high-voltage lines that go up to Haleakala.”

But the 2023 Olinda fire so far has been the worst they’ve experienced. They lost several acres and their barn to the flames, and had to clean up burned eucalyptus.

“We fought it with our own water. We had, like, an $800 water bill,” Rivers said. “We had to keep putting it out, you know, for several weeks, and hot spots and toting water to the back pasture to try to put out ash pits. I mean, the cleanup and the recovery was long.”

She said she’s happy to see restoration efforts in Kula but is also envious, explaining that “(the Kula community) got nonprofits and a bunch of money from the wealthy landowners that live over in this area that got affected. So a huge treasure chest to deal with their nonprofit and to rehabilitate.”

At the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani, which acted as a shelter for those displaced by the Kula fire in the immediate aftermath, community members from across Upcountry gathered Thursday for an anniversary luncheon.

Elected officials swung by to address residents. U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda told them, “For Maui Upcountry it’s important for me to let you folks know that at the end of the day, please know that you are not forgotten.”

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz praised the community, noting how it came together to support one another both during and after the fires.

“You are working together on the path of recovery, but the task of recovery cannot and should not be your burden alone,” Schatz said. “It is also our burden. It is the federal government’s burden. It is the state government’s burden. It is the county government’s burden. And so our promise to you is to be there every step of the way for as long as it takes.”

Maui County Council member Yuki Lei Sugimura, who represents Upcountry, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that in the immediate term the most pressing need in Upcountry is housing for those who lost their homes.

“We really need permanent housing,” Sugimura said. “We need to help all the people who lost their homes to have permanent housing so they can go home.”

She said that she also wants to make sure her constituents are prepared for future fires, and is worried about whether insurance companies will be willing to insure homeowners in her district. On the eve of the anniversary, the Maui Fire Department was battling a blaze in Pukalani, and officials put out an evacuation notice urging nearby residents to go to the community center.

That fire was ultimately contained and residents returned home before sunset. Pukalani resident Stephen Kealoha and his wife were among those who went to the community center Wednesday afternoon. He said they watched the Kula fire burn up the hills from their home. He told the Star- Advertiser, “This is the second fire now. I think we gotta think about moving.”

But Monica Loui told the Star- Advertiser that ultimately she feels hopeful. Her family hopes to reopen the Sandalwoods before the end of the year.

“It still takes some energy to rally and just keep that positive flow going,” she said. “The community was always there. It just reawakened through the wildfire, and we’ve all come together and are taking care of each other.”

But she said the road to recovery is a long one, saying, “The cleanup is still going. … People’s homes, their backyards, are up against the gulches, and the gulches need to be cleaned and there’s the fire risk. It’s still looming over our head.”

“We’re at a point now where we can’t just sit back and say, ‘Well, nature will take care of itself. It’ll bounce back by itself.’ If we sat back, it would become even more rampant with invasive species,” Tekula said. “Now we don’t have a choice. The humans have to. We have to play a role in turning the canoe.”