We have told you several times in the past about the Maunalua Bay huki project - - pulling invasive algae off the reef so that native limu and fish can prosper there. It's just one of the projects backed by Nature Conservancy. The Nature Conservancy has gone one step further in sponsoring two fellowships to sustain its efforts.
"The fellowship is two year full time position with the Nature Conservancy and it's really designed to help grow from Hawaii our own resource managers and giving us the opportunity to work with communities across the board," said Nahaku Kalei of the Marine Resource intern.
The important phrase is 'work with communities.' The interns learn that their commitment to the environment must be balanced with the concerns of a target community.
"No one likes someone coming in and telling them what to do. We work with the community and they tell us what they need and we help them achieve that," said intern Brad Wong.
As we said in the beginning, one of the Nature Conservancy's major project in recent months has been the clean-up of Maunalua Bay. That project extends from where outrigger canoes put out - west toward Niu Valley. The interns were there all the way.
"We spent a lot of time with them as, just going out there and helping them with their hukis or talking with the Pono Pacific crew out there and it was just one of the Nature Conservancy projects that we were heavily involved in," said Wong.
What happens when the fellowship ends? These two young people have gained skills beyond what even they expected.
"And then at the same time, we're helping to teach a Kapiolani Community College ecology class with Wendy Kuntz and so we really learned a lot of leadership skills and how to set up and administer projects," said Nahaku Kalei.
