Preserving Kauaʻi's Legacy: Hayley Walcher on Sustainable Lei Practices and Forest Conservation

Photos taken by Erika Taniguchi

Welina mai, to the Lei Club blog series.

“Uala is one of my favorite plants to use in lei because it's such a feminine plant, not only for its connection to Hina but its use for its association with wahine in general. It was one of the few crops that was primarily cultivated by wahine.” - Hayley Walcher

Hayley Walcher was born and raised on Kauaʻi in the Lawai area. After some years studying on the mainland, she returned to Kauaʻi wanting to reconnect with ʻāina. Hayley now works at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens as a Horticulture Technician. Her work primarily involves propagating endangered native plants. We sat down with Hayley to talk about how her line of work has influenced her perspective of our forests and how we can work on keeping lei culture on Kauaʻi sustainable. 

“Since working in this field, I have noticed more changes in the forest than I used to while growing up. Thanks to my job, I've recently gone more often to places like kokeʻe.'' 

The NTBG crew often works in the same areas as the Department of Forestry and other state entities that aim to preserve natural native ecosystems; much of the work of NTBG focuses on preserving rare and endangered plants found nowhere else in the world. 

“I'm so grateful to be able to access these spaces as part of my everyday life. I have come to build a deeper understanding of the health of our forests like kokeʻe and get a wider understanding of threats to those ecosystems.” 

Kauai has some of the most unique and precious species, such as the maile lauliʻi and the mokihana plants. Both maile and mokihana are highly prized lei materials for the Kauai community. Mokihana is dedicated as the plant representative of Kauaʻi. 

Now that I'm more attuned to the health status of our forest ecosystems, I notice many maile skeletons stripped off to the sides of the trails. Since much of my work surrounds propagating plants, I've learned so much about how improper practices can detriment plant populations that play a key role in forest ecosystems. I think there is just a lack of awareness of how to assess the health of plants and correctly gather, which leads to overharvesting or improper harvesting. 

Hayley shares that the rule of thumb for harvesting anything is not to take more than ⅓ of the plant. This means picking a little from each plant instead of all from one. During her time in the conservation field, she has seen drastic differences between plants that are easiest to access versus counterparts that are harder to get to located more profoundly in the forest

"The comparison is so drastic it's crazy to see how humans have impacted those easy plants because you see a lot of "skeletons" or vines that were stripped and not pruned afterward; its awful for the plants because it leaves them exposed to pathogens and fungus and insects and can also shock it to where it has a tough time regenerating new shoots. Even if they eventually recover, they take much longer to start growing new vines than if that person would have pruned the vine after. What happens is if a vine is cut, it sends a signal to the plant to start growing new vines immediately but stripping the vine and leaving it attached causes trauma to the plant." 

Lei, especially maile lau liʻi and mokihana, are precious to the Kauai people, and hopefully, one day, they can become so common that anyone can make them with what grows near them. However, that is not where we are at yet. With the encroachment of invasive species and loss of pollinators paired with improper gathering, these plants face population decline. Hayley says the best practice is always to try and grow your own. Try to start a maile vines in your yards. It helps protect the forest populations but also helps you build a relationship with the maile you will use in a lei. 

“By trying to grow your lei plants, you can gain an appreciation for them when it comes time to harvest and be at peace knowing that you can let the ones in the forest rest. However, I know that for some people, going into the forest and collecting is special to their family or practices, in which case I recommend going to mālama spots you know you pick from to help foster growth in those areas, also biosanitizing your gear like pruners before and after pruning to minimize the chance of pathogens and lastly pruning about an inch above nodes or where the new shoots are starting to form, by leaving an inch it allows room for the plant to defend itself in at the wound site and send signals to it to send out new shoots.”

Maile has become more available with the opportunities of plant sales from local nonprofits, but we ask Hayley, what about mokihana? Why does it seem impossible for home growers to get a mokihana plant? 

Mokihana is so precious to our community; it's so coveted, and I feel like everyone thinks it's just one strand for my wedding or graduation, But nobody knows it in decline and thinking about how their one strand is potentially many plants of mokihana, or it's just me but when happens when there 50 just me? As a conservationist, I rarely see patches of mokihana thriving in the forest. If the smell is what you're after, maybe consider just taking one or two leaves. It smells just as good and is considerably less harmful. There's so much plant material on the island that it can afford to take a rest 

Imagine, for plants like maile and mokihana that are consistently being picked in premature stages; it's like getting a recurring injury. If you bust your knee, or back so many times, eventually that body part will give out and put strain on the rest of you. When these plants are consistently sustaining injuries like new shoots or seeds taken from them, they will eventually give out and they will become even more elusive.

I've never seen a bush loaded with berries, which is very sparse for each one, but that worries me. It could be a combination of the depleted tree and pollinators' decline. This is a reflection of the forest's health. You can experience making lei by using a substitute while letting the patch you mālama rest. People need to reconnect with reciprocity to ʻāina and the forest. At this point, multiple generations have been unintentionally taken away. If it was popularized as Kauai's plant, I think there's a chance it would be super common all over Kauai. It's so highly coveted that it's being picked to the detriment of the species. 

By sharing and understanding multiple perspectives around the health of our natural areas, plants, and forests, we can come together to help preserve the precious lei. We can implement solutions such as rebuilding pilina, practicing proper harvesting techniques, and giving back before taking.

Overall, the art of lei should be continually practiced. Still, in these challenging times for our area, we can always ask ourselves: Is the reason I'm gathering important enough to take? Have I given this resource enough to tell if it will harm it in the future? How can I ensure the survival of these plants not just for the next person, or my future self, but also for the people who will come 100 years from now?

More about Hayley:
Favorite Lei: Anything with lauaʻe, palapalai, or uala