Legacy News

It was a horrible year where everything fell apart. Foremost among them was the loss of my grandmother, with whom I was close.

While my grandma would have approved of the big turnout for her wake, it seemed more like a fun social gathering with attendees laughing and sharing stories. It clashed with the somberness enshrouding me. The funeral ritual, the well-meaning assurances that she led a long and wonderful life and being surrounded by her loved ones didn’t give me much comfort.

A month later, I still was numb about the ordeal. But I was set to visit Hawaii Island with Hawaiian Legacy Tours. The eco-pioneering company offers tree-planting tours that can serve as tributes. I went looking for an authentic local experience, but left with much more.

Read More

Many of us remember stories of Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. The nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative is bringing these iconic places to life through LegacyForestGifts.com.

Read More

When the nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative (HLRI) started planning its new O‘ahu nursery and visitor center, a group of military veterans stepped in to help turn the dream into reality.

Read More

A new state-of-the-art TreeTracker technology takes a unique approach to tracking the reforestation of native and endemic trees in Hawai'i.

Each year, tens of thousands of Legacy Trees are planted for permanent reforestation in the Hawaiian Legacy Forest high on the slopes of Mauna Kea. Now, with the click of a button, it is possible to watch them grow.

Read More

A new Hawai‘i website has shoppers seeing green.

The nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative (HLRI) has planted nearly 400,000 endemic and native trees for permanent reforestation across 1,200 acres on Hawai‘i Island. Now, HLRI has launched legacyforestgifts.com, an online store offering artisan-made goods and one-of-a-kind words of art both for purchase and as gifts for the tax-deductible sponsorship of the organization’s koa Legacy Trees.

Read More

Over the past year, Faith Elarionoff was joined by her friends and family on an unforgettable journey to reforest more than 1,000 endemic Hawaiian Legacy Trees.

Read More

For nearly 20 years, Paradise Helicopters has provided a bird's-eye view of Hawai'i's natural wonders and access to its most remote landmarks. Now guests can have this experience for free just by sponsoring the planting of native Legacy Trees here in Hawai'i.

Read More

The Hawaii Convention Center, Hawaii Tourism Authority and visitor industry leaders throughout the state are coming together to help grow the world's only Hawaiian Legacy Forest, one endemic tree at a time.

Last fall the Hawaii Convention Center and Hawaii Tourism Authority launched a historic effort to plant more than 1 million native trees for permanent reforestation across the state.

Read More

“If you think about it, planting trees is sustainable development in its simplest form. We are just creating innovative ways to let others participate.”
—Jeff Dunster

Read More

It’s noon on a Wednesday in November.

Jeff Dunster, CEO of Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods, sits cross-legged on the floor of his sprawling, gated mansion in Nu‘uanu Valley, leaning back on locked elbows.

“We’re down to about 10 percent of what we had with koa forests just a century ago,” he says. “I’ve been [in Hawai‘i] a few decades, long enough to see the change, and it’s really not that long as time goes. When you see how quickly [the forest] goes away, you realize that your grandkids may not see any of this, and it’s kind of sobering. I also was part of the problem because I love koa furniture.”

Read More