South Maui Sustainability

Creating a Sustainable South Maui

FEATURED EVENTS
	• JULY 18 DINNER AND MOVIE • NEW REEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE • GROWING OUR FUTURE, TOGETHER

NEXT SMS MEETING: JULY 18
Dinner: 6:30 p.m.
Films: 7:30 p.m.
SMS invites everyone to our 2nd “Dinner & Movie” night at Kihei Charter School. This event is a Locavore Potluck, so please bring a dish made predominately with foods produced here in Hawaii. All types of cuisine are welcome. Please bring a card or label stating the ingredients of your dish.

We will be screening Revolution Green, the story of Biodiesel in America, focusing on Maui’s own Pacific Biodiesel. Also, the new short documentary by Sustainable Living Institute of Maui called Sustainable Living 101—Looking to Maui’s Past to Inform a Sustainable Future. Co-producer and director Alex de Roode plans to turn this into a feature-length documentary.

This is a ‘Trash Free’ event, so please bring your own eating utensils, plates, bowls, and cups, to take home with you.

If you’re interested in learning what it means to eat locally, and would like to support our local farmers and food producers, please join us for a wonderful evening of freshly prepared dishes, lively conversation, meeting new friends and neighbors and topical films.

We will also have a ‘Seed-Plant-Edible Exchange table’ set up for you to share your bounty and inspire others to grow their own food. Please bring your seeds, starts, cuttings, or any surplus fruits and veggies to share with others. We’ll provide index cards to identify your contributions and to let people know who they are from.

We look forward to seeing you on the 18th!

REEF SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

South Maui Sustainability (SMS) is excited to announce the creation of the Reef Sustainability Committee. According to SMS Core Group member and Reef Committee chairperson Teri Leonard, “Everything we do on the land affects our ocean and reef systems. We must take responsibility for our actions which include the use of injection wells, destruction of wetlands, runoff from our built environment, development, and over-population. The Reef Sustainability Committee’s mission is to educate ourselves and the public, and then follow through with, methods to reduce and reverse the daily damage we inflict on our South Maui reefs.

Some of the suggestions brought to the Reef Sustainability Committee:

Support established reef environmental groups
Learn about water quality

Clean Water Act: What is it and how does it pertain to the reef?
Wastewater disposal systems
Runoff issues

Create and conduct educational presentations for schools and the general public

Eyes on the Reef programs
Each classroom “become a fish” for a year and learn all about that fish
Reef Check and Sea-Link

Conduct beach and underwater clean-ups
Survey reef fish populations
Learn to fish in a sustainable manner
Create a publication (electronic?) “101 Ways to Save the Reef”

Do you have thoughts and ideas? Please share them with us. Email Teri Leonard at teri@southmauisustainability.org for dates and times of upcoming Reef Sustainability Committee meetings.

SMS will focus the September 10th community meeting on water quality and how it affects the reef. We will also be introducing several representatives of local reef advocacy groups.
Updates will be released as the date of the community meeting draws near.
(Reef photo by Peter Liu Photography, peterliuphoto.com)

SCHOOL GARDENS
After spring harvest at the gardens we began at the three Kihei public schools, students in the Kamalii Summer School Program are tending the garden and harvesting the vegetables and herbs while school is on break.

Emily Goss, School Garden Commmittee chair, attended a School Garden Workshop on the Big Island with educators from across the State of Hawaii and learned much that will help in the coming schoolyear, especially as we expand the Kihei Elementary School garden. Topics of discussion included curriculum, garden design, soil fertility, weeds as our friends, and many models of successful school gardens and what makes them work.

GROWING OUR FUTURE, TOGETHER

View the results of breakout group discussions from our presentation at the June 16 Kihei Community Association (KCA) meeting.

POSTINGS: We post articles about all kinds of sustainability issues from all kinds of perspectives to inform and encourage thoughtful discussion. The postings do not necessarily reflect the opinions of South Maui Sustainability.