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Nature is Native on IPA Campus

Plantings around the IPA campus have been done with thought and purpose with the vast majority of the plants being drought tolerant, native to the islands, and useful.  “Plants that require little to no resources of any kind are best on Oahu’s leeward side especially since we get so little rain,” explains IPA Facilities Manager Rich Griffin.

In IPA’s parking lots naupaka, a ali’i, and pohinahina hedges soften the look of the blacktop spanse and serve as boundaries and markers for different areas. “These plantings are thriving, some are in areas that donʻt have an irrigation system, and in depleted soil,” says Griffin.

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IMG_5858Middle school students worked with Griffin during “World Issues Day” to plant more a ali’i seedlings near the dumpster enclosure.

Griffin explained that after decades of monoculture with only sugarcane or pineapple being grown, the soil found on the Ewa plain is usually depleted of nitrogen and iron.  Before putting in new plants on campus, Griffin has a method to improve the soil. “I plant clover and native Hawaiian yams in the area first. As the yams grow they naturally till the dirt. Then, when we are ready to put in new plants, we add composted wiliwili trees to the soil.  The clover and wiliwili work together to replenish the missing elements that other plants need so much.”

One of Griffinʻs favorite campus plants are the pohinahina.  “These plants are very hardy and they work for us by controlling erosion on the sloped areas outside of our fence all around the block.”  Another plant with purpose is the ‘ilima, an endemic shrub that produces Oahu’s lei flower. In addition to making lei with ‘ilima, early Hawaiians used the flowers for health purposes. There are ‘ilima plants growing near the dumpster enclosure by the a ali’i.

“The plantings along Haumea, all native plants, came from a Kaulunani Urban and Community Forestry grant the school received just a couple of years after opening,” says Griffin. “Some of these plants are endangered, like the ko’oloa’ula, the one with the tiny red hibiscus-like flowers. It’s rare to see so many ko’oloa’ula plants in one place even in nature. To have so many in an urban area is really exceptional.”

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Trees on campus include a row of lo’ulu palms, native to the northwestern Hawaiian islands, along Palailai Mall facing the Kapolei Library; three lonomea, endemic to Kauai and Oahu, in front of the secondary building; and a hala tree, also known as pandanas and common throughout polynesia, is in the Wakea and Ala Kahawai street corner of the big field.

In an effort to improve irrigation, Griffin mentored an IPA boy scout, James J.R. Mina (‘10), as he worked to earn Eagle Scout rank his senior year. Mina designed and built a system that captured the condensed water from the air conditioners on top of the secondary building and used that water for the school’s plants along Palailai Mall. Griffin, an Eagle Scout himself, says he hopes to be able to upgrade this system someday.  “We actually make more water than the pump and catch basin can handle.”20150716-07