(ABOVE) A visitor plants a native tree at Gunstock Ranch, on Oahu’s North Shore. Guests and volunteers have planted some twenty-five thousand trees since the ranch began including tree planting as part of its eco-tours.
Gunstock Ranch on Oahu's North Shore offers your fun, if typical, visitor experiences, like horseback riding and off-road vehicle tours. But in 2018 it added something off-off road: tree-planting eco-tours.
The program was initiated by the nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, which conducted research showing that planting a tree can environmentally offset a one-week visit to the Islands for a family of four. Guests can plant milo or kou-native species that thrive in the habitat and improve the soil. That's important for a place like Gunstock, which sits on former sugar cane land where the soil is depleted. Native trees might better retain and replenish soil in the years to come, "a really deep and long process," says Jeff Dunster, executive director of HLRI. The organization's research demonstrated that one milo tree, over its lifetime, generates approximately $100,000 of benefit in terms of soil retention, oxygen production and carbon sequestration.
Hawaii Reserves Inc., which manages the land that Gunstock Ranch leases, pledged 500 of its 900 acres to the reforestation effort, and it's been a success: More than 25,000 trees have been planted to date. A similar initiative on Hawai'i Island has yielded approximately 565,000 trees over 1,100 acres. "Our goal is to put up an intact ecosystem," says Dunster. "Not just plant a bunch of trees. We've seen endangered animals moving back in the area and even starting families."
Still, it's a risky venture as far as tourism goes, as you can't just plant trees and expect a forest. Dunster estimates that reforesting an initial eighty-three acres at Gunstock cost roughly $1.6 million for supplies, staff, fencing and irrigation, funding that HLRI provided. "I had no idea how much it costs to do regenerative work," says Lilia Tollefsen, chief operating officer at the ranch. "It's a nice buzzword, but the actual cost is quite extraordinary."
The ranch benefits of course, but the guests find unexpected meaning in the experience. "Something changes in people when they get out here and do it," says Tollefsen. "I think the best line I've ever heard was, 'I had no idea I could feel this way about a tree.' It's just one of those things you can't fully explain." Many guests dedicate their tree to a loved one, and an RFID tag is assigned to each tree-with periodic drone flyovers-so visitors can check in on a laptop and watch their trees grow. "We tell people perhaps the best memento you'll take from Hawai'i is the one you leave here," says Dunster. "A lot of people want to do the right thing, so when you give them an avenue, they'll take it. And I think in twenty years everyone will be doing this."
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