Left to right Karen Levy, FOFA Board of Directors, Eileen Wachi, Manager of HEI Administrations and Cheryl Ambrozic, FOFA Grant Writer.

Hawaiian Electric Industries Charitable Foundation, on behalf of Maui Electric Company, awarded a $5,000 grant to the Friends of Fleming Arboretum (FOFA) to help build a storage facility and restroom at the D.T. Fleming Arboretum at Pu`u Mahoe. The shed and restroom facility will protect the arboretum’s equipment and enable FOFA to expand its community outreach and education efforts. The Atherton Family Foundation, the Fred Baldwin Memorial Foundation, the Cooke Foundation, Bank of Hawai`i and the A&B Foundation are also helping with the permitting and construction costs of the facility.

The D.T. Fleming Arboretum at Pu`u Mahoe is Maui's oldest and largest native dry land Arboretum. It is a vital source of rare dry land native plants and seeds benefiting numerous statewide projects.

Protected within Haleakala’s Pu`u Mahoe cinder cone on the edge of the Auwahi Forest, this biological preserve was founded in the 1950’s by Maui agricultural and horticultural pioneer D.T. Fleming. Fleming planted the arboretum to help save Maui’s endangered dry land forest. Today, of the 245 trees and 92 species planted in the arboretum, 19 are endangered Hawaiian tree species, 4 are species of concern, and 3 are candidates. The D.T. Fleming Arboretum includes the last seed-producing survivor of Maui’s endangered Alani tree, Melicope knudsenii.

FOFA’s community outreach efforts include monthly tours at D.T. Fleming Arboretum, instruction on horticulture and care of native dry land species through volunteer workdays, landscape design utilizing Hawaiian native plants, sharing Hawaiian cultural uses of native plants, propagation workshops on air layering and sharing preservation efforts worldwide through the their Web site www.flemingarboretum.org. For more information see www.flemingarboretum.org or call #572-1097.