"Do you mind getting your hands dirty?" Lilia Tollefsen, COO at Gunstock Ranch on Oahu's North Shore, asked me as she poured a bucket of water into a hole in the ground.
I'm typically more ink- than soil-stained, but I also wasn't going to let a little mud stop me from participating in this ambitious project. The ranch is part of the Hawaii Legacy Reforestation Initiative, with 500 dedicated acres that will hopefully one day host 600,000 newly planted trees.
I had chosen a young Milo tree from the nursery near the front office and stables, and was now ready to plant it in honor of my father, who died in 2016. Others sponsor trees to celebrate births, graduations and anniversaries, or to simply join in the environmental effort.
"It can be a really powerful, meaningful experience for people to come out here and honor a loved one with a tree in the legacy forest," Tollefsen said. "We've had whole families come out for one tree. Recently there was a group of 17 to plant a tree for a grandparent."
As we got ready to set the tree into the hole, she asked me to think about intentions for the tree, what I wanted for it. I wished for it to reach high during a long, healthy life, and we got started.
It's important to avoid air bubbles around the roots as you plant the tree, Tollefsen advised. So we grabbed fistfuls of soil and jammed it around the base of the sapling, filling the gaps. We straightened the stem and leveled off the dirt. I placed a black ID tag in the dirt near its base and looked up to take in the field of young trees expanding daily. Many of them carry the memories of loved ones as they form a new forest that will, if all goes well, last for generations.
To maintain the connection, participants can track their tree via a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag, and every tree sponsor gets a certificate in their name (or of the chosen honoree) with location details and tracking information. Today, my father's tree is just a dark green dot in a field of other dots, but one day I hope to go back to the site and see a thick, healthy forest canopy. Gunstock staff also film the planting so participants have a recording of the occasion.
The planting made me feel more connected to both Oahu as a place and my father's memory, and I thought there should be more experiences like this one. The poignant part of the day completed, I turned back to the acres of ranch and forest land that awaited exploring.
Tollefsen and I climbed into a UTV for a tour of the working cattle ranch that was formerly a sugar plantation. Gunstock Ranch is the third forest project for the Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, which also has a reforestation project underway on Hawaii Island and has the ultimate goal of planting 1.3 million trees -- one for every resident of Hawaii. In addition to the milo trees being planted at Gunstock, HLRI is planting koa, ohia and sandalwood trees. The initiative partners with ranches on long-term leases, and in some cases allows for the harvesting of a portion of the new trees in the future. At Gunstock Ranch, however, no portion of the forest will be harvested.
The main tourism activity on the ranch is horseback riding and ecotours. Gunstock accommodates riders of all levels with eight different ride types including a private advanced trail excursion where experienced riders have the opportunity to trot and canter. There are also private rides for couples and a sunset horseback tour. The "horseback planter's experience" ($289 per person with tree) is a 2.5-hour experience featuring a guided horseback ride through the ranch to vistas of the Koolau Mountains and Pacific Ocean, before heading into the Hawaiian Legacy Forest for a tree planting.
They also offer off-road tours and hikes for the equine-adverse, and there is a sunset dinner option with a farm-to-table meal and campfire by a large banyan tree shading picnic tables. Tree plantings can be done on their own, or paired with one of the tours.
New projects and activities are also on the way at Gunstock Ranch. They have started cultivating beehives, and are also developing a concept for an outdoor dinner with a local chef served inside a cave on property.