A non-profit Friends Group supporting the three national wildlife refuges located on Kauaʻi.
Kīlauea Point NWR is CLOSED for Post-Hurricane Maintenance
Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and the Hanalei Viewpoint are closed to the public while post-hurricane repairs and maintenance take place. The reservation system is not currently available, please check back for updates on current and future availability.
Together, Friends can do so much…
Friends of Kauaʻi Wildlife Refuges (FKWR) serves as a nonprofit “Friends Group,” supporting the environmental and wildlife conservation, historic preservation and community education programs of the Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex, which is administered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and includes Kīlauea Point NWR, Hanalei NWR and Hulēʻia NWR.
Our organization seeks to help by offsetting operational expenses and providing in-kind staffing assistance. Friends of Kauaʻi Wildlife Refuges also manages the Friends Nature Store and Visitor Center at Kīlauea Point NWR, supports environmental education programs, administers an annual scholarship, conducts community outreach and much more!
Current Events, News and Activities
Our online Store is temporarily closed.
As we prepare for our annual physical inventory, our online eStore is temporarily closed. We apologize for the inconvenience. Our physical Nature Store at Kīlauea Point NWR remains open to serve you.
“GPS Tags and Kōlea: What a Study Tells Us About Tracking Hawaiʻi’s Shorebirds”
Presented by Susan Scott
For years, researchers have used various methods to track kōlea during their nonstop Pacific Ocean flights of roughly 3,000 miles. A persistent question, however, has loomed over this work: Do the tracking devices we attach to the birds harm them? A study recently published in Wader Study by Dr. Oscar Johnson and colleagues, including Hawaiʻi Audubon Society members, offers the most rigorous answer yet for the Pacific golden-plover we call kōlea.
Susan Scott, who worked with Johnson throughout the study, will give a presentation of the work the team did at O‘ahu’s National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl), and the results. Hint: This story has a happy ending.
Free Lecture: Tuesday, October 13th, 5:00-6:30pm
Princeville Community Center and on Zoom.
Seabird Fallout Season
Every year on Kauaʻi, between late September and mid-December, shearwater and petrel fledglings will leave their burrows and take their first flight out to sea.
These young birds use the light of the moon and stars to navigate out to see and can become attracted to man-made outdoor lighting. The fledglings circle the lights until they become disoriented and exhausted and fall to the ground, where they may be injured or killed by cars, cats and dogs.
If you find a downed seabird and it is not near a burrow, please call the Save Our Shearwaters hotline (808) 635-5117 and deliver it to a aid station near you.
Ka Pae ʻĀina O Hawaiʻi Nei
“Ka Pae ʻĀina O Hawaiʻi Nei” is a culturally centered educational program and a community created mosaic mural that is being developed through a collaboration with the Garden Island Arts Council.
The place-based inspired mural is being developed through a series of community workshops, in which volunteers will help to create an 80-foot-long by 4-foot-high mosaic mural.
The mural will depict the topography of the entire Hawaiian Archipelago, helping us tell the geographic and cultural story of these islands and atolls, how the High Hawaiian Islands fit within this long history, and how these protected lands and waters serve as a refuge for a wide variety of native Hawaiian wildlife species.
UPDATE: The finished mural is currently being installed on the retaining wall at Kīlauea Point NWR. The Refuge will be formally presenting this gift to the public on June 6th. Make a reservation and plans to join us!
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