Our Mission
Our Mission is to promote better understanding, appreciation, and conservation of the natural history and environment of Kauaʻi’s National Wildlife Refuges and native Hawaiian ecosystems by fostering educational, interpretive, and scientific activities and projects for the benefit of the public and the wildlife.
Our Vision
Keeping people and nature harmonious with the ʻaina.
Our History
Kīlauea Point Natural History Association was founded in 1983 to serve as a nonprofit “Friends Group,” to support the work of the Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and includes Kīlauea Point NWR, Hanalei NWR and Hulēʻia NWR. The organization was founded by visionaries who not only had a great heart-space for the threatened and endangered species that rely upon these lands, but who also understood the delicate balance each of these play in the overall health and vitality of our fragile island ecosystem and the need for an organization whose mission was to help channel the passion and generosity of our community in support of the mission of these precious federally-protected lands. The foundational goals of our Friends Group are to support the ongoing needs of our local refuges and increase their capacity and ability to preserve, protect and inspire change.
A New Name
Over time, due to our name, physical presence at Kīlauea Point NWR and the amount of support provided to Kīlauea Point NWR programs and services, it may have appeared to many that we are the Friends Group supporting just Kīlauea Point NWR. However, throughout our history, we have been honored to provide funding and support for all three refuges within the Kauaʻi National Wildlife Refuge Complex.
Therefore, in 2020, we introduced a new name and a new logo to better reflect the full scope of our work: Friends of Kauaʻi Wildlife Refuges. We hope that this (doing business as) name better reflects the full scope of our work and more easily identifies that we are a “Friends Group,” working in service of our three local national wildlife refuges and the wildlife they help to protect.