Blog

My time as an NPS Ranger is filled with memories of meaningful moments, impactful programs, and inspiring people. It's remarkable how each positive interaction extends outward, benefiting families, friends, and communities, ultimately contributing to a better world. While many successful projects have made a difference, the Hawai’i Island Youth Ranger Internship Program stands out as the most challenging and rewarding of my career.

The idea for this program grew from my connection to the communities near the park. Having grown up in a similar environment in Washington, I saw the potential within these communities often limited by job opportunities, transportation issues, and economic hardship. Reflecting on my own experiences, I realized specific things could have greatly improved my circumstances earlier in life.

For instance, I had a significant fear of public speaking, yet I knew I needed a voice to make an impact. Because my parents' jobs lacked personal fulfillment and extra benefits, I didn’t realize that work could be enjoyable and meaningful, offering more than just a paycheck. Navigating my financial future involved a decade of trial, mostly error, and eventually luck.

These thoughts drove me to a clear mission: to show every young person starting out that they can overcome challenges and achieve their goals. This belief became the foundation of the Youth Ranger Program, aiming to reach as many high school students as possible with a message of hope and empowerment.

Read more: Guest Blog by Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park Ranger Kūpono McDaniel: Celebrating the Hawai’i...

Guest Blog By Niles Deneen • March 14, 2025

How It All Started

Our partnership with Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association (HPPA) began when Kim Olsen discovered Deneen Pottery at a public lands conference. She was drawn to our commitment to handcrafted quality, sustainability, and supporting public lands. Kim saw an opportunity to pair our work with Haleakalā National Park’s rich natural and cultural heritage, leading to the creation of a custom mug featuring the park’s most iconic symbols—the silversword plant and the nēnē goose.

The Creative Process

Designing the Haleakalā mug was more than just about aesthetics—it was about telling a story. The silversword plant, found only on the slopes of Haleakalā Volcano, symbolizes the park’s fragile and rare ecosystem. The nēnē goose, the Hawaiʻi State Bird, reflects the park’s successful conservation efforts. 

Kim’s input throughout the process ensured that the final product was true to the park’s identity. Her expertise and creative eye helped us strike a balance between artistry and authenticity. The result was a mug that not only looks stunning but also carries the essence of Haleakalā National Park.

The Impact on Visitors

One of the most rewarding aspects of this partnership has been seeing how visitors respond to the Haleakalā National Park mug. Kim has shared stories of park guests expressing excitement when they discover the mug in the gift shop. For many visitors, the mug becomes a tangible reminder of their experience at Haleakalā National Park—a connection to the park’s beauty that they can take home with them.

The mug has also become a symbol of the park’s conservation mission. Every sale supports the Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association and their efforts to protect Haleakalā National Park's unique ecosystem. It’s gratifying to know that our work contributes to preserving the park for future generations.

Read more: Guest Blog by Deneen Pottery: Celebrating Our Partnership with Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association

Established in November 14, 2000, the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail winds along the coastline of Hawaiʻi Island, connecting four of the six Hawaiian land divisions called moku, or districts. It braids together fisherman’s trails along the coastline and historic paths through vast lava fields that are remnants of the original Hawaiian ala loa (long way). In some places it intersects the original mountain to ocean trails. The trail runs through sand, rough and tumbled lava fields, through meadows and along natural edges and cliffs. Much of it is unshaded and there is no water for drinking. In some places it has been overlaid with motorized vehicle trails, or been rerouted or even wiped out by natural events like tsunamis or more recent lava flows. Hawaiian archeological sites are found all along its length: please do not disturb them.

Anchialine pools are found in places near the trail, exquisitely delicate brackish pools in the porous lava fields that are fed by ground water and the nearby ocean. They contain small shrimp and other organisms that may be found nowhere else on Earth, and can easily be damaged by sunscreen and other skin and hair products introduced by those who would enter the pools. Tidepools exposed at low tide can harbor hermit and other crabs, anemones and limpets. Birdwatchers will find shorebirds, seabirds, and other native and non-native birds along the trail, and wintertime between November and May can offer spectacular whale watching as the humpbacks arrive in Hawaiian waters to mate and calve.

There is no central visitor center or check-in for the trail, but where the trail traverses the boundaries of fee-charging national parks (Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park) there can be entry fees.

Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association park stores located in the visitor centers of the four Hawaiʻi Island national park sites offer water bottles, apparel, and more.
You can also shop the trail here: https://shop.hawaiipacificparks.org/collections/alka

Read more: Have You Travelled the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail?

In October 2024, HPPA began accepting park donations at the registers in our nine national park visitor center stores. By inviting visitors to round up their purchase totals or contribute any amount they wished—and emphasizing that these donations stayed in the parks where they were made—we were grateful and amazed to see national park supporters show their love through their generosity. In just four months, counter donations totaled over $124,000.

Kai, who works the frontline at our Haleakalā National Park Summit District stores, shared some of her thoughts about this new avenue of fundraising for our partners.

Read more: Every Little Bit Counts: Why Donations At National Park Stores Mean So Much

Here Are Some Travel Tips For Exploring Our Partner National Parks of Hawaiʻi!

Hawaiʻi Island and Maui national park sites offer a variety of ecosystems, landscapes, and cultural experiences. Let’s explore, and we will give you a couple of tips about where to stay, too!

Read more: Where Are You Going To Spend Your 2025 National Park Fee-Free Days?

Aloha! O Amelie Sterling koʻu inoa.
My name is Amelie Sterling.

O Waikahekahe Nui koʻu ahupuaʻa ma ka moku o Puna. O Kīlauea koʻu mauna. O ka ua Moanianilehua koʻu wai. O Kāpae koʻu makani. O wao kula kai kuʻu ʻāina e noho nei.
Waikahekahe Nui is my ahupua'a in the district of Puna. Kīlauea is my mountain. Moanianilehua rain is my water. Kāpae is my wind. I live in the dry coastal zone.

Read more: A Moment With Amelie Sterling: New Chair of the Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association Board

How Do Your Purchases From HPPA Support National Parks in Hawaiʻi and American Samoa?

Every purchase you make with us, whether at one of our national parks visitor center park stores or through our online shop, plays a direct role in preserving the natural and cultural heritage of national park sites in the Pacific. This is true of most national parks visitor center stores.

HPPA is a nonprofit partner of seven national parks and sites in the Pacific Region, and we operate in some of the most breathtaking parks in the Pacific, including Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park, Haleakalā National Park, and Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. Our mission is to inspire connection to these incredible protected places while providing visitors with meaningful experiences and memories.

So, Where Does Your Money Go?

Read more: How Your Holiday Purchases Support National Parks

Mel, what first sparked your passion for national parks and led you to work with Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association (HPPA)?

I didn’t grow up with much, but my dad had this passion for the outdoors. We had a farm, and his goal was to visit every national park in the U.S. Every summer, he’d close our used furniture business, and we’d hit the road. Yosemite became our home base, and we’d visit about four or five different national parks each year. My whole childhood was filled with these adventures.

At one of our favorite campgrounds, Summerdale, near Fish Camp outside Yosemite, they had what we called “Ranger Night.” There was this big bonfire, we’d roast marshmallows, and the ranger would give different talks every week. That kind of freedom—catching pollywogs, tubing down rivers, and hiking—just fueled my love for the parks.

I grew up amazed at how unique each park was: the geysers and wildlife of Yellowstone, the beauty of Montana’s parks. When I turned 14, I got my first job with the U.S. Forest Service, which was so exciting—I even got to ride in helicopters during forest fires!

A pivotal moment came when I was 15. In geometry class, I got a note asking if I’d like to get paid to work in Yosemite for the summer. That was through a program called Upward Bound, designed for underserved youth. We did college classes during the school year and worked in the parks during the summer. Those summers really shaped me—backpacking, taking water samples, leading night hikes. The rangers I worked with were passionate about stewardship, and that idea of caring for the land took deep root in me.

Read more: A Moment with Mel: A Journey Through National Parks to the HPPA Executive Directorship

It is seriously itsy.  Less than 5mm long, harmless, and one of the best moms in the world.

The Hawaiian happyface spider, called nananana makakiʻi, gets its name in an obvious way: there is what seems to be a clownlike happy face on its back—technically the back of its abdomen. No one has yet agreed whether this is an adaptation that scares off larger animals that would enjoy a spider snack, or some more complex DNA shuffling happening within the population that just happens to make patterns that look like a happy face. There are thought to be nine species in the Hawaiian Islands with different “faces” or no “face” pattern at all.

But, although the happy face is certainly interesting to look at, this unusually long-legged, glassy, yellow-green jewel of an arthropod is complex in some possibly unexpected ways. For one thing, these wee Theridiidae-family spiders live on the undersides of leaves in the cool, upper-elevation native Hawaiian wet forests of Maui, Hawaiʻi Island, Molokaʻi and Oʻahu. At Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park they can sometimes be found in the deep green forest around Nāhuku (Thurston Lave Tube).

Read more: Have You Met the Hawaiian Happyface Spider?

Wahi Pana Are Sacred Sites

Every civilization and culture reveres and respects certain areas or structures because something important to that culture’s history occurred, or is occurring, there. In Hawaiʻi, these may include burial or birth sites, war temples or places of healing, battlegrounds or water sources, the sites of legends or the homes of the legendary. In Hawaiʻi, these sacred sites are called wahi pana.

Hawaiʻi Island has three national park sites on the island’s west coast that are all, or in part, wahi pana.

Read more: What Is a Wahi Pana?