How Lahaina’s more than 150-year-old banyan tree is coming back to life after devastating fire

LAHAINA, Hawaii — When a deadly forest fire tore through Lahaina, Maui, last August, the blaze scorching the 151-year-old banyan tree that lines the historic town’s Front Street. But the sprawling tree survived, and thanks to the efforts of arborists and dedicated volunteers, parts of it are growing back — and even thriving.

Here’s what you need to know about the banyan tree and the recovery efforts one year after the fire.

The banyan tree is the oldest living tree on Maui, but it is not native to the Hawaiian Islands. It was sent as a gift by India to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the first Protestant missionaries in Lahaina. It was planted in 1873, a quarter century before the Hawaiian Islands became a U.S. territory and seven decades after King Kamehameha declared Lahaina the capital of his kingdom.

The tree is widely beloved and fondly remembered by millions of tourists who have visited Maui over the years. But for many others, it is a symbol of colonial rule that dispossessed Native Hawaiians of their land and suppressed their language and culture.

For generations the banyan tree has been served as a meeting place along the Lahaina waterfront. Many consider it the heart of the oceanfront community—over 60 feet (18 meters) high and anchored by multiple logs covering nearly an acre.

The huge tree has leafy branches that unfold majestically and provide shade from the sun. Aerial roots dangle from the branches and eventually attach to the ground to become new trunks. Branches spread widely and have become roosting places for corn birds.

The 2023 fire charred the tree and blackened many of its leaves. But it wasn’t the flames, but the intense heat that dried out much of the tree, said Duane Sparkman, chairman of the Maui County Arborist Committee. About half of the tree’s branches died as a result of the moisture loss, he said.

“Once that part of the tree dried out, there was no going back,” he said.

But other parts of the tree are now growing back healthily.

Those working to restore the tree removed dead branches so the tree’s energy could flow to the living branches, Sparkman said.

To monitor this energy, 14 sensors were screwed into the tree. These sensors recorded the cambium flow, or sap flow, through the branches.

“It’s basically a heart monitor,” Sparkman said. “As we treat the tree, the heart rate gets stronger and stronger and stronger.”

Sparkman said there are also plans to install vertical tubes to help the tree’s aerial roots, which look like vertical branches growing toward the ground. The tubes will contain compost to provide vital nutrients to the branches as they take root in the ground.

A planned irrigation system will also introduce small drops of water into the tubes. The goal, Sparkman said, is to help those aerial roots “swell up and become the next stabilizing root.” The system will also irrigate the surrounding land and tree canopy.

“You see a lot of long, long branches with hundreds of leaves coming back on the tree,” Sparkman said, adding that some of the branches even produce fruit. “It’s pretty amazing to see so much of the tree coming back.”

Sparkman estimates that Lahaina lost about 25,000 trees to the fire.

These included the fruit trees that people had in their gardens, but also trees that play an important role in Hawaiian culture, such as the ulu or breadfruit tree. The fire burned all but two of the twelve trees that were left.

Since the fire, a group of tree surgeons, farmers and landscapers, including Sparkman, have been working trying to save the Ulu and other culturally significant trees. Before colonialism, commercial agriculture and tourism, thousands of breadfruit trees were scattered throughout Lahaina.

To help restore Lahaina’s trees, Sparkman founded a nonprofit called Treecovery. The group has potted about 3,500 trees, he said, and grown them in “micro-nurseries” around the island, including in some hotels, until people move back to their homes.

“We have nurseries all over the island of Maui to grow these trees for as long as they need them. So when people are ready, we can have them pick these trees up and plant them in their yard,” he said. “It’s important that we do this for the families.”

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AP journalist Audrey McAvoy contributed from Honolulu.