Pacific Southwest Research Station, USDA Forest Service
The IPIF research complex located in Hilo, on the University of Hawai‘i-Hilo campus, functions as the HETF headquarters providing laboratory, greenhouse, administrative and computing support. The IPIF complex is located approximately 1 hour from the Laupāhoehoe Wet Forest and approximately 1.5 hours from the Puʻu Waʻawaʻa Dry Forest.
Co-located at the IPIF facility is the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge offices and the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) offices.
Additional information about IPIF can be found here.
IPIF Partnerships
Arizona State University
Arizona State University’s (ASU) goal with the US Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry (IPIF) is to build on our collective work, co-develop a bioculturally-based stewardship and decision support framework to characterize and evaluate linkages, trade-offs and synergies among resources that sustain communities in Hawai‘i in the face of a rapidly changing climate. The ASU-IPIF partnership utilizes the diverse topo-edaphic,
climatic, socio-economic and management gradients on Hawai‘i Island as a model system for designing and implementing climate-smart adaptation and mitigation strategies applicable to tropical oceanic islands. Our research team (IPIF-ASU) has already established many of these gradients to understand ridge-to-reef and how ecosystems respond to global change. This foundation is critical for tackling pressing questions about global change impacts on ridge-to-reef conditions and functionality.
Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance
The Mauna Kea Watershed Alliance (MKWA) partnership boundaries spans over 500,000 acres across the upper elevation Mauna Kea landscape, with partnership lands representing around 2/3 of the total acreage. The Alliance is composed of several landholders including the US Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry (IPIF), as well as other Federal and State of Hawaii agencies, land trusts, non-profits, and ranches; whose shared vision is to protect and enhance watershed ecosystems, biodiversity and resources through responsible management while promoting economic sustainability and providing recreational, subsistence, educational and research opportunities.
United States Geological Survey
The Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center (PIERC) is charged with the mission to work with others to provide scientific understanding and technologies needed to support and implement sound management and conservation of our Nation’s biological resources occurring in Hawaii and other Pacific island locations. PIERC has forged a strong working relationship with the US Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry (IPIF) to meet that mission. PIERC, in an ongoing manner, works with Forest Service researchers on developing collaborative research projects, sharing of information, providing Hawaii forest bird and other biota expertise, and helping to bring together USGS PIERC researchers with US Forest Service researchers.