Being actively involved in working with the community is important to ensure an ongoing commitment to the creation of sustainable agriculture and the revitalization of communities along the Hamakua Coastline.

Currently, Aloha Green is meeting with individual members of the Hilo Hamakua Development Corporation (HHCDC), the Rural South Hilo Community Association, The Hakalau Community Planning Commission, the Wailea Historic Village Association and the Hakalau Recreation Association to discuss community needs in the region and to incorporate projects that support the revitalization of the region..

A recent community meeting with over 65 people in attendance provided an opportunity to discuss the future Hakalau Plantation Village plan and the opportunity for residents of Hakalau and Wailea Village to have the first purchase rights for the lots of this future residential community.

Hamakua Coast

Hawaii's cultural rainbow started here, in the Hamakua area when the Kingdom of Hawaii signed a Reciprocity Treaty with the United States in 1876, and sugar piloted Hawaii into the international marketplace, that altered vast tracts of former subsistence and natural forest lands, and brought thousands of new immigrant field workers, their families and their cultures, to Hawaii's shores. Their descendants make up the majority of Hawaii's peoples today.

Discover the sights and plantation history of the Hilo-Hamakua Heritage Coastline, a 45-mile drive on State Highway 19 through scenic byways, former mill towns and plantation villages. Until a few years ago, this region was the home of large-scale sugar plantations and a history which molded Hawaii's economy, history and cultural mix for more than a hundred years.

Hilo Town

The town of Hilo wraps around Hilo Bay, and is characterized by early 1900's architecture reflecting its historic role as the county seat and the main commercial center for the sugar industry on Hawaii's Big Island. It was the terminus for the Hawaiian Consolidated Railroad, linking Hilo with Mountain View on the old Volcano Highway down through former logging centers at Pahoa in the Puna district, and north up the Hilo-Hamakua Coast to Hakalau Village, Laupahoehoe and Paauilo. In pre-contact times, the Hilo bayfront, known as Piopio or Waiolama, was the gathering point for hundreds of war canoes under the command of King Kamehameha the Great during the unification of the islands.The town's center features a number of restored buildings, theaters, restaurants, a bustling Farmer's Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the Lyman House Museum just up the street near two historic church sites, the Haili Congregational Church and St. Joseph's Catholic Church.

Along this section between Hilo and Hakalau Plantation Village, off Highway 19, people are fascinated by dozens of waterfalls, tropical gulches and old railway bridges at Hakalau, Nanue and Kolekole Beach Park. This beautiful region has limited pull-over areas, but is worth the walk from safe parking places along the road. The area includes Akaka Falls, one of Hawaii's scenic wonders located above the picturesque plantation town of Honomu (Mile Post 13). Honomu is now a quaint storefront village of shops, art galleries and a temple, but was known in the 1940's as "Little Chicago". Along the 4-mile scenic drive (from just before Mile Post 7 to Mile Post 11) is a section of the ancient Alaloa Coastal Trail which leads to the site of the former Hawaiian fishing village of Kahalii in Onomea. Road parking is necessary to access this 15 minute walk which starts at the paved driveway down to the shoreline. Other points of interest along the 4-mile scenic route include the Onomea Stream, waterfalls, a water tunnel, several lookouts and the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens.