A long-running community effort in He'eia on O'ahu has finished rebuilding a major Hawaiian fishpond wall, a milestone that took 25 years and is being held up as a model for how community cooperation can get big, slow projects done.

• Volunteers finished restoring the fishpond's 1.3-mile stone wall after removing invasive mango trees and rebuilding it by hand, piece by piece, over two and a half decades.
• The organization deliberately worked slowly and by hand instead of rushing with heavy equipment, to protect the wall's historical integrity.
• A completion celebration drew about 2,000 volunteers, who were fed food grown and harvested on site, including taro and fish from the restored pond.
• The group says its work connects to a bigger water system, from mountain water collection down to the fishpond and out into Kane'ohe Bay, and it is pushing water agencies to protect that flow.
• Hawaii imports 90% of the seafood it eats despite having the nation's highest seafood consumption per person, which the group points to as a reason local food projects like this matter.

Outlook: The organization plans to keep expanding local food production and continue advocating for water policy changes to support traditional land-and-water systems across neighboring communities.