LAHAINA, HAWAII
MAUI CULTURAL LANDS
Restoring paradise When wildfires tore through Maui’s west side in August 2023, killing 102 people, destroying 1,400 homes, and incinerating over 20,000 trees, the future of tourism to the Valley Isle was thrown into question. Now, with nearly 85% of the island’s jobs still reliant on the tourism industry, Maui is at a crossroads. While local resorts housed 8,000 displaced residents in 40 hotels for months after the fires, many residents blamed the fire’s quick spread partially on their clear-cutting and nonnative landscaping. Hoping to secure more resident housing, Maui’s mayor proposed a bill to eliminate 7,000 short-term rentals by 2026, which is currently being contested. An island that has, since a strategic pivot to tourism over 40 years ago, depended on tourism for economic…