Maui fires offer a chance to restore Lahaina wetlands
… When flames finally came for the old Lahaina town in August, they killed at least 101 people and destroyed thousands of homes. … The fire has forced a reckoning over the ways outside interests have historically exploited the island’s natural environment. But for those who want change, Lahaina’s wholesale destruction has presented an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine the town from the groundwater up, a chance to restore the wetlands and the hallowed site at their heart. … Such a project might take years, and it would have to clear many practical and political hurdles. But with Lahaina reduced to ashes, some of the state’s most influential voices, from politicians to tourism groups, are signaling their support for restoration, an early indicator that the effort may have more momentum than ever. In the burn scar, the water itself is already making a statement. Freed from the constrictions that long suppressed its flow, it is seeping back. In once-dry ditches and abandoned fields, beneath piles of twisted metal, rubble and charred ruins, the water is returning all on its own, a sign, experts say, that restoration is ecologically possible.