Renewable Natural Resources Extension

The Renewable Natural Resources Extension Program at the University of Hawai`i is a Targeted National Program supported primarily by Formula Funds from the USDA. The funds are authorized by Congress under the Renewable Resources Extension Act (RREA). The goals of RREA include development of a stewardship ethic, an appreciation of biodiversity, and a knowledge base that will sustain natural resources. Passed by Congress in 1978 and administered by the USDA, RREA provides grants to participating states to disseminate information to the public on forestry, rangeland, and other natural resources.

In Hawai`i, the program's current focus is on forestry extension.

The object of forestry is to discover and apply the principles according to which forests are best managed...The forest is the most highly organized portion of the vegetable world. It takes its importance less from the individual trees which help to form it than from the qualities which belong to it as a whole. Although it is composed of trees, the forest is far more than a collection of trees standing in one place. It has a population of animals and plants peculiar to itself, a soil largely of its own making, and a climate different in many ways from that of the open country. Its influence upon the streams alone makes farming possible in many regions, and everywhere it tends to prevent floods and drought. It supplies fuel, one of the first necessaries of life, and lumber, the raw material, without which cities, railroads, and all the great achievements of material progress would have been either long delayed or wholly impossible.

- Gifford Pinchot

First Chief, USDA Forest Service
Founder, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies

CTAHR's Cooperative Extension Service programs, conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are provided to the people of Hawaii without regard to race, sex, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, disability, marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, or veteran status. The University of Hawaii is an equal opportunity / affirmative actioninstitution.

Last updated on 2/9/2004