One Year After a Devastating Fire, Lahaina’s 151-Year-Old Banyan Tree Is Healing

Last summer, a fire tore through the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing more than 100 people and razing thousands of buildings and homes. The disaster was one of the deadliest wildfires in American history.

The worst of the damage occurred in Lahaina, a historic town on the island’s western coast. In addition to reducing much of the region to rubble, the blaze also scorched the town’s beloved banyan tree, which had just turned 150. Now, one year after the disaster, the tree is healing.

“It’s not out of the woods,” Timothy Griffith Jr., chief arborist for Maui County, tells USA Today’s N’dea Yancey-Bragg. “But the fact that it continues to put out new growth, we remain optimistic—cautiously optimistic—that we will have something to work with in the decades to come.”

When it was planted in 1873, the banyan tree measured only eight feet tall. By the time the fires arrived in August 2023, it was the largest banyan in the United States. It had grown to more than 60 feet, and its many trunks spread out across two-thirds of an acre, filling an entire city block.

When the smoke cleared, the tree was still standing, but it had been badly charred. Its leaves and branches had turned a dull gray color. Was there life beneath the burned surface layer? As photos began to circulate, experts weren’t sure.

When arborists examined the tree, they realized that many of the charred branches and leaves would not survive. But they also found some hopeful signs: Living tissue was still present on the tree’s lower trunks. They concluded that the tree might recover, though the odds were uncertain.

“Let’s put it this way: It’s up to the tree,” arborist Steve Nimz, who was part of the recovery efforts, told USA Today’s Mary Walrath-Holdridge a few weeks after the blaze. “The tree is either going to respond or it’s going say it’s time to go.”

A team of arborists, landscapers and volunteers assembled and began planning. They didn’t know if their efforts could save the tree, but they could help give it the best possible odds.

“[The tree] is kind of in a coma,” Nimz added. “It’s just like when you’re in a coma, they give you intravenous fluids in your veins and they keep your vital signs going until they see you blink or move a finger or something. So, we’re doing the same thing with the tree.”

The team began a watering regimen. In the first few days, workers soaked the tree’s soil in 5,000 to 10,000 gallons of water a day, according to the New York Times’ Livia Albeck-Ripka. They also began treating the tree with what they called “compost tea,” a nutrient-filled cocktail containing kelp, worm castings and sea minerals. By mid-September, new leaves began to sprout. Officials posted videos on social media showing small sections of green emerging amid charred bark and leaves.

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“We are seeing good results,” Chris Imonti, a landscape contractor involved in the recovery efforts, told Hawaiʻi magazine’s Kevin Allen about a month after the blaze. “As long as we give it enough love, I think it’s going to be fine.”

Experts determined that the fire’s heat had dried out the tree, leaving many of its branches without water. Two nearby monkeypod trees, which did not survive, protected parts of the banyan from the flames, according to Maui Now’s Brian Perry. Meanwhile, the tree’s northeast corner, which sustained the most damage in the fire, never recovered. Nearly half of the tree’s branches died.

The team removed the dead branches, hoping to redirect as much energy as possible toward the healthy branches. They also installed more than a dozen sensors to study the flow of sap.

“It’s basically a heart monitor,” Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee, tells the Associated Press’ Claire Rush and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher. “As we’ve been treating the tree, the heartbeat’s getting stronger and stronger and stronger.”

Today, the banyan is thriving, and “long branches with hundreds of leaves” have emerged, as Sparkman tells the AP. But the tree’s condition is still fragile, and experts are working on new interventions. Soon, vertical tubes will deliver nutrient-rich compost to the tree, while an irrigation system will help keep the roots healthy.

Experts will have to carefully monitor the tree for years, clearing away unhealthy sections and helping a new canopy flourish. They have also taken dozens of cuttings from the tree, which are now growing in pots. Eventually, they will plant the cuttings in the vacant northeast corner, where so many of the banyan’s original branches perished.

Ellen Wexler | | READ MORE

Ellen Wexler is Smithsonian magazine’s assistant digital editor, humanities.