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TEN QUESTIONS WITH RICK BARBOZA - HUI KU MAOLI OLA NATIVE PLANT SPECIALISTS

Posted on Nov. 17, 2025 / Native Species, People in the News, Nursery, Arboriculture / Subscribe 0

By: Chris McCullough

I first met Rick Barboza when I was a Landscape Manager for Mauna Kea Resort and was attending a native Hawaiian plant conference —one of the very first —at Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden, more than twenty years ago. Rick spoke to the group in attendance in the engaging, informative, and down-to-earth style that Rick is known for. His enthusiasm for Hawaiian plants, then and now, is infectious.

Since then, I have had the privilege of hearing Rick speak at several LICH events, and have always learned something from his rich Hawaiian plant knowledge and his heartfelt mana’o. Given that Rick has been propagating, planting, and utilizing Hawaiian plants for native ecosystem restorations for 26 years, I believe Rick to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Hawaiian plants, from the most practical standpoint, in that Rick has extensive depth and knowledge of these plants, how they grow, their cultural uses, and how to propagate them. I don’t know of anyone in the field of Hawaiian plants who has that much experience and knowledge. His company website, Hui Ku Maoli Ola, is an excellent reference guide to the Hawaiian plants that his company grows and promotes. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend you do!

A graduate of Kamehameha School in 1993, Rick obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology from the University of Hawai’i in 1999, with a primary focus on Hawaii’s natural history and the conservation of native biota. Rick co-founded Hui Ku Maoli Ola in 1999 and was elected to the Board of Directors for the Honolulu Botanical Gardens in 2002. Rick was also a primary contributor to the weekly Star Bulletin newspaper article "In The Garden" which ran from June 2002 until 2009.

Rick’s company, Hui Ku Maoli Ola, is an organization dedicated to the perpetuation and preservation of Hawaii’s natural history and culture. By integrating education, the propagation of native Hawaiian plants, through quality restoration and landscaping services, Hui Ku Maoli Ola, improves and increases public appreciation for the unique natural environment and cultural history of our precious island home.

Hui Ku Maoli Ola is recognized as experts on native Hawaiian plants by such State and Federal agencies as the Department of Health, the Department of Land & Natural Resources, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Military, and the University of Hawai’i. They have also been recognized for Hawaii's cultural and environmental expertise by other large private organizations such as Kamehameha Schools, Sierra Club Hawaii, Hawaiian Electric Company, HASEKO Development, Scenic Hawai’i, Inc., the Waimanalo Health Center, and the Garden Club of Honolulu, to name a few.

If you have ever met Rick, you know he has a fine mind, a great sense of humor, and a local boy outlook on life, in that he has a happy-go-lucky nature. You will always feel good after hanging out with Rick and picking up on his positive energy! I have often seen him at local reggae shows as well, as plant vibes go well with the reggae vibes! One love, as we say in the reggae world.

I had the chance to catch up with Rick and ask him a few questions for our Hawaii Landscape readers. Here are the answers to my questions that will give you a bit more insight into his personal life, business, and passion for Hawaiian plants:

Please tell us about your background. What was it like for you growing up here in Hawaii?

It was pretty typical basically hung out with my friends after school and on the weekends surfing fishing diving just being outdoors as much as possible my dad was a fisherman and a diver and so was my brother-in-law and as much as possible I would try to do those things and most of the time if I wasn’t with them, then I was bodyboarding with my friends. Growing up in Waimānalo, we basically hit Sherwood’s Makapuu A.D.’s and Sandy‘s, but if the Southwell was really good, then we would always go to either Pillars or Toes, but we never really ventured past that.

What motivated you to grow native Hawaiian plants?

Honestly, it started with my love for the ocean in high school. I took a marine science summer course at the University of Hawaii called Blue-Water Marine Lab or BML for short. That allowed me to become a cruise instructor aboard a research vessel during the regular school year, where we taught different aspects of oceanography, marine biology, and coastal navigation to various students throughout the state. It was based out of Honolulu Harbor, but we would also travel to all of the main islands to teach. Then, going into college, I continued with my marine biology work and ultimately wanted to learn more about aquaculture and cultivating ocean creatures for a food source to minimize the impact on our natural resources. I majored in zoology and, as an elective, took a mythology class, which sent me to the Hakalau Natural Areas Reserve, where I got to see native birds for the first time. This interaction completely changed the course of my career, and at that point, I knew I wanted to do something that would benefit our rapidly declining native bird species. Knowing that, the birds themselves were pretty much out of the question because the majority of them were already endangered species, I figured the next best thing to do would be to try and improve and increase their natural habitat, which would be our native forest. And that’s where propagating Native Plants came into the picture.

What are some of your favorite Hawaiian plants that you recommend to clients?

So far, there has never been a landscape that I’ve installed that didn’t include an ‘ōhi’a. No question it’s the most important plant in Hawaii, and it deserves to occupy the natural range that it once had, which was much greater than where we typically find them today. Another native plant that we used to grow a ton of everywhere is naio. Not only were they very beautiful, but there was a pretty large diversity of morphologies based on the environments that they evolved in, so we could use them as ground covers, shrubs, or even trees. They also had the capacity to remove a lot of impurities found within the soil, making them great for phytoremediation projects. But then the naio thrip made its way to Hawaii, and it pretty much wiped out any potential use of those plants for the time being. Loulu palms were also a big component of what I would try to have our customers plant at their homes for years. All of our landscapes were dominated by Pritchardia sp. fan palms from Fiji and Tonga, when we had 24 of our own unique Pritchardia spps. found throughout all of our islands that were either already listed as endangered or rapidly declining in population sizes. But now we have to deal with the Coconut Rhinoceros beetle, and so much concern has been placed on preserving our coconuts, while our endemic fan palms, which were already low in number, are now facing extinction at an exponentially faster rate.

What do you find to be the most difficult Hawaiian plant to grow?

Oh, this is a tough question, but basically I’m just gonna put out there uluhe fern…. For something that is naturally so abundant, it is so difficult to propagate in the greenhouse. Finding the secret of mass propagation of this fern is like unlocking the jackpot because there are so many projects that could benefit from utilizing this plant.

Who are the people whom you admire in the Green Industry?

Collectively, everyone in any of the invasive species committees like BIISC, OISC, MISC, and KISC, or within the plant extinction prevention program, PEPP. All of these organizations work on a shoestring budget, but yet have such meaningful work, and now with this current administration, are faced with even tougher challenges. I also admire everyone who volunteers their free time to continually go out and help organizations and working groups to Malama Aina.

Do you have any signature projects that you would like to share with us?

We’ve been fortunate enough to keep our company not only running but growing over the last 25 years and to date our single biggest project has been the landscaping of Turtle Bay resort, which we take a lot of pride in because when we were offered the contract we bid on it, hoping that we were gonna be able to make some changes to the plant pallet because only about 30% of the plants in the plan were native.

On the smaller end of the scale, I’m really proud of two projects, one being our Waimanalo stream restoration project that we began in the year 2000, where we transformed various parts of Waimanalo and Kahawai streams into thriving ecosystems. Remnants of that project can still be seen today. Another project would be the wedge-tailed shearwater restoration project that we did out at Kūpikipiki’ō, Leahi (Black Point, Diamond Head). Before this project, there were a little over 30 birds nesting here. Within two years of us doing that restoration, there were a little over 200 birds and that number has remained constant for some time now.

Why did you choose the name Hui Ku Maoli Ola for your business?

We actually didn’t choose that name, a friend of ours gave us that name. We were still going to school at UH when we decided to have a plant sale at the center for Hawaiian studies. When we were setting up the plants the night before the sale I thought it would be a good idea to get some business cards made in case people wanted to get more plants from us if we ran out, but rather than just putting down our names, I asked a friend, Lani Girl, a Hawaiian studies major to give us a name and she came up with Hui Kū Maoli Ola, which means the “organization that stands for native life” but is also a combination of my Hawaiian name (KaponowaiwaiOLA) and Matt’s Hawaiian name (KapaliKŪ).

Any advice for newbies entering the native plant arena?

Yes, just jump on in! There’s plenty of room and we need you. And if you wanna make a career out of it, make sure that you have a lot of passion not only for the plants themselves, but for everything that depends on those plants, especially our culture, because the revenue isn’t always there.

What inspires you to do what you do?

I’ve always felt that the moment human beings set foot on these islands, whether it was consciously or not, we’ve managed to eff it up completely. Being the extinction and endangered species capital of the world isn’t something to be proud of, but every single time I’m in the worst thicket of crap ass invasive trees or shrubs and I see a single native species clinging on regardless of what it is I always feel that if that plant is still there despite all of it surroundings, then there’s hope.

Who are your favorite reggae artists?

Beyond the OG reggae artists, I’m more of a dancehall, reggae guy and get amped on classic artists like Buju Banton, Supercat, Beenie Man, etc, but my favorite all-time is Damian “The GongZilla”, “Jr. Gong” Marley. I even kinda named my son after him! His name is Chaz-Chaz-Damiaan with two “a”s to automatically make you sound it out like a Jamaican…