UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI’I NEWS — For centuries, Kauaʻi loʻi kalo (wetland kalo) farmers have depended on a traditional Native Hawaiian irrigation system that borrows water from Waiʻoli Stream. Since 2019, more than 30 students and faculty at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law through its Native Hawaiian and Environmental Law Clinics have partnered with the farmers of the Waiʻoli Valley Taro Hui (Hui) to help secure a long-term water lease for their ancient use of water. During recovery efforts from the devastating Kauaʻi flooding of 2018, the farmers were informed that the ʻāina they had stewarded for generations was now zoned as state conservation land, which triggered a maze of permitting and other authorizations. In Waiʻoli, on the island’s north shore, the farmers provide important flood mitigation for the surrounding area of Hanalei with expertise on how the water flows and how the entire ecosystem works, offering significant environmental benefits.