The iconic Indian banyan tree that survived the devastating August 2023 Maui wildfire is showing deeper damage than initially apparent, with arborists discovering fungus and beetle infestations beneath its scorched bark. County officials are planning an extensive assessment to determine when Lahaina Banyan Court Park might reopen to the public, with reopening possible by the end of the year if the tree is healthy enough.
The tree, planted in 1873 and spanning two-thirds of an acre, served generations of residents and tourists as a gathering place and symbol of community resilience. But its recovery is expected to take decades as arborists navigate both visible fire damage and hidden internal degradation.
Arborists from across Maui and Oahu will conduct the assessment, said Duane Sparkman, chair of the Maui County Arborist Committee and co-founder of the nonprofit Treecovery Hawaii.
What Lies Beneath
The initial optimism surrounding the tree’s survival concealed burn damage under its bark. Arborists discovered fungus inside a branch that fell during an islandwide rainstorm earlier this month.
“We really don’t know what’s under the skin,” Sparkman said. “It’s still trying to survive the fire, and it’s still trying to heal.”
The assessment will be extensive and invasive, involving rope tests to gauge branch strength and stainless steel spikes driven into the tree’s flesh to check for functioning cambium — the tissue layer essential for growth and regeneration. The park could reopen before the end of the year if the tree is healthy enough, Sparkman said, though he cautioned he could not predict what the arborists would find.
“We have to watch how any damage has healed over and what areas are safe,” he said. “Then we have to actually remove what’s not safe.”
Multiple Threats to Recovery
Timothy Griffith Jr., Maui County Arborist, said a section of the tree near Front and Hotel Streets was “superheated” by the fast-moving blaze, which otherwise skipped directly over the park. The heat dried the interior almost like a kiln, he said.
In the months following the fire, arborists removed dead wood, with roughly 40 percent of the tree pruned away in the first year. Treecovery and county officials have worked to water the tree, inject compost tea into nearby soil, and remove damaged roots and branches. Twenty-two trunks have already been removed, Sparkman said.
Aerial roots grew between the bark and heartwood, allowing twig-borer beetles to infest the tree. The insects have been treated and eradicated, but the tree remains vulnerable. The fungus concern compounds the recovery challenge, Sparkman said.
“It’s a natural reaction for fungus to show up when it’s time for trees to break down,” he said. “We have concerns that it could be in other places in the tree, so that’s where the assessment has to come in.”
If fungus spreads extensively, he added, “it’s kind of over for a tree.”
Griffith described the tree’s condition in medical terms. “It’s in the ICU. It’s like it’s been in a car crash and it’s injured, but it’s on its way to recovery,” he said. “When it needs some TLC, we’ll be there.”
A Conflicted Legacy
The banyan tree has held significance for Lahaina for nearly 150 years. William Owen Smith planted the sapling in 1873, and it grew to roughly 60 feet tall with dozens of trunks and sprawling limbs covering two-thirds of an acre. The shade created by its canopy made Lahaina Banyan Court Park a natural gathering place for residents and tourists and the site of annual events including the International Festival of Canoes and Kamehameha Day celebrations, said Theo Morrison, executive director of the Lahaina Restoration Foundation.
“Shade is really, really important in Lahaina, and the tree gave that to people in a central location,” Morrison said.
Yet many see the tree as a representation of how colonialism shaped Lahaina and erased Native Hawaiian history. Smith came from a family of missionaries and played a role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The Lahaina Restoration Foundation, which has cared for the park using grant funding, values the tree’s survival while not celebrating its controversial origins, Morrison said.
“It’s a beautiful tree, and it produces all that shade. That’s the value to the community,” she said.
Recovery in a Changed Landscape
That value has become even more critical since the fire. Lahaina once had about 25,000 trees — monkeypod, ʻulu, plumeria, kukui nut and more — lining the streets, but only about 1,000 to 4,000 survived the blaze.
The tree will look different when the park finally reopens, with significant portions removed. Arborists hope to restore it closer to its pre-fire shape through strategic pruning and propagating cuttings, though Griffith cautioned the process would take decades.
“You’ve got to let the tree do its own thing,” he said.