UHELP exists to give restoration practitioners rigorous, field-ready training — and to make the credentials that result trustworthy enough to stand on their own.
UHELP — the University of Hawaiʻi Ecosystems & Landcare Program — works with the people who manage Hawaiʻi's lands: the agency crews, field technicians, and community stewards doing the hands-on work of protecting and restoring native ecosystems.
This training platform is the program's classroom. It turns field protocols into structured paths — slides a practitioner can read or listen to, practice exercises built on real Hawaiʻi species, and assessments that check the knowledge before anyone relies on it. The first curriculum covers safe, effective pesticide and herbicide use for natural-resource crews: reading labels, handling procedures, and the plant identification that keeps treatment on target and off everything else.
Finish a path and the system issues a certificate with a public verification record — a credential an employer or agency can check from its code alone.
Paths are built with the people doing the work, around the labels, procedures, and species that crews meet in the field.
Most paths are open to anyone. A path requires an application, invitation, or current license only where the subject itself requires one.
The system issues each certificate on completion, and every certificate carries a code that opens its public verification record.
The first curriculum covers pesticide and herbicide safety for natural-resource crews. New paths are added as programs bring their training onto the platform.
UHELP is a program of the University of Hawaiʻi, administered through the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaiʻi, and works alongside the agencies and organizations whose crews train here.
If your agency or organization wants to bring a team onto the platform — or build training with us — reach out through your UHELP point of contact, or see how team training works.