Give Mother Nature a hand this holiday season. She needs the help.

There are lots of ways to give a Christmas present to Mother Nature.

You can do your part for climate change, since it’s increasingly evident that Uncle Sam won’t be going there.

(Images: O`ahu `elepaio. Credit: Michael Walther, Oahu Nature Tours.)

You can help clean up a beach. Here are the links for Surfrider’s beach cleanups.

Oahu.

Maui.

Kauai.

And you can help the birds.

The state doesn’t adequately fund its natural resource commitments through the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, but you can find lots of ways to help out.

One of them supports the endangered O`ahu `elepaio. 

The Hawaiian `elepaio are not the most colorful birds in the forest, with the reds, greens, yellows and fancy crests of many of the honeycreepers and honeyeaters. 

But it’s among the friendliest. This perky old world flycatcher or monarch flycatcher will land right near you on a forest trail, follow you along, with its tail jauntily sticking up in the air.

Dr. Eric VanderWerf, of Pacific Rim Conservation, has launched a crowdfunded effort to trap rats in `elepaio habitat. 

Rats are among the most significant threats to Hawaiian forest birds. There are videos of them creeping along branches to bird nests, and going after eggs and chicks. Rats are not native to the Hawaiian environment, and controlling them is key to protecting what’s left of native birdlife in the Islands.

If you have some dollars to shell out for Mother Nature, consider helping the `elepaio. Here's the site with the information on how to do it. 

© Jan TenBruggencate 2016