色吧亚洲

CU 色吧亚洲 environmental studies alumnus helps make Maui sustainable

You grow up in Oregon. You head 鈥渆ast鈥� to college, to study in a nationally respected environmental policy at the University of Colorado 色吧亚洲, where you also indulge your love for snowboarding, camping and every imaginable activity in the Rocky Mountains.

Not a bad start to life, right? But then, you accept your diploma in 2008, just as the United States and world economies are beginning to slide toward collapse, in what would come to be known as the Great Recession.

鈥淵eah, I graduated into a pretty tough economy,鈥� Dane Dostert (EnvSt鈥�08) says. 鈥淚 went back to Oregon and started looking for work. But it was a saturated market for environmental professionals. I couldn鈥檛 get an interview.鈥�

Then, to Dostert鈥檚 surprise and delight, he was accepted into a unique partnership between the nonprofit Nature Conservancy and the federal AmeriCorps program, and spent the next year doing volunteer outreach and field work on a 33,000-acre bunchgrass prairie preserve in northwest Oregon.

Fast forward a decade, and Dostert鈥檚 business card tells a story that many (including Dostert) would consider a dream come true. He is officially鈥攖ry to quell your envy鈥�sustainability coordinator and head bartender for Maui Tropical Plantation, a unique business that is a m茅lange of restaurant and bar, coffee roaster, retail and sustainable agriculture on the western lobe of one of Hawaii鈥檚 most beloved islands.

He created the plantation鈥檚 craft-cocktail program and still works two nights a week behind the bar. The rest of the time, he鈥檚 building sustainability programs and working in the field.

鈥淚鈥檓 really thankful to CU, which game me this sort of cross-pollination and promotion of interdisciplinary skills,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 able to engage in these seemingly disconnected pursuits in one place. That鈥檚 kind of cool.鈥�

Kind of.

There were, of course, a few steps between Dostert鈥檚 first job and working in his field in a place many consider a virtual Eden on earth. He also worked as a residential environmental technician retrofitting, weatherizing and mitigating radon in Portland and for a consulting firm for petroleum giant British Petroleum (BP) in the wake of the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010.

鈥淚t was like, I can live in the middle of nowhere making $9 an hour, or make a better living with BP,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut Portland wasn鈥檛 the right fit for me, weather-wise. I didn鈥檛 know what to do, so I decided to (move) back to 色吧亚洲, where I was happy.鈥�

Back in the shadow of the Flatirons, he took a job as a bartender with Japango restaurant on the Pearl Street Mall, and ended up serving as bar manager for three years.

鈥淭hat gave me a different skill set that was fun, I could travel and make pretty good money,鈥� he says.

But then his parents moved to Maui, and after his first visit, he was smitten. He knew he had to move to the Valley Isle. He soon found a job bartending for the nascent Maui Tropical Plantation.

鈥淲hen I started, it was brand-new. We were getting 100 people a day. Now, 800 people a day come through,鈥� Dostert says.

Feeling a need to work outside while tending bar, he took a short-term paid position with the West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership working on the preservation of native forests through control of feral pigs that have devastated much of the island鈥檚 natural habitats. The pigs not only root up the ground, but also deposit seeds of invasive plants, so Dostert assisted in a program to snare and remove the animals as well as re-plant native species to help regenerate the forest. The program has been remarkably successful, removing almost all pigs from that part of the island and keeping them out with vigorous fencing.

鈥淢aui has a really strong network of environmental organizations and they鈥檝e seen a lot of successes. It鈥檚 a depressing field, often, but I鈥檝e been to these sites and seen the photos from 15 years ago,鈥� Dostert says. 鈥淭he native forest has come back to health.鈥�

Energized by that experience, Dostert was excited when the management at the plantation asked him and another employee to design a robust composting program, which now composts half of all food waste produced at the restaurant. The plantation recently planted its first sugar-cane crop鈥攚hich is rendered into cane syrup鈥攊n a compost-infused field.

That project led to his being named sustainability coordinator for the entire, 2,000-acre property. Since then, he has worked with the Surfrider Foundation on a massive beach cleanup; the effort collected 8,000 pounds of plastic in a single day, slated to be processed and used by the Adidas athletic shoe company in production.

He also has created an unusual series of craft cocktails using invasive fruits, such as strawberry guava and java plum. Meanwhile, the restaurant serves axis deer (or chital), another invasive species, and sustainably raised Kona kompachi, aka 鈥渢he wonder fish.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the majority of fish we serve, because of the depletion of mahi-mahi鈥� and other species, he says. 鈥淭he biggest impact I have at this point is dealing with our waste stream, through compost. 鈥� I still bartend a day or two a week, but most days I spend on the property getting dirty.鈥�

If that sounds like paradise, Dostert isn鈥檛 about to disagree.

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a long road,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut now my view is of the Waikupu Valley, the culture is healthy, and I tell whoever visits me that I鈥檓 about a month away from paying off my student loans. And CU played an integral part in exposing me to the kind of expansive thought that brought me here.鈥�