The Hanalei Watershed Action Plan was initially developed as a requirement of the American Heritage Rivers Initiative through a community process in 1999. Since then, it has been updated annually to reflect accomplishments and project developments. Originally envisioned as a five year plan to address community's concerns, it has evolved into a guide for the Hanalei Watershed Hui staff and Board of Directors to plan, fund and implement projects and programs. The original Watershed Action Plan contained forty five project ideas. Some of these projects have been completed, some have  accomplished by other community initiatives and  some are in progress today.

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Completed projects include an inventory and assessment of resources of the watershed, published as ”An Ahupua’a Assessment and Monitoring Program To Help Malama Hanalei Ahupua’a” by ]ay Griffin and a monitoring protocol which was developed by HWH staff to meet state and federal criteria for quality assurance.

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High priority projects for future funding include sustainable funding for the Hanalei Watershed Hui, the planning and project design of a wastewater treatment facility for Hanalei, development of a Hanalei Watershed Science Center, Leptospirosis research, water science education program, a local flood alert system, a comprehensive flood plain study, protection of Hanalei’s scenic view planes and development of an interpretive walking tour of the Hanalei Watershed.