Environment Hawai'i

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In the grand old tradition of the New York Times, we would love to publish all the news that's fit to print. Alas, with just 12 pages a month, we end up with a surplus of goodies.

EH-xtra is where you'll find the news that we just couldn't squeeze into our print edition or come up after we have gone to press. It's also where you can catch glimpses of our archives -- going back to July 1990 -- for free!

Land Use Commission Takes Historic Step, Reverts 1,000 Urban Acres to Ag

When it comes to meetings of the state Land Use Commission, high drama is in short supply. More often than not, you need to mainline caffeine to stay awake through the tedious witnesses and cross-examination.

But the meeting of April 30, when the commission was considering its show-cause order to Bridge `Aina Le`a, owner of 3,000 acres of land just upland of the Mauna Lani resort in South Kohala, was nothing if not a nail-biter.

more...

NMFS Reporting Requirements Give Council Broad Leeway Over Spending

From Volume 18, Number 12 -- June 2008

In partial response to a Freedom-of-Information-Act request by Environment Hawai`i filed last November, the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Regional Office in March delivered 254 pages of records relating to Western Pacific Fishery Management Council activities. This is the second bolus of documents coughed up by the council and the agency in response to the request.

Included in the recent shipment were copies of the council’s budgets for 2005 through 2009, which are presented to NMFS in the form of a five-year grant application. The budget was just shy of $5 million for the 2005 calendar year ($4.963 million). Increases of 5 percent were anticipated for each of the listed years, with the 2009 budget pegged at $6.159 million. The current year’s budget is given as $5.848 million. Totals for the five-year period come to $27,770,862.

Salaries and fringe benefits make up the largest chunk of the council budgets. For 2009, around 23 percent of the overall spending falls into this category ($1.416 million).

But the budgets represent only a projection and not necessarily what the council actually has spent or will spend in future years. At a NMFS website showing all grants (including those for the regional fishery management councils), the five-year umbrella budget for the Western Pacific council shows up as $14,572,465. Scott Bloom, grant program manager for the NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office, said he believed this amount reflected funds that NMFS has paid to the council since the inception of the award in 2005. However, details of the grant (award NA05NMF4411092 on the NOAA website, grantsonline.rdc.noaa.gov) do not support that interpretation.

Bloom also noted that the actual amounts received depend on year-to-year congressional appropriations as well as internal NMFS formulae that determine how lump-sum budget amounts are to be allocated among the regional councils.

So how much does the council really get and spend?

The question may be simple. Answering it is anything but.

more...

NMFS Proposes Changes in Council Rules

As described in articles in the May 2009 Environment Hawai`i, the National Marine Fisheries Service is accepting comment until July 6, 2009, on rule changes addressing many areas of fishery management council operations. For a copy of the proposed changes, go to: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-6896.pdf

Yellow Light on Biofuels

The nation’s premier professional association for ecologists, the Ecological Society of America, has weighed in with a statement on biofuels that urges policy-makers and planners to go slow in converting lands to biofuel crops.

“Supplying the emerging biofuels industry with enough biomass to meet the U.S. biofuel energy target – replacing 30 percent of the current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030 – will have a major impact on the management and sustainability of many U.S. ecosystems,” reads the policy statement from the society, which represents some 10,000 ecological scientists.

“Current grain-based ethanol production systems damage soil and water resources in the U.S. and are only profitable in the context of tax breaks and tariffs,” the society said in a news release. “Future systems based on a combination of cellulosic materials and grain could be equally degrading to the environment, with potentially little carbon savings, unless steps are taken now that incorporate principles of ecological sustainability.”

The full policy statement is available on the society’s website: www.esa.org

To post comments about this article please click here

DBCP and Dole, 30 Years Later

Dibromochloropropane, a nasty pesticide that continues to lurk in Hawai`i’s aquifers long after the pineapple fields have gone fallow, was used throughout Central America as well – and with consequences equally disastrous. In November, a Los Angeles jury found that Dole Food Co. had deliberately exposed six Nicaraguan banana workers to DBCP, rendering them sterile. A Nicaraguan court had found Dole culpable earlier, but lawyers for the plantiffs said the workers were unable to collect on their judgments in that country. The jury ordered Dole and Dow Chemical Co. to pay compensatory damages to the six totaling $2.8 million, with Dole bearing 80 percent of the responsibility; punitive damages may still come.more...

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CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN THE AGE OF EXTINCTIONS

As Hawai`i experiences one extinction after another, the question inevitably arises: What are the scientists in the forefront of conservation biology doing to address this? David Duffy of the University of Hawai`i and Fred Kraus of the Bishop Museum do more than just raise the question: they attempt to answer it. more...



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EH-XTRA! EH-XTRA! READ ALL ABOUT... In the grand old tradition of the New York Times, we would love to publish all the news that's fit to print. Alas, with just 12 pages a month, we end up with a surplus of goodies. EH-xtra is where you'll find the news that we just couldn't squeeze into our print edition or come up after we have gone to press. It's also where you can catch glimpses of our archives -- going back to July 1990 -- for free! Land Use Commission Takes Historic Step, Reverts 1,000 Urban Acres to Ag When it comes to meetings of the state Land Use Commission, high drama is in short supply. More often than not, you need to mainline caffeine to stay awake through the tedious witnesses and cross-examination. But the meeting of April 30, when the commission was considering its show-cause order to Bridge `Aina Le`a, owner of 3,000 acres of land just upland of the Mauna Lani resort in South Kohala, was nothing if not a nail-biter. more... NMFS Reporting Requirements Give Council Broad Leeway Over Spending From Volume 18, Number 12 -- June 2008 In partial response to a Freedom-of-Information-Act request by Environment Hawai`i filed last November, the National Marine Fisheries Service Pacific Islands Regional Office in March delivered 254 pages of records relating to Western Pacific Fishery Management Council activities. This is the second bolus of documents coughed up by the council and the agency in response to the request. Included in the recent shipment were copies of the council’s budgets for 2005 through 2009, which are presented to NMFS in the form of a five-year grant application. The budget was just shy of $5 million for the 2005 calendar year ($4.963 million). Increases of 5 percent were anticipated for each of the listed years, with the 2009 budget pegged at $6.159 million. The current year’s budget is given as $5.848 million. Totals for the five-year period come to $27,770,862. Salaries and fringe benefits make up the largest chunk of the council budgets. For 2009, around 23 percent of the overall spending falls into this category ($1.416 million). But the budgets represent only a projection and not necessarily what the council actually has spent or will spend in future years. At a NMFS website showing all grants (including those for the regional fishery management councils), the five-year umbrella budget for the Western Pacific council shows up as $14,572,465. Scott Bloom, grant program manager for the NMFS Pacific Islands Regional Office, said he believed this amount reflected funds that NMFS has paid to the council since the inception of the award in 2005. However, details of the grant (award NA05NMF4411092 on the NOAA website, grantsonline.rdc.noaa.gov) do not support that interpretation. Bloom also noted that the actual amounts received depend on year-to-year congressional appropriations as well as internal NMFS formulae that determine how lump-sum budget amounts are to be allocated among the regional councils. So how much does the council really get and spend? The question may be simple. Answering it is anything but. more... NMFS Proposes Changes in Council Rules As described in articles in the May 2009 Environment Hawai`i, the National Marine Fisheries Service is accepting comment until July 6, 2009, on rule changes addressing many areas of fishery management council operations. For a copy of the proposed changes, go to: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-6896.pdf Yellow Light on Biofuels The nation’s premier professional association for ecologists, the Ecological Society of America, has weighed in with a statement on biofuels that urges policy-makers and planners to go slow in converting lands to biofuel crops. “Supplying the emerging biofuels industry with enough biomass to meet the U.S. biofuel energy target – replacing 30 percent of the current U.S. petroleum consumption with biofuels by 2030 – will have a major impact on the management and sustainability of many U.S. ecosystems,” reads the policy statement from the society, which represents some 10,000 ecological scientists. “Current grain-based ethanol production systems damage soil and water resources in the U.S. and are only profitable in the context of tax breaks and tariffs,” the society said in a news release. “Future systems based on a combination of cellulosic materials and grain could be equally degrading to the environment, with potentially little carbon savings, unless steps are taken now that incorporate principles of ecological sustainability.” The full policy statement is available on the society’s website: www.esa.org To post comments about this article please click here DBCP and Dole, 30 Years Later Dibromochloropropane, a nasty pesticide that continues to lurk in Hawai`i’s aquifers long after the pineapple fields have gone fallow, was used throughout Central America as well – and with consequences equally disastrous. In November, a Los Angeles jury found that Dole Food Co. had deliberately exposed six Nicaraguan banana workers to DBCP, rendering them sterile. A Nicaraguan court had found Dole culpable earlier, but lawyers for the plantiffs said the workers were unable to collect on their judgments in that country. The jury ordered Dole and Dow Chemical Co. to pay compensatory damages to the six totaling $2.8 million, with Dole bearing 80 percent of the responsibility; punitive damages may still come.more... EH-xtra Archives Browse our free archive of EH-xtra stories. more... CONSERVATION SCIENCE IN THE AGE OF EXTINCTIONS As Hawai`i experiences one extinction after another, the question inevitably arises: What are the scientists in the forefront of conservation biology doing to address this? David Duffy of the University of Hawai`i and Fred Kraus of the Bishop Museum do more than just raise the question: they attempt to answer it. more...	SUMMARY OF CURRENT ISSUE JULY 2009 Good Fences Make Good … Habitat for palila. But three decades into a federal court decision requiring the state to protect the critical habitat needed for this endangered bird, good fences are in short supply. Most of the fencing, set up in the 1930s and 1940s, is nearing the end of its useful life. A new fence is expensive and years off. Can the palila wait for the fences to be built, the sheep to be removed, and the mamane trees so necessary for its survival to grow to the point they are useful to the bird? That question is front and center before the judge, the state, and the plaintiffs who are growing ever more worried that the bird may not last as long as it takes to protect its habitat. Teresa Dawson reports on the latest legal developments in our cover story. Patricia Tummons contributes an article on a closely related subject – the withdrawal of ranch lands for critical habitat. Also in this issue: New & Noteworthy: The Hawai`i Intermediate Court of Appeals rules no new EIS is needed for the Kuilima resort development; the same court also rejected claims by Koke`e cabin lesees; and the Hawai`i Supreme Court rebuffed the state's Superferry appeal. Major Environmental Bills Pass, But Lingle May Yet Veto Several: This Legislative wrap-up summarizes this past session's bills regarding land, resource managment, renewable energy, climate change, and sustainability. Space Tourism Gets Boost from Legislature: For two legislators, their proudest moment in the 2009 legislative session came with passage of a bill giving the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism half a million dollars to buy a spaceport license from the Federal Aviation Administration. Two-Year Extension for `Aha Kiole Committee: Despite strong testimony opposing a measure to extend the life of the `aha kiole advisory committee, the Legislature approved the extension, agreeing with committee members that they needed more time to complete their mission under Act 212. Ranchers Losing Land to Palila Seek Compensation from State: Senate Bill 1345 called for holders of leases of state lands to be compensated if any acreage is withdrawn. Only the Department of Land and Natural Resources voiced opposition to the bill. All the other testimony – all of it from ranchers and cattlemen’s groups – was strongly in support. LUC Grants Petition for Important Ag Land on Maui: On June 4, the state Land Use Commission unanimously approved a petition by Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. to designate more than 80 percent of its vast Maui fields as Important Agricultural Lands (IAL). To see summaries of previous months: more... Knowledgeable. Passionate. Independent. Providing News Found Nowhere Else. In June 2008, Environment Hawai'i, a monthly newsletter, completed 18 years of continuous publication. We thank all of our loyal subscribers for your contrubutions to this astonishing run. Mahalo nui loa. If you want to see us around for another 18 years, now is the time to show your support. New subscriptions are welcome too. Give your colleagues who are always cockroaching your copy subscriptions of their own. Any and all gifts, are deeply appreciated. Pay for your subscriptions online! Environment Hawai`i accepts Visa and MasterCard payments online. Just go to our Subscriptions webpage. The monthly issues are 12 pages of densely packed, tightly written articles on the some of the most troubling environmental issues facing Hawai`i today. View an online version of one of our past issues -- JANUARY_2008_ISSUE.pdf -- or REQUEST A FREE SAMPLE COPY! Please support the investigation and publication of essential news stories so that our islands can be protected by an informed community. If our stories or our website have helped you, support our non-profit organization further with a donation. Mahalo. Since 1990, Environment Hawai`i has gained a reputation as the single most important source of news on environmental issues in the 50th state. Environment Hawai`i is published monthly by Environment Hawai`i, Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation. Subscriptions are $50 individual; $85 supporting; $85 corporate and institutional. Environment Hawai`i is also available in microform through Unviersity Microfilms' Alternative Press Collection (300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346). Environment Hawai`i staff Patricia Tummons, Editor Teresa Dawson, Staff Writer Susie Yong, Office Administrator Environment Hawai`i, Inc. directors: Kathy Baldwin Robert Becker Teresa Dawson Mary Evanson Karen Miyano Leland Miyano Mina Morita Patricia Tummons ARCHIVE ACCESS Our archives are password protected, but available to subscribers at no charge. If you are renewing by PayPal or credit card, your password will be immediately issued. If you only wish to access the archives, select the "offline payment: pay by mail" payment option. You will not be charged. Your account will be reviewed and activated as soon as possible.
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