While development of the Villages of `Aina Le`a is mired in proceedings before state and federal courts as well as the Hawai`i County Board of Appeals, a gated residential development on agricultural land just a short distance away seems to … Continued
You might think managers of the reserves in Hawai`i’s Natural Area Reserves System would have unfettered authorization to kill feral ungulates in the reserves’ forests, which are supposed to be the state’s best. You would be wrong. “Kaua`i’s seasons are … Continued
Eight years ago, on February 2, 2005, a 555-foot-long freighter ran aground on the reef outside Barber’s Point harbor. Over the next nine days, a team of workers hastily put together by the Coast Guard, the ship’s owners, and the … Continued
Hawai`i County wants a do-over. That, at least, is what it has told Judge Elizabeth Strance of the 3rd Circuit Court, who is hearing a challenge to the county’s acceptance of a final environmental impact statement prepared for the Villages … Continued
It’s been several years since the state Board of Land and Natural Resources would stop public testimony at once and refrain from voting on a matter the instant anyone requested a contested case hearing. “If the board acted like it … Continued
To grow tobacco on public lands or not? That was the question at last month’s Agribusiness Development Corporation board meeting, where a local high-end cigar maker proposed testing his tobacco crops on three acres of the agency’s land in Kekaha, … Continued
Bigeye tuna, false killer whales, green turtles, and an expanded marine sanctuary in American Samoa. Those topics were among the more controversial ones discussed at the meeting of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, held last month in American Samoa. … Continued
Peter Vitousek didn’t mince words: “Everything we’ve lost, and everything we will lose, is because of human activity. We’re responsible for that change.” Vitousek, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford University, made the comments as the opening speaker at … Continued
The most heated discussions during the three-day meeting of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council last month concerned the reach of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. For years, council executive director Kitty Simonds has made no secret of … Continued
A Tighter FIT: Two years after launching a feed-in-tariff program, which guarantees renewable energy producers grid interconnection and fixed rates and terms for their power, the Hawaiian Electric Companies want to tweak a few things. In its March 4 reexamination … Continued