Last November 30, Moloka`i Properties Ltd., owner of almost all of the assets of the now defunct Moloka`i Ranch, petitioned the Land Use Commission to designate 4,919 (later amended to 5,203) acres of ranch land in West Moloka`i as important … Continued
Less than a week after the state Board of Land and Natural Resources fined KapohoKine Adventures, LLC, $16,500 for Conservation District violations at Honoli`i, Hawai`i County planning director Bobbi-Jean Leithead-Todd delivered more bad news to the company: The airstrip on … Continued
“I’m sure there will be a next time,” said David Swatland of the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. At last month’s meeting of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) Marine Ecosystem Reserve Advisory Council, Swatland described some of the lessons learned from … Continued
Pigs in Manoa: While our cover article this month focuses on pigs at Hakalau, on the Big Island, another study just published in Pacific Science looks at pigs in the forests of Manoa Valley, on O`ahu. The study, by a … Continued
Tropic Land, LLC has failed to persuade enough members of the state Land Use Commission to approve a boundary amendment allowing for the company’s proposed light industrial park in Lualualei Valley in West O`ahu. On April 21, the LUC voted … Continued
At Hakalau, the pigs are back. In 2004 and 2005, surveys of the fenced management units at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, on the windward slopes of Mauna Kea, showed that six of the eight fenced management units were pig-free … Continued
This month, the state Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) is expected to vote on whether to issue a 35-year license to Green Energy, LLC, a Kaua`i company that plans to grow trees on state land in Kalepa, then chip and burn … Continued
It’s no secret that the state Department of Health usually settles fines for far lower than the amount originally proposed. The recently concluded violation case regarding O`ahu’s Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill is no exception. Last May, the DOH fined the … Continued
Was it avoidable? Or was it inevitable that a series of storms would wreak havoc on the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill’s storm water drainage system, break open a waste cell, and wash medical and municipal waste and contaminated runoff into … Continued
NELHA News, Part I: Ronald Baird, administrator since 2005 of the state’s Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority, has announced he will be leaving. On December 31, Baird sent a letter out to some NELHA board members and tenants stating … Continued