Last December, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved rules for a Civil Resource Violations System (CRVS) to expedite the resolution of minor infractions of state environmental laws.
Bin Li, the department’s administrative proceedings coordinator, told the board that a schedule for all of the violations to be covered by the CRVS will be brought to the board “piece by piece over the next few years.” Some elements may require public hearings, he said.
Under the approved guidelines, failure to file a monthly Commercial Marine License catch report could result in a fine of up to $15 for a first offense, up to $25 for a second offense, and up to $100 for a third offense. If not paid within 21 days, those fines could go up to $30, $50, and $200, respectively.
The same schedule was recommended for owners or operators who fail to register their vessels with the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation and for owners of trailered vessels caught using a state launching ramp or other boating facility without a permit.
For unauthorized commercial use of launching ramps or other state boating facilities, Li proposed fines of $25, $50, and $100 for first, second and third offenses and a doubling of the fines if they are not paid within 21 days.
With no testimony from the public, the board unanimously approved the guidelines.
Mauna Kea NAR to Get Cultural Plan
In a 2005 audit of the management of Mauna Kea and its science reserve, the state auditor criticized the lack of a comprehensive management plan for the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve, which includes the Keanakakoi adze quarry, Lake Waiau and Pu`u Pohaku.
To address this deficiency, the Land Board voted on March 13 to enter into a $250,000 contract with Pacific Consulting Services, Inc. (PCSI) to prepare an archaeological survey report and a cultural resources management plan for the NAR.
The University of Hawai`i’s Office of Mauna Kea Management hired a contractor to do similar work for the adjacent Mauna Kea Science Reserve, most of which is already complete.
In his report to the board, Division of Forestry and Wildlife administrator Paul Conry wrote that the plan will allow NARS staff to better evaluate the impacts cultural practitioners and telescope development have had and will have on the cultural landscape of Mauna Kea.
The work by PCSI and OMKM will “enhance management of these unique lands…by providing information on how the sites in the NAR and the Science Reserve interrelate,” he wrote.
At the board’s meeting, he added that the contract still needed to be approved by the governor and would be subject to availability of funds.
Given the controversy over the management of resources at Mauna Kea, at-large board member Samuel Gon asked whether it was DOFAW’s intent to develop an integrated natural and cultural resources management plan.
Hawai`i island NARS manager Lisa Hadway said that there is no natural resources plan yet for the NAR, but her staff has the capability to prepare one in-house, and ideally, the two plans would be integrated.
“The one thing that I think would be really important in a natural-cultural resource plan is the handling of the issue of natural resources as cultural resources. It’s very difficult, especially in this place, where we see that most of the arguments spinning around Mauna Kea deal with intangibles, deal with significance of the place, which includes not just sites or historic human use, but everything that makes up that place that’s considered culturally relevant and significant,” Gon said.
Creating an integrated plan will be a challenge, he said. “I don’t think it’s ever been done really, really well.”
Land Board member Tim Johns agreed, saying that natural resource management plans often talk about the cultural significance of a place in the introduction, but don’t delve much further.
Conry and Gon said they believed this was an opportunity to establish a model for how management plans should be done in the future.
A Strategic Plan
At the Land Board’s February 27 meeting, the NARS received approval of a strategic plan, or as NARS manager Randy Kennedy called it, “a ‘to do’ list for the next five years.”
The plan requires operational plans to be done for each island (so far, Hawai`i island has the only one), and calls for the development of measures of effectiveness. It also includes a cultural component, an area that NARS chair Dale Bonar said was of particular interest to the commission, although it is not required by statute.
Bonar added that the plan was a “100 percent effort” by both NARS
commissioners and staff.
When board member Tim Johns asked how the plan would be funded, Kennedy said that funding sources were left out of the plan because, “up until the recession, we were doing pretty good.” (The NARS special fund receives a significant portion of conveyance taxes.) But with the real estate slump, Kennedy said the immediate plan is to “tighten our belts and survive.” He added that some projects in the plan may be funded by the federal stimulus package.
DOFAW’s Paul Conry added that he has spoken with more than two dozen state legislators and asked them not to raid the NARS fund or tinker with the conveyance tax.
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