Backtracking: In 2006, the Board of Land and Natural Resources, bowing to pressure from the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority, lifted the requirement that subleases for NELHA tenants be approved by the Land Board or its chair. NELHA administrator … Continued
What’s one or two more dead Pacific loggerhead or leatherback sea turtles a year going to mean for the survival of those species? According to the federal Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, probably nothing. Conservationists, on the other hand, believe … Continued
Order Barring Mauna Kea Development Prompts UH to Draft Management Plan In August 2006, Third Circuit Judge Glenn Hara reversed the state Board of Land and Natural Resources’ 2004 decision to grant a Conservation District Use Permit to the University … Continued
At a time when Hawai`i is seeking ways to feed more of its own people, O`ahu’s beef and pork industries are on the verge of disaster. Earlier this year, O`ahu’s only slaughterhouse, which processes both beef and pork, announced that … Continued
By Hook or Crook: George Bush may be a lame duck president, but his administration is still capable of mischief. Case in point: proposed changes in regulations to implement the Endangered Species Act. The regulations would achieve through the rule-making … Continued
In early February 2007, the U.S. Navy announced it had prepared an environmental assessment for a two-year series of 12 undersea warfare exercises in waters around Hawai`i. The notice of the EA was accompanied by a finding that the exercises, … Continued
The Navy has clearly and brazenly broken the law in its push to carry out undersea warfare exercises in Hawai`i. Without question, it violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it released the first environmental assessment for the exercises in … Continued
The Navy’s use of high-intensity sonar has been challenged in several court cases, including three that recently came before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Oral arguments for one of the cases will be made this month before the … Continued
The best chance most of us have to see a Cuvier’s beaked whale is if it is in trouble. The species (Ziphius cavirostris) was scientifically described only in 1823, and even then, the description was made on the basis of … Continued
Relations between conservationists wanting to reduce the introduction and spread of invasive plants, on the one hand, and advocates of horticulture, on the other, have not always been smooth. But a workshop held during the July Hawai`i Conservation Alliance’s annual … Continued