{"id":14679,"date":"2022-10-01T10:37:43","date_gmt":"2022-10-01T20:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=14679"},"modified":"2022-10-03T08:33:33","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T18:33:33","slug":"new-noteworthy-birds-red-hill-inquiry-and-a-clarification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=14679","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: Birds, Red Hill Inquiry, and a Clarification"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Poems and Pinions: <\/strong>One of the heaviest, most serious tomes in any reputable library of a Hawai\u02bbi conservation biologist is Alien Plant Invasions in Native Ecosystems of Hawai\u02bbi,<\/em> edited by Charles Stone, Cliff Smith, and Tim Tunison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now that same Chuck Stone has authored one of the lighter volumes on the conservationist\u2019s bookshelf: Birds in Hawai\u02bbi Today: Poetry & Prose,<\/em> with photographs by renowned photographer Jack Jeffrey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s intended not only \u2013 or even mainly \u2013 for the conservationist. As Stone writes in the preface, the target readers are non-scientists \u201ccurious about the biology, conservation, and status of birds in Hawai\u02bbi,\u201d whether they live in the islands or elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stone advises his book isn\u2019t a detailed guide. Nonetheless, readers of the poems he has written for 20 species, both native and introduced, are chock-full of information on the birds\u2019 histories and habits. Essays on each of the various types of birds \u2013 such as sea birds, water birds, forest birds \u2013 introduce the main sections of the book, with short write-ups on each bird in each category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quatrain poems are long, running from 14 to 20 verses. Shakespeare it isn\u2019t, but there\u2019s still a lot of emotion packed into them. The ode to the \u02bbi\u02bbiwi, for example, mourns their vulnerability to avian pox and malaria, with the incidence of disease increasing with the warming climate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luckily, \u02bbi\u02bbiwi adapt<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To captive breeding and release.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

New populations may begin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From birds bred for resistant genes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like \u02bbamakihi, some \u02bbi\u02bbiwi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could develop immunity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that might take substantial time \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For \u02bbi\u02bbiwi, an eternity\u2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EPA Oversight Questioned:<\/strong> The Office of Inspector General for the Environmental Protection Agency has launched an investigation into the agency\u2019s oversight of programs that the EPA has delegated to the state. Specifically, the OIG states, \u201cour objective is to determine, by analyzing the sequence of events that led to drinking water contamination at the Red Hill Site \u2026 whether the EPA\u2019s oversight of relevant authorized state programs effectively has addressed the potential for contamination at the site.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation was opened following a preliminary inquiry by the OIG of the regional EPA administration\u2019s response to the contamination. That inquiry included \u201cinterviews, data gathering, and analysis of issues such as adherence to policies and procedures for underground storage tank leak detection, drinking water quality monitoring, and oil spill reporting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation was announced on March 21. No final report has been released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Clarification: <\/strong>Environment Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> has seen no evidence that the principals of Waikoloa Mauka\/Waikoloa Highlands were in any way involved in the apparent kickback scheme that Alan Rudo and other co-defendants are accused of orchestrating. No reports in Environment Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> about what federal prosecutors have described as the \u201cWaikoloa Scheme\u201d should be taken to suggest that Waikoloa Highlands principals were anything other than its victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poems and Pinions: One of the heaviest, most serious tomes in any reputable library of a Hawaiʻi conservation biologist is Alien Plant Invasions in Native Ecosystems of Hawaiʻi, edited by Charles Stone, Cliff Smith, and Tim Tunison. And now that … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338,18,502,341],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-14679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-land-use","category-new-noteworthy","category-october-2022","category-pollution","tag-patricia-tummons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}