Peter Young, the new director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, recently granted interviews to Environment Hawai`i editor Patricia Tummons and staff writer Teresa Dawson. Here are excerpts: What are your goals, your vision for the department? As … Continued
Protecting Plants, When It’s Convenient In celebrating 2003 as the Year of the Hawaiian Forest, Environment Hawai`i is reprinting historical records that depict changes in its forested landscape over the last two centuries. This month’s selection is taken from minutes … Continued
It may seem counter-intuitive to imagine that a coal-fired power plant is more beneficial to sea life than a sugar mill. But in the years since Hilo Coast Processing Company stopped using bagasse and started using coal, corals in the … Continued
Board Makes its Choice for Maui Wind Power Developer “This is Matt,” Land Division administrator Dierdre Mamiya told the Board of Land and Natural Resources, motioning toward a bespectacled young man to her right. And, she added, contrary to what … Continued
In the lush hills above Pauka’a, near Hilo, an ancient forest grows undisturbed, drenched by more than 200 inches of rain a year. Perched on the eastern slope of Mauna Kea, this submontane rainforest produces commercially valuable timber and sustains … Continued
State Parks Division to Investigate Future of Cabins at Koke’e, Kaua’i In three years, all of the state leases for the old cabins in Koke’e will end. Whether they will continue to be leased for 20-year terms, be turned into … Continued
The setting was appropriate for a gathering of Honolulu’s fishing community. Fisherman’s Wharf restaurant at Kewalo Basin, just down the road from the fish auction house, is a half-century-old landmark on the Kaka’ako waterfront. Not for its diners the romantic … Continued
“Whatever I did with that property was my business. I didn’t ask if I could cut a tree down.” So stated James Pflueger in a February 2003 deposition regarding a dispute over the sale of roughly 400 acres at Pila’a, … Continued
The locked gate on the private, unpaved road in lower Puna is unremarkable. Like hundreds of others that lead to the area’s papaya orchards and scattered houselots, it effectively bars access to all but those privileged with padlock keys or … Continued