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
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
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
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
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
Like a dagger through the heart, the state-owned Piha tract tears straight through the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. Technically, Piha is part of Hawai`i’s system of forest reserves, set aside in the early part of the 20th century to … Continued
Black-footed Albatross Not Endangered: That’s the final determination of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in response to a petition to list the species Phoebastria nigripes as endangered. The petition was filed seven years ago by Turtle Island Restoration Network … Continued
The National Park Service is worried about water. More specifically, it fears that the underground flows that feed the fishponds and anchialine pools at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park will be interrupted or polluted if areas mauka of the park are … Continued
Some of them leak like sieves, losing (or wasting, some might say) millions of gallons a day of diverted stream water into the ground. But achieving greater food security without the 130 or so earthen reservoirs throughout the state would, … Continued
The Kaua`i Island Utility Cooperative has lost its “priority position” to generate hydropower using irrigation systems and land in west Kaua`i managed by the state Agribusiness Development Corporation. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order dismissing the … Continued