Undocumented Birds: There’s a new bird on Maui, and it arrived without any by-your-leave from the state. The golden pheasant (Chrysolophus pictus) was probably brought into the state sometime in the early 1990s and is now breeding in Waikamoi Preserve, managed … Continued
None of the council members seemed particularly bothered by what pre-eminent marine scientist Jeffrey Polovina just told them — that there is clear evidence longline fishers in Hawaiian waters are “fishing down the food web.” The term refers to fishery-induced … Continued
When does a law not mean what it says? Apparently, whenever the National Marine Fisheries Service decides Congress must have made a mistake. That is what has happened in the case of the Commerce Appropriations Act that was passed in … Continued
When it comes to environmental issues addressed by the 2013 Legislature, repeal of the Public Land Development Corporation grabbed headlines. That agency, established by the Legislature just two short years ago and signed into law as Act 55 of the … Continued
DLNR Proposes Strict Size, Bag Limits On Fish Catches Around Maui, Lana`i On June 12, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources approved a request by the state Division of Aquatic Resources to hold public hearings on some rather … Continued
I appreciated Patricia Tummons reviewing my book Restoring Paradise: Rethinking and Rebuilding Nature in Hawai`i in the July issue of Environment Hawai`i, but was surprised by her strong negative reaction to this and my previous book, Intelligent Tinkering. I also found her overall hostility ironic, because … Continued
Sailing On: “Ahoy rrrr ye mateys! The Queen’s Treasure be sailin again!” read the June 28 message to followers of Queen’s Treasure’s Facebook page. For about the last year and a half, Ka`anapali Tours, LLC (KTL), which owns the 65-foot luxury catamaran, has been fighting … Continued
“I don’t mean to scare anybody,” Andrew Pierce said after he had probably done exactly that. Pierce’s new research, which he shared at July’s Hawai`i Conservation Conference in Waikiki, suggests that climate change has resulted in fires now that can … Continued
If efforts to control the little fire ant (LFA) on Hawai`i stay as they are, the island could see damages of nearly $170 million a year, as well as 33 million sting incidents a year. That’s according to University of … Continued
Jeff Burgett is the science coordinator of the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative. At the Hilo meeting organized by Peter Vitousek of Stanford University to discuss research into Hawai`i ecosystems, Burgett spoke direly of changes to come. “Conservation is founded … Continued