Hawaii Wildlife is a Precious Resource that must  be protected.

Hawaii’s wildlife has been isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for thousands of years giving the many species time to develop into a vast array of unique life forms that provide constant surprises.

From colorful tropical fish, spinner dolphins, and humpback whales in the sea to rare forest birds in the mountains to the Hawaiian boars foraging in the upland swamps, there is no shortage of wildlife to see in Hawaii. There are several books for more detailed descriptions and location maps for the different animals. People interested in Hawaiian wildlife can check out a Hawaii Travel Guide for tour information and best travel practices, including safety, local customs, and seasonal migration patterns and habits.

Great sight to see in Hawaiian waters.

Perhaps the most impressive wildlife to see in the Islands is the humpback whale. Weighing more than 40 tons, these behemoth mammals leap from the sea in spectacular breaches during the winter months. The whales can often be seen from the shore, particularly in the shallow waters around Maui. The best way to ensure great humpback viewing, however, is by taking a whale watching boat cruise.

Another advantage of a boat tour is that spinner dolphins often ride in the bow waves of the boats providing guests with a close-up view of these amazing creatures of the sea. Spinner dolphins love to jump from the water and do flips and spins in the air right before your eyes. Most boat tours, like Trilogy’s Maui snorkel tour, stop along the way so guests can enjoy a snorkeling adventure which will allow you to see an array of colorful tropical fish. Also keep an eye out for Hawaiian monk seals!

Beauty soars in Hawaiian skies.

Many rare bird species can be seen in Hawaii from the tiny songbirds in the high rain forests to the wetland birds in the lowlands to the seabirds soaring over the coast. Several wildlife refuge areas are open to the public for bird watching including the Hanalei Wildlife Refuge on Kauai where you can see the black-necked stilt, coot, moorhen, and Koloa duck, all of which are endangered species. Other wetland refuges are found on Oahu and Maui.

Along Hawaii’s coastlines you can see a variety of Hawaiian seabird species such as Laysan albatross and the frigate bird, two birds with wingspans so large that the first thing you may notice is their large shadow moving across the ground. Migratory birds that are seen near Hawaii’s shore include shearwaters, noddies, boobies, and plovers and many more.

Also keep an eye out for the diminutive Hawaiian bats that are often seen over coastal waters at dusk. The bats dart rapidly to and fro as they search for insects to eat.

Another impressive species of Hawaiian wildlife you may see is the Hawaiian boar. These husky boars are sought after by many local hunters who train dogs to assist them as they trek up into the mountains after the tusked beasts. The boars also venture down into the lowlands so don’t be surprised if you see one run across the road and then quickly dash into the bushes and disappear.

Other wildlife seen in mountain areas include goats that climb on the steep cliffs. Some mountain areas are also inhabited by introduced sheep and deer. These are just some of the many amazing species of wildlife to be seen in the Hawaiian Islands.

With the economy struggling both on a state and national level, the state of Hawaii decided to cut cost on government workers in the form of furlough Fridays.  This cut the employees work days on certain Fridays of the year.  While the policy was pretty straight forward, there was much debate about the education system.

Entering the 2009-2010 school year Hawaii was one of the lowest scoring states on national tests.  Even prior to furlough Fridays the average school week for Hawaii students was 29 hours where most other schools throughout the nation go 35 hours a week.  During the furlough Friday weeks the school week is only 23 hours.  This cut in schooling time to an already limited amount time surely can not help Hawaii’s educational ranking versus other schools in the nation.  It will be interesting to see how Hawaii matches up against other schools in the year end testing.

With the government looking forward to the 2010-2011 school year they have requested that teachers work for free for the few remaining furlough Fridays and in that case the government will be willing to pull funds from the Hurricane Relief Fund to cover the cost for the following schools years to eliminate furlough Fridays.  Although it is a positive thought, many teachers have already made themselves available on weekends to make field trips happen that would not be done on Fridays.  It is not reasonable for anyone to work “for free”.  It is highly unlikely that anyone in the higher levels of government is taking a pay cut and still fully doing their job.

Not only is this posing a problem for people living in Hawaii, but also people moving to Hawaii.  Many people move to Waikoloa Beach Resort rather than Hualalai Resort due to the private schools being more accessible.  Many of the middle class people that do not live in the resorts do not have the money to pay for the expensive private schools Hawaii offer so they are stuck with the decision of staying in Hawaii and having their childrens education suffer or moving to the mainland and giving up all the other beauties Hawaii has to offer.

Senator Daniel Akaka’s bill that would grant federal recognition to Native Hawaiians has passed the House—the 3rd time this type of bill has been approved by the House since 2000. In the past, the legislation has been killed in the Senate.

The bill would allow Native Hawaiians to create their own sovereign government and give them more say in how their ancestral lands are used.

There is hope that the bill will pass the Senate this time. For one, Obama is behind the bill. Also, it appears the Democrats have the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster.

Read the full Honolulu Advertiser article →

And please share your thoughts. Should this bill be passed. Do Native Hawaiians deserve the same treatment as Native Americans?

Chicken Talk Story

by Shepherd Bliss
First you hear their sounds. Then you see a man affectionately stroking a colorful bird. I came early, but a few dozen people were already gathering around the Mo’oheau Bandstand in downtown Hilo one recent Sunday morning. I was one of the first haoles to arrive.

“What are all these chickens doing here?” inquired a large Polynesian-looking woman. “I was walking by, heard all the commotion, and wondered what was happening.”

I showed her the flyer for this Third Annual Poultry Symposium, sponsored by the Big Island Gamefowl Breeders Association in cooperation with the University of Hawai’i Cooperative Extension Service.

“Sometimes I wish that I were a chicken,” the woman mused.

She continued to pose probing, graceful questions in colorful pidgin. Her shorter friend nodded in support. Being the chicken lover that this reporter is, he was glad to respond to her questions and keep the chicken talk going. I’ve enjoyed hours over many decades engaging in chicken talk. We chicken lovers find each other and can tell umpteen chicken stories and talk up a storm about our animal of choice.

Talking chicken was an important thing that happened that Sunday morning in Hilo, while others were in church doing God talk. We didn’t sit down on pews, but meandered casually about looking at birds and sometimes even chatting with them. Chickens have long been seen as divine animals, especially in Asia. They can be more than meets the eye, though their beauty is often pleasing to the eye. By carefully looking at any creature or natural element deeply, one can see the Nature of which they are an integral part.

“They’re so cute,” the first woman observed. I agreed. They also seemed relaxed, getting all that stroking. We could all benefit from such petting and attention.

An hour later this inquisitive duo was still wandering around among the chickens. The two finally walked off toward the nearby farmers’ market across the street, more happy for having spent quality chicken time.

By observing simple chickens, humans can learn a lot about the world, ourselves, and our appropriate role within Nature. Electricity had not made it to our family farm in rural Iowa by the mid-1950s. So instead of watching TV, we watched chickens and other barnyard animals and told stories about them and other creatures at night, illuminated by gas lanterns. Chickens populated my childhood dreams and remain deep within my psyche.

Years later, at Kokopelli Farm in Northern California, I gathered a diverse flock of Silkies, Cochins, Polish, Aracaunas, Rhode Island Reds and other regular and unusual breeds. These differently-colored breeds got along much better than do the different races of that taller two-legged animal. Furthermore, they delighted customers with their chicken antics and provided tasty orange-yolked eggs from all the free-range eating that they did.

Being a Chicken Man

OK. I admit it. I’m a chicken man. I think that they’re beautiful, highly communicative, wise, useful, entertaining and socially responsible. Sometimes they do dumb things, but they’re not dumb animals, especially when compared to that other, taller biped. Chickens can teach us humility, being so lowly, yet able to rise. Chickens do not have that human tendency to get inflated, arrogant, and prideful.

We evolved from chickens, you know. Before we were apes, we were chickens. Or at least that is how I feel about it, but I’m not a scientist. Watch chickens closely and see who they might remind you of, flapping their wings, talking up a story, and having such a short attention span before they dash off. Got any friends like that?

Linguists contend that chickens actually say about two dozen distinct things, which translated into English are phrases like “predator-in the sky,” “food-over here,” and “sex-I want it now.” Oh, for such a simple life of walking and flying around, eating and having sex. It looks easy enough, so I’ve tried to flap my unfeathered arms, but I never lift off the ground.

I was, however, recently threatened by a Journal reader with being “tarred, feathered, and run out of town” for a post-election article on darkness. I wouldn’t mind the feathers, thank you, but I could do without the hot tar. I rather like Hilo town, especially with chickens running around.

Chickens recognize at least 80 distinct members of a flock and have a complex social organization. Though called a “pecking order,” it is more complicated than that and can change swiftly.
Chickens are smarter than you probably think, having a special kind of chicken wisdom. As prey, they must learn to survive in an often-hostile world. Yet they continue to multiply, especially here on the islands. We have more chickens in my neighborhood than humans, which is fine with me.

Chickens often seem to be eating, but they don’t eat too much. Have you ever seen a fat chicken? Left to their own, chickens know which are the healthy foods for them, unlike their taller, too-often fatter descendent.

Chickens eat bugs, grass, human throwaways and all kinds of things that they can get into their pecking beaks. They adore berries, tomatoes, and watermelon. Chickens eat so many diverse things that they might be useful in reducing that loud, pesty, growing coqui frog population. (Now, there’s a noise problem.) Chickens transform this mix of food and refuse into jewels-eggs that can be delicious as well as nutritious. Artists and philosophers have long contemplated chicken eggs as a beautiful and even divine form.

Chickens know how to have fun, scratching and dancing about as they do, snuggling into the Earth. Watching them as a child, and now as an adult, has enabled me to be more playful. “Lighten up” seems to be a message that chickens naturally communicate, even in the face of impending death, to which they seem to surrender.

Chickens are more entertaining than TV. I still don’t have a TV, so I enjoy engaging with chickens, as well as other animals.

Chickens in Hawai’i

At most of the many chicken gatherings I’ve attended over the decades, the beautiful hens outnumber the loud cocks. But here on the Big Island, more cocks attended this symposium. More males than females were among the some fifty humans who came. Many walked around with chickens firmly cradled in their arms. Many birds had that content look, as if they were about to purr.

“Chickens like to be touched,” explained Halyna Kuheana, president of the Big Island Gamefowl Breeders Association. “If you massage their cheeks and they close their eyes, you’ve made a friend. Chickens are great for children. They go from an egg to an adult in two years. Kids can learn about life from them. Chickens can be great teachers. People don’t give them enough credit.”

On this day one could learn about the pleasures and challenges of having poultry. One could learn about the history of chickens here in Hawai’i and elsewhere, alternative methods of breeding and raising them, and dealing with diseases and other problems.

Among the displays at this event was a graphic of the Hilinia Pali Petroglyph Cave from AD 1600 to 1800. According to the Bishop Museum, a detail shows “Fighting Cocks and Spectators.” The sign says that it is “photographic evidence of Hawaiian cockfighting given by David Malo in his book Hawaiian Antiquities, 1951.”

Other colorful posters revealed interesting facts. For example, the cock spur, mao kakala, was used in Hawaiian war weapons. Today the spurs are used by male dancers during Hawaiian chants.

A handout from the Bernice P. Bishop Museum reviewed the history of “Gamefowl in Hawaiian Culture.” It noted that Polynesian chickens (moa) “were brought from Malaysia to Polynesia, where they were found in all the islands except New Zealand.” The bulletin excerpt continued, “The Hawaiian fowl is traditionally identified with the Lomo-Pele migration, specifically with ‘Olopana, paramount chief of Ko’ohau on Oahu.”

“In old Hawaiian times,” the handout added, “there were both wild and domesticated chickens in Ka’u and doubtless throughout the islands.” Chickens “were thought to be forms of the mo’o (reptile) class of ancestral gods (‘aumakua.’) Their greatest importance to Hawaiians was their use as offerings to temple gods and to family gods.”

Chickens were apparently less prized by ancient Hawaiians for food. The Bishop Museum bulletin quotes an account by Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui who noted that when she was a child, older Hawaiians refrained from eating eggs. “It would be like eating the hen’s unborn baby,” Pukui’s grandmother told her. The bulletin continues, “Probably Hawaiians regarded their chickens as second-rate fare because chicken meat steamed in an imu is less flavorful for eating with poi than is good fish.”

The mission of the Big Island Gamefowl Breeders Association is “the preservation and perpetuation of gamefowl. To this end, we dedicate ourselves to the education of all who wish to know the essence of this ancient associate of mankind.”

Chickens as Power Animals

I liked those words -”ancient associate.” I kept looking for my own favorite associates – Malays and Shamos, which I used to breed on the continent. They originated as jungle fowl in the trees of Asia. I wasn’t able to bring any from my farm when I moved here. I miss them, and have not yet been able to find any here.

What I like about the Malays and Shamos is their regal dignity. They stand tall, with long necks and sturdy legs. They strut about as if they are the kings of the forest. And do they like to fly, shooting off into my berry patch. The males love to chase after the females, who seem to delight when caught and mounted. Then they ruffle their feathers in that distinctly chicken post-coital activity. Hens can also be quite fierce, spreading their wings over their chicks to protect them. I once saw a Malay hen rise up and back off a hawk.

“That chicken looks like a little dinosaur,” children would squel as they watched Malays and Shamos walk around with such tiny strength. Recent scientific research has documented that today’s birds did in fact evolve from dinosaurs.

During the years that I visited Hawai’i, before moving here, I delighted in watching feral chickens scamper about enthusiastically in lower Puna. Upon deciding to settle here, I chose a place with a substantial chicken population: Hawaiian Paradise Park. Though some of my neighbors are not thrilled with chicken sounds, which I can understand, I appreciate them, in moderation.

I hear chickens each morning. If chickens did not herald the dawn, it could mean the fabled End of the World, as Chicken Little warned. It is likely that poultry will outlast humans, at least at the rate we are currently going. Chickens are here to stay, in Hawai’i and elsewhere.

Though predators such as eagles and big cats get the glory, I appreciate prey with the alertness and wisdom that keeps them alive in a hostile world. Being mighty may seem fun, but Top Guns, like Top Roosters, inevitably get taken down. Being lowly and staying among the grass, as an ancient Hawaiian proverb recommends, has certain values. “The nail that stands up gets hammered first,” runs another proverb.

I think of chickens as my “power animal” or guide to a higher power. Go ahead, laugh, especially if your animal is a noble dolphin, whale, bear, or hawk. A good laugh does us all good, which is another reason why chickens are here. They are, indeed, laughable, as are those who care for them. Chickens can be comically batty and loony, especially as they flee in all directions to escape a predator. Ever try to catch a chicken? It’s harder than it looks. If its one person on one chicken, the chicken usually wins, unless that taller two-legged grabs a net. They can be very deceptive and amazing at getting out of corners. They seem to be masterful at the martial arts, especially aikido, which is the art of defensively blending with energy and integrating it.

A day without a chicken sound, for me, is like a day without the sun. That sound awakens something within me and comforts me. I am glad, however, that there are not too many chickens among my neighbors, and that they are not right next door.

Hilo’s chicken day was scheduled to last until 3 p.m. I only hung around for a couple of hours. I came mainly to see the chickens and walk among them. A licensed game bird farmer spoke about “Take This Bird and Ship It,” but it was too commercial for me. A judge awarded trophies for the outstanding birds. He explained that he was “looking for stance and feathering in these show birds.” I left the day with pleasant memories of observing and caring for chickens over the years.

New Treatments for Our Auto Addiction

by Alan D. McNarie
Cultures invent words for the things that become important to them. Thai has a huge array of words for precisely describing the moods and emotional states of people, for instance. Hawaiian has various words to describe different types of rains, such as “kauanoe” and “kanilehua.”

In recent years, modern residents of Hawai’i Island have started inventing new terms for traffic patterns: the Five O’Clock Derby, the Kainaliu Crawl….
Hawai’i Island’s traffic eats thousands of hours out of its residents’ lives every day. With most of the island’s population crowded along a thin necklace of coastal highways; with most of its affordable housing on one side of the island and most of its job-generating resorts on the other side; and with runaway growth outstripping its infrastructure, the island could be a poster child for poor traffic planning. One of the greatest challenges for the administration of Mayor Harry Kim, as he enters his second four-year term, will be untangling the massive traffic snarls that have resulted out of decades of bad governmental decisions.

The County is aware of the challenge. Last year, it completed a massive “Regional Circulation Plan” for the Keahole to Honaunau traffic corridor along the Kona Coast. A similar study is under way as a Puna regional plan. This fall, the County Council passed an ordinance creating two “fare free” zones for its Hele-On public buses in Puna and West Hawai’i. And last October 8, the Kim administration collaborated with the State Department of Transportation in organizing a workshop by Colorado traffic consultant Jim Charlier that called for a basic rethinking of how traffic problems are solved – moving away from simply building bigger highways, and toward an approach that creates a more balanced infrastructure of highways, feeder and residential streets, pedestrian and bicycle corridors and mass transit. Workshop invitees included not only state and county officials, but also many of the island’s major landowners and developers.

“We are only beginning this process of community planning, so I cannot say where it will take us,” wrote Kim, in a follow-up letter to participants. “At this point I cannot tell you how it will impact you and your land-use plans. That is why it is so crucial that we keep the lines of communication open between us. You will be an important participant as we begin this project, and I look forward to working with you. The bottom line is simple: we need your help in addressing the problems and needs of the County of Hawai’i.”

Regional Plans

Hawai’i Island is in the grip of automobile dependence. According to the 2000 U.S. Census figures, out of an islandwide labor force of 70,791, 63,401 commuted to work; of those, 43,508 drove to work alone, and 12,494 carpooled. 1, 873 walked to work, 206 bicycled, and 3,879 worked at home. Only 466 utilized public transportation, including buses and taxis; of these, 363 – only six tenths of a percent of the workforce – took the bus.

Those figures are already out of date; they don’t reflect four solid years of post-2000 growth, in which job numbers burgeoned, especially on the Kona side, but affordable housing and road infrastructure failed to keep up with demand.

The traffic problem is particularly acute on the Kona side, where two Kona highway projects, the Ke Ala O Keauhou (Ali’i Parkway) and the Mamalahoa Bypass, are still mired in litigation and controversy – the former because of Hawaiian graves within the planned right-of-way, and the latter because of a controversial deal between the Yamashiro-era county government and the developers of the Hokulia project, in which the developer agreed to build the bypass in exchange for the county’s blessing on the project. When a judge ruled that Hokulia’s luxury homes were an illegal use of agricultural land, his order stopped work not just on the project, but on a section of the new highway

Discontent about traffic woes finally boiled over at recent hearings on the proposed Cliftos development in North Kona. Citizens’ anger over runaway development without enough traffic infrastructure helped persuade Mayor Kim to veto the developer’s rezoning request.

But even without Cliftos, and even with the completion of the new bypass and parkway, the West Side infrastructure appears headed into deeper trouble. The Final Report of the Keahole to Honaunau Regional Circulation Plan, completed in February of last year, projected that the population of North and South would increase by 50 percent between now and 2020 – and that traffic volumes on the region’s roads would double in the same time period. Even with the completion of Mamalahoa Bypass and Ke Ala O Keahou, “peak hour problems will be similar to existing congested conditions within the next two decades,” projected the report’s authors.

The report also noted that some of the area’s main roads were already in crisis. “Several major arterial and collector roads in the region already have a Level of Service (LOS) “E” during AM and PM peak hours,” the authors stated. “LOS ‘E’ is characterized by frequent cycle failures, poor progression and long delays.” Among the roads with LOS “E” problems, according to the report, were Queen Ka’ahumanu from Kealakehe to Palani; the Hawai’i Belt Road from Hualalai to Kuakini, and Palani Road east of Henry Street.

To mitigate the situation, the plan suggests several “Short Term Projects,” including establishing access standards for Mamalahoa Bypass and Ke Ala O Keahou; extending Kealaka’a Street and Kealakehe Parkway to intersect each other, and improving bus service and creating more bicycle and pedestrian paths. In the long term, the plan looks at possible routes for a new “North-South Transportation Corridor,” including “mauka alignment above the ‘coffee belt,’” a “midlevel alignment through existing development” from Honaunau to Kealakehe Parkway, and “expansion of existing Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway through existing development.” Estimates for any of these options range from more than $5 million to more than $10 million per mile. The plan also examines the idea of a “fixed-rail transit corridor” from Kona International Airport to Keauhou, with an initial price tag of $2.5 billion and annual operating costs of around $72.3 million – still a bargain when compared to the per capita cost of building roadways and operating automobiles, contended the Final Report.

The situation is little better in Puna, although residents may be more used to the delays than are their counterparts in burgeoning Kona. Improvements have been made on the Kea’au-Pahoa Highway, but plans for a second route out of Eastern Puna remain stalled. One 1996 study has projected that if all of the existing subdivisions in Puna reach their full build-out, the area will require at least 14 traffic lanes.

The Kim administration is in the process of gathering community input for a “Puna Regional Circulation Plan,” similar to the Kona plan, at on-going community meetings.
Councilman Bob Jacobson, who represents some of the district, says he has been “pretty pleased” with the community participation so far.

“We did get a humongous cross-section of people who were willing to work hard,” he noted.

Community-Based Traffic Relief

On October 8, with the Kim administration’s cooperation and approval, the Hawai’i Department of Transportation convened a workshop to begin a basic rethinking of traffic planning island-wide. Conducting the workshop was Jim Charlier of Charlier and Associates, Inc., a Boulder, Colorado transportation planning firm.

Some of Charlier’s conclusions were startling. In areas where there was high demand for transportation and where traffic congestion already occurred, he noted, simply improving the transportation system would, of itself, cause an increase in traffic, or “induced traffic”; within a few years, this induced traffic would swell to fill the improved system’s capacity again, leaving the system as congested as ever. On the other hand, in areas where systems were currently uncongested or where there was low transportation demand, improving the road system did not lead to a great increase in induced traffic. In other words, building new or wider roads to ease traffic congestion in areas with runaway development didn’t solve congestion; it simply spurred more development until the system is congested again. But building or improving roads where there was no development pressure before did not spur development.

Part of the reason for this phenomenon lies in a drastic shift in building paradigms that took place in the later half of the 20th Century. Before that, towns had traditionally been laid out in “grids”: streets that met at right angles, surrounding a commercial center laid out along a main street or town square. With grid traffic, if one path to a destination was blocked, there was always an alternative route, simply by turning left instead of right.

But as families began seeking new homes after the post-WWII “Baby Boom,” developers responded with a new sort of housing area: the “pod,” an entirely residential subdivision in which homes were often laid out along winding, looping streets, with only one exit onto an arterial highway. With only one way out, all the traffic would spill onto the highway at that point, creating instant congestion. This, in turn, would lead to pressure to “improve” the highway by widening it. But the wider, faster highway would mean that commuters could travel farther from their jobs in the same amount of time, providing an instant incentive to build more suburban pods, creating more congestion, creating incentive to widen the highway again, or to build a new freeway or bypass further out.

In the short term, this cycle meant profits and jobs for the construction industry. But in the long term, Charlier pointed out, there were some major negative effects, including urban sprawl, falling real estate resale values and other associated problems including, interestingly enough, obesity. (As the suburban pods spread farther and farther from commercial centers and workplaces, the ability to go anywhere on foot or bicycle diminished. Charlier showed slide after slide of map charts, plotting the accelerating spread of obesity across the nation as the pods marched outward from urban centers.)

As distance from urban centers to suburban pods increases, businesses abandon downtowns and move to cities along the arterial highways, further congesting traffic. With each new shopping center, the zone of commuting comfort expands outward again, creating new bedroom communities at its outer fringe and sapping the economic vitality out of old communities, suburbs and shopping centers until induced traffic swells to the choking point again.

With suburban pods and gated subdivisions, there were no alternate routes; the only tool for alleviating traffic congestion was to add more and more lanes to arterial highways. 
”When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” one of Charlier’s power point slides read.

His solution: a ten-point plan to develop a more balanced approach to transportation.

The first principle of such a plan, he maintained, was “mobility balance”: developing not just arterial highways, but street grids, connector roads and access routes that would take some of the pressure off the arterials – and developing alternate transportation modes, such as bike routes, pedestrian routes and bus systems.

The second principle was “connectivity.” “A well-connected network of narrow streets is safer and more efficient, and has more capacity, than a poorly-connected network of wide streets,” maintained a handout from the presentation. “Connectivity can best be achieved when development first occurs and is difficult to establish later, especially in residential areas.”

An effective transportation system, Charlier proposed, should be designed to be “community sensitive,” with adequate road and street capacity determined by community needs. “The appropriate scale and design of urban streets should be determined by network considerations and community character, not by traffic forecasts,” maintained the handout. “Transportation planning based on traffic forecasting and modeling is self-fulfilling and perpetuates the problems it was intended to solve.” Such a plan would be designed to encourage active lifestyles by creating “good walking and bicycling environments.” It would “cultivate mixed use centers” such as downtown commercial areas. And it would involve a public transit system whose purpose was “to improve mobility choices, transportation flexibility, community resilience, and economic vitality, not to reduce traffic congestion.”

It was a Zen-like approach, in a way: the best way to solve traffic congestion was not to focus on solving traffic congestion, but on meeting community needs.

“Mr. Charlier’s presentation focused on transportation planning, but the bottom line is not transportation, but community,” Kim wrote, in his follow-up letter. “We must decide what kind of community we want, and that will dictate how we address everything else: roads, infrastructure, social services, public safety, schools, etc. Too often in the past we have done this backwards: building roads, for example, and letting roads dictate what kind of community we have.”

Actually implementing such a plan will be the real challenge. For the landowners and developers who attended the workshop, it might mean developing a different model for new subdivisions: instead of gated luxury residential areas, the County could encourage more village-like developments, with small commercial centers, gridded streets and multiple entrances. But even if future developments follow a saner pattern, what can be done with the multitude of developments already approved and under construction? And how could the existing infrastructure, with its dozens of villages and subdivisions strung out along a few arterial highways, be turned into something saner and more sustainable?

Bulking Up the Bus System

One possible answer is to make an improvement on the 2000 Census’s miserable bus commuting statistics. The Final Report of the Keahole to Honaunau Regional Circulation Plan noted the island’s Hele-On public bus service had “a very limited service area and schedule due to the scattered, low-density distribution of the island’s largely rural population.”

The County is already hard at work on that. The most visible sign of that effort is the authorization by the County Council of the new West Hawai’i and Puna-Hilo “free bus-ride zones.” Beginning January 1 of 2005, passengers can ride for free on any bus within the commuter corridors from Ocean View to Kawaihae and from Pahoa to Hilo.

The new policy marks a sea-change in the Council’s approach to Hawaii’s venerable but chronically underfunded Hele-On system.

“In the past, the policy was…that the bus system had to recover 50 percent of their costs through their fares,” County Managing Director Dixie Kaetsu told the Journal. “Now they seem to be changing their policies, with the free zones and the promotional fares, which will give us a lot more flexibility.”

The system is also about to get more buses. Jacobson claims some credit for that, saying that he had approached the island’s Congressional delegation and gotten $2.3 million for new Hele-On vehicles through an appropriation sponsored by Senator Daniel Inouye.

The Hele-On system also expects to get about $320,000 between January and June of next year from its share of an increase in the vehicle weight taxes. According to County Transit Administrator Tom Brown, that money will be used entirely for “service expansion,” including new Ocean View-South Kohala and North Kohala-Waimea-Kona routes, as well as the re-routing of all existing Kona-area buses to include service to Kona Hospital.

“We’re also going to be implementing an after-school service that will shuttle Kohala and Ocean View Late January-Early February,” notes Brown. “One of our priorities actually is to provide more late afternoon services so school-age children can participate in after-school activities.”

Getting Homes Where the Jobs Are

Another area that needs to be addressed to mitigate traffic problems is the affordable housing crisis that has forced lower-income employees into the “Five (a.m.) O’Clock Derby,” racing from homes on the lava flows of Puna, Ka’u and South Kohala to jobs on the Kona-Kohala Coast, via winding mountain roads in the early hours of the morning.

As of this paper’s deadline, the Kim administration was working on a proposal to raise the required ratio of “affordable” to “luxury” housing from 10 percent to 20 percent in new developments.

“At the same time, we make it easier for developers by creating a standard mechanism to transfer credits,” read a draft of the proposed housing policy change that was obtained by the Journal. “An affordable housing developer who builds more affordable units than required can make a private sale of those credits to market developers. We expect that this will be a major incentive to affordable developers because market developers will subsidize their projects to buy the credits instead of paying in-lieu fees, or having to include affordable units in their projects, or having to do a separate affordable development. This has to be geographically limited.”

But these changes may not be enough, given the magnitude of the crisis. The county is in the midst of an island-wide real estate boom, with skyrocketing land prices fueled by luxury developers. If the definition of “affordable housing” is defined by median income, then the plethora of luxury-range homes and high-income residents will drive even so-called “affordable” homes out the reach of families who must subsist on service-industry jobs.

Another area where progress might be made is in encouraging telecommuting and home-based businesses. At the county level, this may mean relaxing zoning codes further to allow stay-at-home enterprises, even if that means a little more noise and congestion within neighborhoods. The community of Volcano may provide a spontaneously generated model for such neighborhoods: while it remains a bedroom community for Hilo, it also harbors dozens of Bed and Breakfasts, art studios, internet sales operations and other small businesses, while maintaining the appearance of a sleepy village. But the community is still smarting from a neighborhood war that erupted when residents on opposite sides of a zoning dispute started reporting each other for alleged zoning and permitting violations caused by their home-based businesses.

The Cost

The real challenge that the County may face may not be in forming its new vision of community-based traffic solutions – that vision already is becoming increasingly clear- but in implementing such a vision in the face of entrenched interests. Those interests include more than developers. When the University Terrace subdivision was proposed, for instance, it met many of the criteria for the new village-like subdivisions that Charlier’s workshop suggested. The planned subdivision was located close in to an existing urban center. It had more than one access. It contained smaller, more moderately-priced lots and had its own small commercial center. But the project was denounced by the community association in a nearby luxury subdivision, some of whose members feared that cheaper housing nearby would affect their own home values. (It should be noted that the project also raised opposition for other reasons, including its possible effect on the watershed above downtown Hilo and the developer’s plan to install high-rise housing.) Eventually the project was approved, but only after downsizing to a lower population density.

Even the bus system, despite its improvements, will still need to overcome a sort of chicken-or-the-egg dilemma caused by the self-interest of commuters in the current system. While buses move people more efficiently than cars as a whole, they’re slower than cars for individual commuters. When traffic congestion has already strained commuter tolerance to the breaking point, the extra time spent waiting for a bus could be the last straw. And on two-lane roads, frequently stopping buses can slow traffic even further. So bus ridership can prevent congestion, but existing congestion discourages bus ridership.

Some cities, including Honolulu, have mitigated this problem by using dedicated express lanes for buses and car pools. But could mountainous routes such as South Kona’s Mamalahoa Highway or Hamakua’s Belt Road be expanded for such a lane?

In the end, what may need to happen is a combination of the old and the new: more lanes to relieve immediate congestion, combined with smart planning to make use of the brief breathing space that those new roads provide. But wherever those new rights-of-way go, they will require sacrifices of their neighbors – just as riding the bus and creating affordable housing and fostering home businesses will require some sacrifices. If Hawai’i Island’s residents want to stop losing hours of their lives in traffic, they may need to pay the cost in other ways. Will they have the will to do so?

Powering Ahead – Green Energy vs Crude

by David Bowman

“Over all, rocks, wood, and water, brooded the spirit of repose, and the silent energy of nature stirred the soul to its inmost depths,” rhapsodized the landscape artist Thomas Cole in his 1835 “Essay on American Scenery.”

Of course, energy oscillates between nature and humankind and all points between. 
At the recent two-day Hawai’i Island Energy Roundtable, held at the Outrigger Waikoloa Hotel in rooms well-lit and ventilated by the harnessing of power, the energy of thought was stirring. Through slide shows and anecdotes, over coffee and pineapple, in language laced with jargon yet easily digestible, observations and predictions about the Big Island’s energy future were being made not in a spirit of repose, but of boldness.

It’s a future that’s exciting yet problematic, daunting yet achievable, playing out against the broader canvas of worldwide energy concerns. Since energy itself cannot be created or destroyed, but only transformed in the direction of entropy (so state the laws of thermodynamics), any discussion of Hawaii’s energy situation must necessarily intertwine with similar discussions elsewhere. If an oil tanker breaks up off the coast of Spain, if relaxed air-pollution rules allow for higher particulate emissions in New England, the inevitable repercussions ride the slicks and drafts to points distant. Everything is connected. Toxicity – not to mention supply and demand – knows no boundaries.

Information flowed like current at the Roundtable, which was sponsored by The Kohala Center, New Energy Partners and the Hawai’i Island Economic Development Board, with support from the County of Hawai’i. It was conducted as a community forum with E. Kyle Datta, president of the Kona-based consulting firm New Energy Partners, serving as facilitator. Participants found at their seats a handsome binder full of charts and graphs and distillations of policy, providing them a balanced view of the challenges and opportunities facing the Big Island. As the meeting progressed, former antagonists were able to hear each other’s perspectives and grasp the complexities of the issues at hand.

From the resulting collaboration, a consensus evolved around potential strategies for meeting the island’s energy needs reliably, with least cost and with minimal environmental impact, while keeping utilities financially strong – a “win-win” solution. For all of its arcana – one speaker joked about how energy lectures can be a cure for insomnia – the first day went briskly. 
Plenty has been written and said about the new energy consciousness. In a recent Los Angeles Times Op-Ed piece, actor and activist Robert Redford, long involved with solar-energy issues, ended with this clarion call: “Weaning our nation from fossil fuels should be understood as the most patriotic policy to which we can commit ourselves.” Numerous articles in a range of journals have criticized the administration’s energy and environmental directives. Folders and brochures brimming with information, produced by governments, businesses and private citizens alike, tout the benefits of an oil-free future. Some deal with supply, some with demand, others with pricing; still others talk about generation and transmission, reliability and cleanliness. And, of course, philosophy. It’s a huge realm, full of variables.

One could appreciate, hearing the Roundtable panelists and viewing their data, that the state of Hawai’i, and especially the Big Island, is an important player in the global energy game. Because of its remoteness and diversity, fragile ecology and lack of a fossil-fuel base, and because of its investment in renewable resources – listen closely to that wind outside your room – Hawai’i Island is among the leading incubators of alternative-energy technologies. And if it sometimes appears as though we’re still hopelessly wedded to petroleum products (the Bush administration’s oil-and-gas orientation, even as it pays lip service to alternative fuels, does not provide any reason for optimism), the long-term writing is on the wall. As Amory Lovins’ remarkable book “Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution” clearly attests, we are steadily and inexorably moving away from the dirty world of crude to the clean world of green. It is merely a matter of time – and resolve.

Not a lecture, a dialogue

“This roundtable is different from other roundtables,” said Datta in his welcoming remarks. “It’s not a lecture, but a dialogue.” Datta, along with fellow Roundtable panelist Joel Swisher, is one of the co-authors of the book “Small is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size”; the two of them helped craft a Viewpoint article on that very subject for this newspaper (HIJ, Nov. 16-30). Not only did Datta and Swisher play a large role at the Roundtable – they each moderated a panel discussion, and helped summarize the findings from Saturday’s wrap-up sessions – but two days later followed up with a free lecture on distributed energy at Keauhou Beach Resort. Fifty people showed up on a Monday night to hear them, which suggests that their message, touching as it does on such an integral part of daily life, really does hold currency.

The day’s first presenter, Karl Stahlkopf, senior vice president for energy solutions and chief technology officer for Hawaiian Electric Co. (HECO), was also keen on discourse: “Let’s make this a dialogue, not a monologue.” And so it began. Stahlkopf identified four challenges facing Hawai’i: keeping electricity costs competitive (Hawai’i has the highest costs in the nation), reducing dependence on imported oil (93 percent of the state’s energy is produced by hydrocarbons), managing environmental impact (energy’s “footprint”), and enhancing reliability to facilitate a digital economy (Oahu, he pointed out, already has a 51 percent Internet penetration).

All generation options, Stahlkopf said, leave Hawai’i with high energy costs; the best way to keep the state cost-competitive is to reduce its energy intensity through conservation, demand-side management (DSM), combined heat and power (CHP) and real-time pricing. In the short term, at least, reducing fossil-fuel use, while addressing the problem of CO2 emissions and global warming, could actually increase electricity costs under the state’s current regulatory polices.

“There is no one ‘silver bullet’ here in Hawai’i,” Stahlkopf said. “The challenges (economics, ecology, land use, technology) all conflict with each other. What we need to do is lower our energy intensity.” His short-term solutions: reducing that intensity through conservation, DSM and CHP; increasing the renewables portfolio (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, et al); increasing support for renewables research, including hydrogen and fuel cells; and beginning the permit process for a new thermal plant on O’ahu. Farther out, he said, these strategies will be adjusted as circumstances warrant. (HECO is involved with two ambitious projects: the proposed Hydrogen Power Park, possibly to be located at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai’i Authority (NELHA), and the Hawai’i Fuel Cell Test Facility at Kaka’ako.) Long-term, Stahlkopf wrote in the Roundtable binder, “our environment will dictate that preference be given to renewable resources and conservation as the generation option of choice for new capacity addition.

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The next panelist, Curtis Beck, customer-service manager at Hawai’i Electric Light Co. (HELCO), gave an overview of the utility’s history (it started as three separate franchises, dating to 1894), discussed its system operations (rates, supply/delivery, customer base, peak hours, service territory, etc.) and outlined what it will need to do to meet Hawai’i Island’s future electricity needs (central station plants, distributed generation (DG), renewable sources, load management). Of immediate concern, he said, is resuming construction on the CT-4 and CT-5 combustion turbines at the controversial Keahole generating plant, where work has been suspended pending legal appeals.

Beck, an engineer, was asked when the Big Island’s system will reach the breaking point. “We won’t let it,” he said, laughing. “We’re almost there, though. We need more capacity on-line. It will be a diverse mix of resources that keeps us going.” The system’s aging infrastructure, he pointed out, is vulnerable to disruption from a variety of things: distance, wind, rain, trees, geckos, termites – even Mauna Loa erupting, as inconceivable as that may seem.

According to Datta, three fundamental technical challenges confront the Big Island’s power system. First, there is an energy imbalance in West Hawai’i; most of the island’s demand is on the west side, yet only a fraction of its 290 megawatts of generation is situated in Kona. That’s a shortfall growing with every new house, which must be met by power transmitted from East Hawai’i. Second, the island’s far-flung distribution system cannot always meet this demand, raising the specter of reliability problems. The third challenge is how to incorporate a larger mix of intermittent and distributed resources that are outside the utility’s control. As if to accentuate these concerns, a major outage, caused by an independent generator tripping off-line, hit the Big Island the day of the conference.

After a break, Garry Brewer, the Frederick K. Weyerhaueser professor of resource policy and management at Yale University, moderated the panel session “Policy Options for a New Regulatory Compact.” Its focus: to alter the regulatory playing field to provide all energy companies with financial incentives to develop the most efficient and sustainable energy system. Brewer was emphatic in stressing the need for partnership: “How can we think about a world that isn’t predictable in energy matters? This isn’t command and control anymore. The public often doesn’t know what we’re doing. Open and transparent is a better way to behave. Public, private and nonprofit entities have to be more transparent. The bottom line, and I can’t state it more firmly, is that we’re all in this together.

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Richard Cowart, a regulatory expert who heads the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, noted the kinship between his small New England state and faraway Hawai’i. “We have more in common with Hawai’i than you’d think. In Vermont we have a love of the land, tough environmental challenges. We’re looking to improve our energy policies, preserving what’s best, and growing our economy.” (Another thing the states have in common: a ban on billboards, which exact their own cost in energy and aesthetics.)

What consumers and citizens really want, Cowart said, is reliable electrical service and stable, affordable bills. The challenge is to empower customers through distributed resources (e.g., efficiency, co-generation, renewables) while retaining sustainable profit margins for utilities. The critical problem, under current regulations, is that utilities profit by selling more power and have a strong financial disincentive to allow distributed resources on the market. In the Roundtable binder, Cowart wrote: “Regulators should consider policies that break the link between sales and profitability (so-called ‘decoupling’). Performance-based revenue caps (not the same as price caps) are a promising approach for breaking the sales-profitability link. They reward a firm for increases in efficiency, while making them indifferent to the volume of throughput over their wires.”

“Hawai’i is in a good position,” Cowart told the Roundtable, “to learn from the Mainland’s mistakes.”

Energy of Nature

The energy of nature was present here, and not silently. Monty Richards Jr., president of Kahua Ranch Ltd., whose Big Island roots go back several generations, spoke forcefully of the need for renewables, which, though environmentally friendly, are either expensive (biomass, geothermal), intermittent (solar, wind, hydro) or both. “Quite a few of us are in alternative energy,” he said. “Financing is tough. A lot of wind farms are ready to go. We need to change the paradigm and solve the technical problems. Renewables seem to be used here when it’s convenient.

“New things are involved, hydrogen, fuel cells and the like. Can we produce power by alternative means? Yes. The knowledge and equipment are here. The money is not here, but it’s coming.”

Hermina Morita, a member of the state House of Representatives, offered a governmental perspective. “Don’t do stupid things that hinder innovation,” she said. “Do sensible things that reward the development and adaptation of technologies that enhance, rather than degrade, the environment. In general, Hawai’i has sound energy policies, but implementation has been slow. The state must put its energy future under its own control, apart from international energy markets. Concerns need to be addressed in the context of Hawai’i's geographic isolation.
”Self-sufficiency and energy independence are difficult to achieve with barriers in place. We can’t get to the basis of hydrogen and fuel cells unless we address regulatory concerns.” Added Cowart: “Combined heat and power is one of the prime things Hawai’i should be looking for. You can’t just wave a magic wand and have it.”

Kona businessman Kelly Greenwell, whose family, like Richards’, has been in the islands for many years, reminded the conference of the essential Hawai’i: “Aesthetics is the reason people come here. We have to get our lines underground. We need to restore our agriculture – not just the food we eat, but the flowers we make, the golf courses we play on.” Indeed, though Hawaiian agriculture is no longer the economic force it once was, panelists agreed it will play a vital role in future power production.

“We need our parks to be healing facilities. We need our parks to look like Hawai’i. But what do people see when they get to Hawai’i? It looks like California,” said a Kona resident, at a meeting on an October evening at Kealakehe High School.
The meeting was one of five such gatherings, organized by the Big Island’s Democratic legislators to explore residents’ views on what needed to be done with Hawaii’s ailing state park system.

The legislators and Division of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) officials who were there that night got an earful from the public. Residents complained about drugs and vandalism, stray cats and homeless people, deteriorating facilities and filthy bathrooms, and an unresponsive bureaucracy that had allowed the parks to deteriorate and had failed even to follow up on volunteer offers to help.

“There are places so disgusting that you wouldn’t go there. You’d find a bush,” commented one resident at the Kona meeting.

Another quoted a letter from a visitor: “If I’d wanted a Third World experience, I’d have gone to Mexico. It’s cheaper.”

According to freshman State Representative Cindy Evans, the public meetings had their origin in a monthly discussion group that she and the other Big Island Democratic legislators had formed, shortly after the start of the legislative session. One issue that all of the legislators had been hearing about from their constituents, Evans said, was the deteriorating condition of the state parks. They decided to do something about it.

“In anything, you build teams, and this was one of these things that said if we build a team…maybe we’ll have a united voice within our own Democratic caucus,” said Evans.
On December 1, 2003, the island’s majority delegation released a report based on what the public had told them.

“Generally speaking, the overwhelming sentiment was that Big Island State Parks are in a sad condition of disrepair and in dire need of attention,” the report declared. “Not only were specific projects identified, but a clear indication was expressed by many community-minded organizations that they were anxiously willing and ready to volunteer their time and energy to assist with the improvements.”

The report recommended specific improvements for each state park on the island. It also stated that better working relationships needed to be developed between the legislature and the state bureaucracy, and between DLNR and volunteer groups. To implement those changes, says the report, “Legislators are working with concerned citizens and Parks Division personnel to develop a strategy to improve our Big Island State Parks.” That strategy, the report suggested, could also “serve as a model for communities in neighboring islands to examine.”

What the Public Wants

Better interpretive signage (or, in some cases, any signage at all) was suggested for every park on the island. Residents also generally wanted better cooperation between the DLNR’s State Parks Division and community volunteers.

“A common theme expressed at every community meeting by dedicated organizations and individuals was an enthusiastic willingness to volunteer services, time and energy to repair and maintain park facilities in desperate need of care,” noted the report. “As park users, they are very aware of the specific improvements necessary and have offered creative ideas as to how they would collaboratively work with government to achieve common goals.” But the report also noted that “many stated their frustration because their offers of assistance most often went unheeded while facilities continued to fall into greater states of disrepair.”

The DLNR’s State Parks Division has ” Adopt a Park” and ” Curatorship” programs for volunteers. But the report noted that the division seemed to lack a ‘friendly and easy’ process for volunteers to channel their efforts to improve parks.”

Participants at the meeting also offered specific suggestions for improving individual parks.
Some of those suggestions are summarized below:

Akaka Falls: Honomu community members wanted cell phones for volunteers to help keep watch on the park, which encompasses two waterfalls and a walking path mauka of their Hamakua village. Like residents all over the island, they wanted better maintenance of the park’s public restrooms. The restrooms at Honomu also need to be more accessible to persons with disabilities.

Hapuna Beach: The Journal reported on the deteriorating state of facilities at Hapuna last July. (See “Slumming at Hapuna Beach” in the archives section at hawaiiislandjournal.com) Participants at the legislators’ public meetings also expressed serious concerns about the park’s condition.

Again, bathroom maintenance was a problem. Residents suggested stainless steel fixtures, which withstood vandalism better. They wanted enforcement of parking provisions for the disabled, and asked that the DLNR work with volunteers to “upgrade and maintain” the landscaping and renovate the camping area’s decrepit cabins. They wanted “road and parking improvements” at the Wailea Beach area, south of the main beach at Hapuna.

Kalopa: Suggestions for the forest park in mauka Hamakua included road improvements, including a bus turnaround area, and a survey to determine the park’s exact boundary (the 100-acre park exists within a larger state forest reserve, and trails from the park extend into other parts of the reserve). Again, residents suggested that the DLNR work with volunteer organizations on park maintenance and improvement projects, including the removal of alien plant species and the blazing and maintenance of trails.

Kealakekua Bay: Residents have long complained about poor policing and lack of sanitary facilities in the area around the Captain Cook monument, which historically was a dwelling-place for Hawaiian ali’i. Participants at the legislators’ meetings asked for a long-range development plan for Kealakekua Bay State Historic Park and for more coordination between state agencies in improving the Napo’opo’o pier, regulating kayaks landing at the Captain Cook monument, and regulating activities in Kealakekua Bay’s Marine Life Conservation District.

Kekahakai: Residents wanted the DLNR to “focus on educational opportunities” at Mahaiula Beach, the sprawling crescent of sand where the ill-fated “Wind on Water” television series was once centered at Kekahakai State Park north of the Kona Airport. (The old Magoon family beach house, which served as a backdrop for Bo Derek during the series, has long been slated to become an educational center). Residents also suggested replacing the area’s “porta-potties” with composting toilets. They also noted that funds had already been voted to create composting toilets for the area, but that the funding had never been released. They wanted more cultural and historical interpretation area.

Kumukahi: This state-owned area next to Kapoho Bay in Puna is not an official state park. But residents brought it up anyway, because it is heavily used by local campers. Composting toilets were suggested for the area.

Lava Tree: Lava Tree State Park, in lower Puna, has been the site of a controversial effort to control coqui frogs by removing alien vegetation and spraying with citric acid, then replanting with native plants. According to the legislator’s report, the community suggested coordinating volunteer efforts with the State Department of Agriculture’s coqui control program – although in fact, such coordination has already been happening between the state parks and community groups such as Malama O Puna. The report also suggested that state agencies “encourage continued work with volunteers to implement improvements including landscaping, painting of restrooms.

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MacKenzie: This isolated ironwood grove on the Red Road in Lower Puna is the district’s only public park with designated camping. But it has long been under-used, in part because of an evil reputation; at least one camper was murdered there. That happened decades ago, but residents are still asking for better security in the area. They also found the park’s sanitary facilities lacking, and suggested a “safe and adequate” catchment system, and perhaps composting toilets, to help address the issue.

Manuka: In addition to better signage and ADA improvements, this roadside park in the Manuka Natural Area Reserve, near Ocean View, “could use more and better trails and better interpretation of important natural resources,” according to the report, which suggested that state officials should coordinate with the Natural Area Reserve Commission and Na Ala Hele, a statewide organization devoted to trail issues.

Mauna Kea: Mauna Kea State Recreation Area’s cabins currently sit unused and virtually abandoned, judged unsafe by the State Department of Health because of water supply problems.

“Consider yourself lucky not to be staying there,” grumps one travel web site in the wake of the cabins’ closure. The legislators’ meetings brought protests from irate hunters and campers who did use the remote park on the Saddle Road. It also brought offers from pig hunters and others to work with the state on solutions to the water problem. 
Based on that input, the legislators’ report recommended that ways be found to “restore the cabins for rental use by the general public with [a] portion of the fees being returned to the park where generated for repair and maintenance. The legislators also called for state officials to “work with able and willing volunteers to upgrade [the] water system and cabins.” 
Old Kona Airport: Kona’s premier urban park sparked a spirited debate about whether it was even in the right hands.

“The state manages areas that are of significant scenic, natural and resource value,” explained State Parks Administrator Dan Quinn at the Kona meeting. The county, he noted, tended to do more purely recreational facilities, such as tennis courts, playgrounds and gymnasiums.
Old Kona, of course, shares both values. The legislators’ final report suggested that the state “work with the county to develop [a] better plan for shared use and oversight.”
The report also suggested changing the park’s name to ” the proper Hawaiian name for the area,” emphasizing pedestrian over vehicular traffic, and addressing the problem of the park’s burgeoning feral cat population.

Wailoa: This most urban of state parks, located in the tsunami zone where a Japanese neighborhood and part of downtown Hilo once stood, drew a host of suggestions. Again, the report recommended that the state work with volunteers on repair projects, including a burned pavilion. Again, restroom conditions were potent issues. Stainless steel fixtures were again recommended to reduce vandalism. The report included suggestions to increase enforcement and to close the park at night to reduce crime, and to “work with appropriate agencies to assist [the] homeless.” The report also passed on a suggestion that the state build a sailboat ramp at adjacent Wailoa Small Boat Harbor.

Wailuku: Pi’ihonua Houselots Community Association volunteers have already been working on landscaping at this two-part park, which includes the Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots on the Wailuku River, mauka of downtown Hilo. In addition to interpretive signage, residents suggested better safety signs along the river’s high cliffs and dangerous rapids. They also wanted “infrastructure improvements” including picnic tables, shade trees and restrooms.

Who was Left Out?

Two groups of park users who didn’t get much space in the final report were Native Hawaiians and the homeless. But both groups had their advocates at the meetings. Native Hawaiians chastised state officials for the mismanagement of their ancestral land and challenged the state’s right to manage it at all. One participant suggested that every park should have its own Hawaiian cultural center.

Some Native Hawaiians were also among those who brought up the issue of one of the park system’s unofficial but ubiquitous uses: the warehousing of the homeless. 
Park officials admit having little reliable data on the extent of the parks’ underground homeless population – a fact that makes the problem both harder to manage and easier to ignore. But residents fear the problem will get worse, as Kona’s skyrocketing land prices displace more and more of its kama’aina population. The state’s sporadic attempts at removing the homeless from the parks has only driven the problem elsewhere.

“The local people no can pay the price of that little piece of paradise,” one meeting participant testified. ” Most of us, we stay houseless, all down south. We got evicted.”

What Will the Public Get?

State officials also used the meetings to communicate their side to the public. Some of that news was positive: the state, for instance, has finally allocated money to repair Hapuna State Park’s deteriorating restrooms. But officials also complained about scanty resources and pled to the public for help.

“We want you to understand our problems as much as we need to understand yours,” one official told the crowd at the Kona meeting. ” …We are already overwhelmed. We are understaffed.”

Officials also noted that a huge portion of available funds in upcoming years would have to be spent on mandated improvements to the parks’ sewage systems – most park restrooms currently operate with only cesspools – and on ramps and other facilities to bring the parks into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Given those demands, legislators may be able to deliver on only part of the report’s recommendations voting more money.

“We are 49th [among U.S. states] in the number of people, 45th in budget, and 15th in visitor level,” noted one participant at the Kona meeting. Underfunded state park officials, sharing the burden of all those visitors, can only look in envy at the tens of millions that the Hawai’i Tourism Authority spends each year to advertise Hawai’i tourist attractions, including some of its state parks, putting an even heavier burden on their unraveling infrastructure. 
That’s one reason, says Evans, why she introduced a resolution calling on the Tourism Authority to work with the DLNR on state park issues.

“They promote Akaka Falls, Hapuna Beach, Punalu’u . . .” she observes. “I wanted them to step in and say why they weren’t at the table talking about it, too.

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Evans’ resolution died in committee. But some relief has come from a 2002 bill that forces the HTA to spend some of its Transient Accommodations Tax revenues on maintaining the natural environment in areas frequented by visitors, if those revenues rise above $63.292 million. This year, that provision gave the DLNR about $900,000 to spend statewide on parks and trails – including the funding to finally do something about Hapuna Beach’s decrepit restrooms.
But the state parks remain poor stepchildren in a system that seems to favor promoting tourist businesses over preserving the natural beauty on that tourists come to see. With only limited funding available, say state officials, parks often suffer from prioritization. One DLNR representative at the Kona meeting noted that if he had to choose between saving an endangered species or repairing a bathroom, the restroom might wait, but the species could be gone forever.

The DLNR is also looking at alternate funding sources, such as privatized campgrounds at Hapuna Beach and Mauna Kea State Park. But the public meetings underscored another important, underutilized resource: volunteerism. Some meeting participants worried about whether a profit-driven concessionaire would have a built-in bias toward maximizing fees and profits and minimizing expenditures on park maintenance. One resident pointed out that the state had tried a concessionaire at Hapuna once before, in the 1980s, but that the park had simply continued to deteriorate.

Given those budget realities, any improvement in the state parks’ current state may depend on how effectively the bureaucracy can implement one of the report’s major demands: to develop better ties with volunteer groups. That obvious conclusion led some meeting participants to wonder why their offers were not followed up on in the past.

“What I thought was a big strong message across the board, is that people love the parks and they’re willing to help out,” Evans believes.

She also thinks that the public meetings accomplished something, if only by giving the state bureaucrats who attended a chance to hear public concerns directly. “It was a good opportunity for them to kind of hear what we’re hearing,” she believes.

State Parks Administrator Quinn failed to respond to repeated requests from the Journal for an interview after the public meetings. But at least some DLNR officials seem to have gotten the message.

“It has to be a community effort,” said Hawai’i Island parks administrator Glenn Taguchi at the Kona meeting. “We can’t leave it to the state to take care of the parks by itself.”