December 2008

Little Ant, Big Problem: It’s only a sixteenth of an inch long, but don’t underestimate the punch it packs. The little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata) was first found on the Big Island in 1999. Although a quarantine was placed on … Continued

How high, exactly, will the bar be? One of the first requirements needed to carry out Hawai`i’s pioneering greenhouse-gas regulation law was to develop a benchmark for future regulation. Under the law – Act 234 of the 2007 Legislature – … Continued

“We’re getting out of land resource policy into energy policy,” Hawai`i Island Land Board member Rob Pacheco said at the board’s October 10 meeting. Ever since the state Legislature passed Act 145 earlier this year to allow the Department of … Continued

For the most part, the National Marine Fisheries Service agrees with the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council’s proposed rule changes for Hawai`i’s shallow-set longline swordfish fishery, and based on the council’s recommendations, the service is expected to announce new rules … Continued

Do the interests of national security trump those of the environment? In a nutshell, that is the question that was posed to the U.S. Supreme Court as it considered the challenge of the U.S. Navy to two conditions of a … Continued

The long-stalled development of more than a thousand acres near Puako, on the island of Hawai`i, was dealt a setback by the Hawai`i County Planning Board of Appeals at its meeting last month. The owner of the land, Bridge Puako, … Continued