Gate-gate I: Recently, access over land controlled by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority (NELHA) has become a cause celèbre. In July, NELHA director Ron Baird announced that at the end of the month, he would be closing the main gate into the facility after business hours on weekdays and throughout the weekend, citing the lapse of NELHA’s contract with a private security service. The road, which joins Queen Ka`ahumanu Highway about a mile south of the Kona airport turnoff, provides the only access to a state beach park and (until August) to a popular surf area known as Pine Trees.

Gate-gate II: Tsuji’s words were mild compared to the tongue-lashings administered to an absent Baird at a meeting a month later, called to discuss Baird’s abrupt closure of the jeep trail to Pine Trees. According to published reports, Soli Niheu of Waimea said Baird “needs to put his right hand on his left ear and his left hand on his right ear and pull his head out” of …. – to the cheers of a crowd estimated at between 400 and 700 residents from across the Big Island. Many others called for Baird’s resignation – or firing.

A Correction: Our September article, “Marine, Native Forest Bird and Plant Habitats Will All Suffer Under Climate Change Scenarios,” erroneously identified the chlorophyll concentrations in dead zones found in the Pacific Ocean. The correct figure should have been less than 0.07 mg of carbon per cubic meter, not 0.7 as stated in the article.