Irradiator Loan Guarantee: The irradiation facility once proposed for land near the Honolulu airport, and now proposed to be built in central O`ahu, has moved forward to the point where it is working out details of financing. Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Cooperative Service published a notice announcing it was considering Pa`ina Hawai`i’s application for a loan guarantee to build the “agricultural products processing facility” at Kunia Village, site of the former Del Monte Plantation.

Shearwater Nesting Surges: At windswept Mo`omomi, The Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i has boosted the wedge-tailed shearwater population by clearing dense stands of kiawe that have invaded large portions of the sand dunes.

A gated access and roadside railing prevent vehicles from damaging the dunes in which the birds burrow, and since 1999, the conservancy has overseen the removal of nine acres of kiawe. It has also trapped more than 1,000 cats and mongoose, as well as a few dozen rats.

Rare Plant Patrol: After more than a decade as state botanist, Vickie Caraway is leaving the Department of Land and Natural Resources to join the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

And at what would be her last Natural Area Reserves System Commission meeting last November, Caraway, who created the DLNR’s lauded Plant Extinction Prevention Program, urged conservation agencies to put more effort into monitoring and managing rare plant populations.