Posted 04/24/2014 The long and acrimonious dispute over ownership of the Haleakala Trail has been decided. On April 23, a jury determined that the state of Hawai`i does indeed own the six-foot-wide trail extending from Makawao up to Haleakala crater. … Continued
Posted 12/30/2013 The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing a change in fishing regulations that would make permanent what has been a year-to-year rule allowing Hawai`i-based longliners to exceed the annual catch limits on bigeye tuna imposed by the Western … Continued
(Posted December 23, 2013) The Land Use Commission’s approval of a controversial O`ahu housing development known as Koa Ridge has been tossed out by the state Supreme Court. In an opinion written by Associate Justice Paula A. Nakayama and signed … Continued
Posted 08/30/2013 The National Marine Fisheries Service has determined that removing North Pacific humpback whales from the federal endangered species list may be warranted. That’s according to an August 29 Federal Register notice in which the NMFS announced the initiation of … Continued
(Posted 8/8/13) Shawn Smith is scheduled to attend Friday’s meeting of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources as the board’s representative from Kaua`i. But with the state Senate having met last Tuesday in a special session, in which … Continued
Posted 07/29/2013 To the surprise of probably no one, scientists at the University of Hawai`i have determined, once and for all, that indeed, there is a link between the treated wastewater from the Lahaina sewage treatment plant and nearshore water … Continued
Posted 07/11/2013 U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi has determined that Kaua`i County’s limit on new transient accommodation units – or TAUs – is the result of “an improper zoning initiative and … is invalid.” Kobayashi made the ruling in … Continued
Posted 07/03/2013 Readers of this space may recall that at a June 13 board “briefing” on proposed fishing rules for Maui, Lana`i and Hawai`i island, Board of Land and Natural Resources chair William Aila announced he had removed from the proposed … Continued
Posted June 18, 2013 Construction work on the Hu Honua power plant just north of Hilo has pretty well come to a halt — the result, apparently, of a dispute between unions representing boilermakers, on the one hand, and plumbers … Continued
Posted 06/14/2013 Back in 1997, Environment Hawai`i and Common Cause Hawai`i sued the Board of Land and Natural Resources for holding “briefings” (meetings by any other name) where public testimony was not allowed to be given. We won and the Land … Continued