Interested in seeing water restored to diverted streams to protect stream life or asserting your rights as a Native Hawaiian or taro farmer? Don’t expect the state Water Commission to have a ready answer. Over the past year, staff with … Continued
What a difference a decade makes, yes? No, actually. When it comes to the Commission on Water Resource Management, time seems to have stood still in the nine years since state auditor Marion Higa published a scathing report on the … Continued
In 1996, state auditor Marion Higa found that the administrative rules of the Commission on Water Resource Management “do not address native Hawaiian water rights,” whether they are appurtenant and surface water rights (most wetland taro growers have appurtenant water … Continued
How useful is a planning document that takes so long to complete that by the time it’s finished, it’s hopelessly outdated? That is the question that needs to be asked and answered by the Commission on Water Resource Management as … Continued
Want to know how much of the taxpayer’s dollar goes to fuel the state’s Natural Areas Reserves System? Maybe you’re interested in the state’s level of support for commercial versus recreational fishing, the development of forest products, or maintenance and … Continued
“The question comes down to one of pub lic access versus the protection of the resource.” That was the consensus of the `Ahihi-Kin‘au-Keone‘o‘io Advisory Group at its November 16, 2004, meeting, where the group voted 8 to 1 to advise … Continued
Remembering A Giant: News of the passing of Hampton Carson last December was greeted with sadness by members of Hawai‘i’s environmental community. Carson, an emeritus professor of genetics at the University of Hawai‘i, had done path-breaking research into the evolu … Continued
“We’re talking about at most five or six streams out of the 110 that they’re diverting right now,” Moses Haia explained to contested case hearing officer E. John McConnell. For years, Haia and his fellow attorneys at the Native Hawaiian … Continued
While most of the legal attention on the problem of turtle bycatch in the Hawai`i longline fleet has focused on the take of turtles by boats targeting swordfish, the number of turtles taken by vessels targeting tuna saw a dramatic … Continued
Most of us will never have the opportunity to visit these two small islands at the southern end of the Northwestern Hawaiian archipelago, but a book just published by Bishop Museum Press allows those interested in the islands’ history, culture, … Continued