A thousand dollars a day. That’s roughly what the state has been spending for the last eight years for rent on a vacant one-acre lot at Ma`alaea Harbor, more than double the original lease rent of $150,400 negotiated in 1994. … Continued
After all the evidence and expert testimony presented during the Na Wai `Eha contested-case hearings in 2007 and 2008 on the minimum flows necessary to protect stream habitats and other instream values, which numbers did the state Commission on Water … Continued
If they dream – and who is to say they don’t? – Hawaiian gobies (o`opu) would certainly dream of free-flowing streams, of cool riffles and shaded, still pools. This, after all, is the habitat in which they evolved over millennia. … Continued
Earthjustice attorneys have sued the Maui Department of Water Supply over its acceptance of a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for a plant that would treat surface water collected from Central Maui streams and pipe it into the DWS system, … Continued
Leaving a few East Maui streams largely intact when Central Maui is wet, but robbing them of all but thin, sometimes disconnected, ribbons of water when it’s dry does not, in commissioner Lawrence Miike’s eyes, meet the state Commission … Continued
Former state Department of Health director Lawrence Miike, a physician and a lawyer, is the longest-serving member of the state Commission on Water Resource Management and was the lone dissenter in the commission’s recent decisions to amend the interim … Continued
When it comes to marine mammals in the Pacific, there is no shortage of crises. Tour operations are rousing spinner dolphins from their rest, fishing gear is hooking and entangling whales, and young monk seals in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands … Continued
Last month, Environment Hawai`i sat down with three of the editors of Conservation Biology of Hawaiian Forest Birds: Implications for Island Avifauna, to discuss issues raised in the book (published in November by Yale University Press). Here are excerpts from that interview, conducted by … Continued
Thane Pratt, Carter Atkinson, Paul Banko, James Jacobi, and Bethany Woodworth, eds. Conservation Biology of Hawaiian Forest Birds: Implications for Island Avifauna. Yale University Press, 2009. 728 pages. $85.00 (hardcover) If Hawai`i lost its remaining native forest birds, plenty of birds would … Continued
New Penalty Guidelines for Kealakekua Bay The state Board of Land and Natural Resources has approved new civil penalty guidelines for “minor” violations at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawai`i. For years, the state has struggled to control the … Continued