Construction of a North-South road cutting through the DLNR’s Golden Triangle property in `Ewa has been planned for years. The 2.2-mile, six-lane road would connect the H-1 freeway to Kapolei Parkway, and would link people who lived in `Ewa to places of employment in Kapolei.
No money has been appropriated for the project yet, but when built, the road will destroy colonies of the endangered plant ko`oloa`ula (Abutilon menzeisii), also called red `ilima.
As a mitigation measure, the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawai`i (HCDCH) and the state Department of Transportation, in coordination with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Department of Land and Natural Resources, are working on a Habitat Conservation Plan to protect the plants.
In the meantime, a number of plants have already been destroyed by farming, maintenance, clean-up, urban development and recreational motorcycle activities, according to DLNR records.
The Division of Forestry and Wildlife, under an agreement with HCDCH, is managing the Abutilon menziesii populations. In January, it discovered four destroyed plants on state property that was being cultivated by Aloun Farm.
Upon further investigation, DLNR found that public access to the area is difficult to control. A “No Trespassing” sign fronts a gate to Aloun Farm’s makai acreage, but the gate is often wide open.
In a March 9, 2001, report to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the DLNR’s Land Division staff acknowledged that Sou was “given wrong instructions on where he could cultivate” and had not been educated as to what the plants looked like and where they were. Only a short time earlier had the division itself been made aware of the plants and until that time, it had proposed to issue Aloun Farms a permit to farm the area that contained the highest concentration of Abutilon menzeisii. To avoid disturbing the colony, the Land Division changed the locations of where Aloun could farm.
— Teresa Dawson
Volume 12, Number 1 July 2001
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