Blog
News, updates, finds, stories, and tidbits from staff and community members at KAHEA. Got something to share? Email us at: kahea-alliance@hawaii.rr.com.
Where there's youth, there's hope
From Marti:
The Ho‘ike for the second graduating class of Ka Makani Kaiaulu o Wai‘anae that was held last friday totally renewed my internal spring of hope for the future of Hawai‘i. Ten young people with nothing in common, but their home along the Wai‘anae Coast, came together to learn about the history and power of social justice movements in Hawai‘i and around the world… and they got to participate in a little movement building themselves.
“Waianae needs more voices,” the returning institute student added. “A lot of people are affected by what’s going on but don’t do anything about it. It’s like an ongoing unfinished project. … We are just trying to do our part and along the way we are learning so much about Waianae, the cultural history, and the impact we can have on our future; not just in the community but the whole world if we do something.”
KAHEA staff had the honor of working with this youth during this summer program. We helped with some of the curriculum and encouraged them to participate in the LUC hearing on the Concerned Elders’ Petition to Intervene in the reclassification of ag land for an industrial park.
These students are an inspiration. Smart, compassionate, and full of possibility. The hope is to continue this program next summer or maybe even expand it into a year-long program. To do that, though, would mean a lot of community support and financial backing. If you are interested in donating to this program, click here.
Here is a link to the full story on the Ho‘ike in The Hawaii Independent.
You Don't Know What You Don't Know
From Shelley:
This past Saturday, a small group of determined “door knockers” set out to give a heads up to residents on Hakimo Road in Lualualei about a proposed industrial park planned in their neighborhood of small farms and homes. Of all the 30 or so people we talked to, not a single person had heard about or been notified of these plans to industrialize the valley.
I have to admit, I was nervous going into a rural community knocking on doors, but everyone was really nice. They were thankful we came by because otherwise they would have never known that an industrial park is being proposed. Of course it helped being with Aunty Alice Greenwood, who everyone knows, and it felt good to hear people express their gratitude for her determination to fight. Those kind words are important to me because I’m always wary to get into other people’s business–knowing that we have their blessing and request to move forward tells me that we’re on the right path!
One thing that really tugged at my heartstrings was meeting more than one family that lost their farm in the Kalama Valley evictions in the 1970s. These families relocated to Wai`anae and 35 years later are again facing the displacement of their family business and rural lifestyle- -from some of the same developers!
For rural Hakimo Road, the developer’s own numbers cites an additional 522 trucks an hour during peak hours! I don’t even know how that is possible, but that figure comes directly out of their EIS report. The only legal access to the property is rural Hakimo Road. (Though the proposed site is actually on Lualualei Naval Road, this private road requires an agreement with the Navy for regular access. Our calls to the Navy have confirmed that no such agreement exists!)
If you have ever been on Hakimo Road you will know that 1) there are NO sidewalks, 2) it is narrow and winding, and 3) is already dangerous at the current traffic level, let alone with the addition of over 500 big trucks! One resident pointed out to us, “Go walk up and down, you’ll see flowers at almost every turn marking all the accidents!”–it was so sad, she was right. There’s a preschool on this road and many residents are worried about the health and safety of the kamalii (little ones) who go to school there.
Can you imagine if this was going on in your neighborhood? You can sign here to stand in solidarity with this community!
Come Talkstory - Shoreline Fishing Issues at Ka‘ena - June 27th
From Marti:
On Sunday June 27th starting at about 2:00 pm, fishers and ‘ohana will be gathering in Waiawa to discuss issues surrounding the management of Ka‘ena Point on O‘ahu. (Click to see map)
Located at the most northwest point of O‘ahu, Ka‘ena is one of the last relatively wild shorelines left on the island. It is a beloved fishing spot for many families, a spiritual pathway into the afterlife, and a refuge for endangered birds.
Its extreme weather and remote location helped to limit development, though it has suffered its share of urban burdens, including train tracks, military training, and most recently mud-bogging and uncontrolled bonfires.
As you may already know, Ka‘ena has been the focus of many regulatory attempts over the years. Most of these past efforts have met with failure due to lack of community support. Here is a link to the long list of abandoned management schemes at Ka‘ena.
With a brand of tenacity unique to state government, once again, the community faces a new management plan developed by staff at the Department of Land and Natural Resources with only selected input from community members. The state needs a new management plan because Ka‘ena will likely be highlighted as one of O‘ahu’s wilderness camping areas under DLNR’s new “Recreational Renaissance.” Recreational Renaissance is just a nifty name for another scheme to raise money from the use of state land in a wide range of not-always-compatible ways, including the collection various permit and entry fees to state parks. A draft of the state’s plan for Ka‘ena will be open for general public comment at a hearing in late July.
In anticipation of this meeting and in response to many complaints about state management, shoreline fishers from around O‘ahu are gathering at a farm in Waiawa on June 27th to talk about the many issues facing this community. The recent trend in harassment of fishers by DLNR enforcement officers and HPD has led many to forego fishing the way their families have for generations. This is related to current state regulations that limit the longstanding practice of over-night fishing and current proposals to impose new permitting requirements on shoreline fishers. Click here to visit a blog specific to Ka‘ena management issues.
This is a tough issue to grapple with. For me, I think the disconnect was said best by one lifelong fisherman from Waipahu:
“Why you imposing fees on me, when I only can catch enough to feed my family, but you do nothing, nothing to prevent the massive fish takes by these commercial guys, who come in here just when the fish start to run and take the whole school one time?”
If you are interested in learning more about shoreline fishing issues on O‘ahu and want to connect with the local fishing community, please contact Summer at 753-4221/ culturalpractice@gmail.com to RSVP for the public meeting on June 27th at 2pm in Waiawa. She asks that you bring own chairs.
Preliminary Victory in Long Battle to Save Farmland
From Marti:
The first preliminary hearing in the whole purple spot saga was held on May 20th before the Land Use Commission. The Land Use Commission met to decide whether the Environmental Impact Statement is complete for Tropic Land’s proposal to turn 96 acres of fertile farm land into an industrial park at the back of Lualualei Valley (the industrial park is the purple spot).
All six commissioners present agreed that the EIS is complete, but some of them made clear that based on the public testimony presented they had serious concerns about the proposal itself.
Testimony presented to the Land Use Commission alleged that Tropic Land, LLC is operating an unauthorized truck baseyard on agricultural land and has illegally mined pohaku from a known ancient Hawaiian cultural site.
“At least 85% of the farmland has been covered with asphalt,” said one eye-witness.
Activities like storage of trucks, and vehicle repair and maintenance are not allowed on land zoned for agricultural use. Waianae Coast residents said they filed complaints with both the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Enforcement Branch and the City and County of Honolulu.
Tropic Land, LLC has been cited on at least three other occasions for engaging in activities on the Lualualei property that were not consistent with its agricultural classification.
Pictures also documented the mining of stones on preservation land adjoining the Tropic Land parcel. Cultural surveys conducted on the parcel in the 1990’s confirm that this stones comprised a substantial, culturally significant platform.
A Nanakuli resident testified that ¾ of the substantial stone platform had been removed and some of the stones were used to make a sacred place to reinter Hawaiian burials exhumed by Wal-Mart on Keaaumoku Street. Tropic Land, LLC did not have authorization from the State Historic Preservation Division to remove stones from this site.
Tropic Land, LLC was before the Land Use Commission to change the classification of their Lualualei Valley property from agricultural to urban, in order to allow them to construct an industrial park on the property.
The Land Use Commission accepted Tropic Land, LLC’s final environmental impact statement for the industrial park proposal, but not before voicing concerns about the testimony presented by the public.
Holding up a picture of trucks parked behind a fence on the Tropic Land parcel, Commissioner Contrades asked Tropic Land’s attorney William Yuen, “is this correct?” Mr. Yuen said he had not seen the photograph, but that the property is not paved and trucks are not being stored on the property at this time.
Commissioner Wong asked Yuen a series of questions to clarify that acceptance of the EIS did not in anyway demonstrate support for or ensure approval of the project.
Commissioner Teves requested that the Commission perform a site visit to “see the so-called commercial use of the property in its present form, to see if it is true or not.”
What does this mean for the future of the purple spot?
It means that the formal one-year process to decide whether to rezone this part of Lualualei Valley from ag to urban has started. The hearing on the actual rezoning decision will be held on September 9, 2010 at 9:30 before the Land Use Commission.
It also means that the developer will have a very hard time arguing that this industrial park proposal is consistent with Waianae’s Community Sustainability Plan, since the current has no purple spot allowing for industrialization of this area… and the amended one with the purple spot has not been adopted by the Honolulu City Council. In fact, staff at the city said they don’t expect the Waianae Community Sustainability Plan to come before the Council the Fall of 2010.
A little explanation.
From Miwa:
I wrote the little explanation below the other day to Uncle Bill Aila, Jr. in response to an email from him. Though it was written for him, I thought I would share it here on our blog, as others may have questions about KAHEA’s support of Na Koa and Koani Foundation in their request for intervention on World Heritage Site designation for the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands:
First and foremost, KAHEA fully supports legal protections promulgated in the State Refuge and the Monument, including the prohibition on commercial fishing within 50 miles of the islands. We believe deeply in a vision of full conservation of the NWHI, as it represents a significant place of refuge for cultural practice, for native endangered species, and for some of the last predator-dominated reefs remaining on the planet.
However, as you know well (!), we have had, and continue to have, some deep concerns about management in the NWHI by the state and feds. Including:
1) Lack of meaningful prioritization for activities in the NWHI, or of analysis of cumulative impacts (taking into account past activity–including legacy over-exploitation and military activity)
2) Weak and disorganized permitting – “unified” permit process not really very unified in implementation
3) No enforcement plan, failure to push for accountability/mitigations/appropriate limits on military activity in the NWHI
4) Lack of funding/focus on cultural access or study
5) No public advisory entity established for Monument and limited venues/opportunities for public participation on decision-making
6) Lack of collaboration: Monument Management Board has not met in nearly six months? Multi-agency commitment to integrated ecosystem management getting lost on turf wars.
At the heart of this, is an exhibited inability for the co-trustees to collaborate effectively. Officials on the Federal side have acknowledged “some deep conflicts” which the Federal agencies are “struggling to resolve.” Though many are eager to take credit for the protections in place for the NWHI, implementation has lacked the political will to “make it work.”
We support Na Koa and Koani Foundation in their request for intervention for the following reasons:
In many communities, the decision to pursue a WHS designation comes only after years of conversation, debate, struggle and consultation. We are concerned that Native Hawaiian consultation on the WHS proposal was indeed inadequate, conveying unified support, when this is not in fact the case.
Further, World Heritage designation does not offer any additional enforceable protections for the NWHI. Indeed, over 30 World Heritage Sites are currently threatened with de-listing, due to poor management by those in charge, including the Belize Barrier Reef System and the Galapagos Islands. In an article written this past February, Goldman Prize winner John Sinclair heavily criticized Australian officials for neglecting conservation management for his beloved Fraser Island following its World Heritage designation, in favor of facility upgrades, and recreation management (e.g. widening roads) at the expense of “natural resource management, — environmental monitoring of wildlife and ecosystems, fire management, weed control, and quarantine.”
In many cases, this designation is used to promote tourism to a site (See http://www.expedia.com/daily/sustainable_travel/world_heritage/default.asp), which ironically increases the tourism impacts to the site intended for protection.
What World Heritage designation does offer is prestige and publicity. Prestige and publicity is not a need for the NWHI, as a great deal of public attention has already been placed on the protection of the NWHI. Indeed, a TIME magazine’s feature Earth Day article (Bryan Walsh) on oceans just last week noted NWHI protections as hopeful action in an otherwise pretty dismal picture of world-wide ocean resources management.
What is needed is not more attention or prestige. What is needed is accountable, integrated and cooperative management that puts the resource and the rightholders first.
Let’s do that–let’s get there–and we’ll have a place that can really be held up as an example to the world of how ocean conservation that strongly protects cultural practice can be done well. This is our hope, and vision ahead of our efforts.
A tale of two cities?
A tale of two cities? One protected, one destroyed. Comments were due today on a proposal to protect 1,500 arces of a rare leeward koa forest on Maui. The Nakula NAR is a small, but important subset of the huge Kahikinui Forest Reserve. It is home to rare native plants and trees… what is more important is — if protected — this area will become home to many, many more species unique to Hawaii. A restored, thriving community. See our comments on the Nakula NAR.
At the same time on the same island in the ahupua’a right next door, developers propose to build 1,400 homes, a golf course, and a shopping mall over a rare dryland forest. The Wailea 670 project would threaten 20 native species and desecrate multiple inter-connected sites of cultural signficance. Public comments are now being taken on the Environmental Impact Statement for the Wailea 670 project in South Maui. To learn more and submit comments, visit www.savemakena.org/wailea.
Action Alert: Save East Maui Streams!
From our friends at NHLC:
The State Water Commission meets on May 19, 2010 May 26th (UPDATE: Date change!) to act on the latest round of petitions by East Maui residents seeking to restore stream flow to 19 East Maui streams, when HC&S is WASTING water being diverted. Na Moku Aupuni O Ko`olau Hui is seeking restoration so the fish, o`opu, hihiwai, and o`opu can return to those streams and support the constitutionally-protected cultural practices of Hawaiians.
Without doubt, A&B/HC&S is wasting water. The Water Commission has already concluded that it uses 70% more water than it should in the wet season and 40% more water than it should during the dry season. Moreover, unless this Water Commission demands that they do more, A&B/HC&S’ leaky irrigation system and poor maintenance practices will continue wasting this valuable resource, because the State only charges this sugar plantation less than ¼ of a penny per thousand gallons, discouraging any conservation while depleting the State of fair market value for the use of this invaluable resource (collected from 33,000 acres of ceded lands, or about $4.84 per acre per year).
Learn more, see the flyer
Click to see more detailed information at CWRM website on Na Moku Aupuni O Ko`olau’s petitions to restore 27 East Maui Streams now dewatered by Alexander and Baldwin, Inc. and its Maui subsidiaries, Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company and East Maui Irrigation Company.
What you can do:
Please keep those letters to the editor going, leading to this Water Commission action meeting on whether to restore 19 East Maui streams. We are starting to see some really intelligent responses to the A&B/HC&S propaganda.
You can write to the editors of your daily papers:
Maui News: Use form at: http://vnr.oweb.net/vnr/add_submission.asp?categoryID=769&publicationID=110
Honolulu Advertiser:
E-mail: letters@honoluluadvertiser.com
Fax: (808) 535-2415
Online: Use online form: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/form/op/letters
Honolulu Star Bulletin:
Email to: letters@starbulletin.com
Fax: (808) 529-4750
Click to see latest CWRM agenda information for most recent information on where the May 19 meeting will be held and at what time.
Questions? Contact either Camille Kalama (cakalam@nhlchi.org) or Alan Murakami (almurak@nhlchi.org) or at 808-521-2302.
