Hawaii’s vital Wetlands going dry..
Posted by msterilinn on Feb 28, 2008
Here is another example of why we must pay very close attention to our surrounding environment as we walk through this Life. Hawaii’s wetlands are a vital part of the ecosystem, and the danger is very real. Please read the following, and let your voice be heard on this important matter…
Wetlands Going Dry
By Brandon Roberts, Molokai Dispatch, 27 February 2008
Disappearing Mana..e wetlands cause concern.
The lack of zoning enforcement on Molokai’s wetlands may bring serious environmental problems and cultural violations. Community leaders met with Mana..e (East End) residents to discuss development which is potentially damaging the wetlands in the area.
The lo..i (irrigated terrace) and the loko i..a (fishpond) are intrinsic with the culture and represent a living balance between the po..e (people) and the ..aina (land). Some of the development may be irresponsible and indiscriminate.
The non-profit organization Malama Pono O Ka ..Aina hosted the meeting last Saturday at the Kilohana Community Center, to gather input from the residents. Guest speakers included Rep. Mele Carroll, DLNR Branch Chief Randy Awo, and cultural specialist Vanda Hanakahi. Community members also gave valuable testimony.
“Indigenous knowledge cannot be ignored,” kumu ..Opu..ulani Albino said. “Best practices are found in the people who live with the land.”
Carroll revived the ‘Aha Kiole advisory council on Molokai and across the Hawaiian Islands The ..Aha Kiole exists as a bridge between the farmer, the hunter, the homesteader, the community, and state legislators.
Hanakahi, chairwoman of the ..Aha Kiole council, made a cultural presentation, explaining why the Mana..e coastal lands are a vital part of the Hawaiian culture.
“We want to create a Hawaii that Hawaiians would like to see,” Hanakahi said.
Prior to the meeting, Carroll, along with Awo and other officials took an ocean excursion to survey the development on the wetlands in Mana..e.
The meeting was a chance for Carroll to listen to residents’ concerns and receive public comments on hb2788. The bill seeks to prohibit wetlands development that did not include a “public informative meeting”before a permit is issued.
“What do you want to see in your community?” Carroll asked. “My role is to convey the message of the people.”
Awo gathered notes on community concerns, from jet skis on the reef to zoning infractions on the wetlands . He reassured the attendees that he would speak with the proper agencies and follow up on these concerns.
Possible zoning infractions were photographed by Malama Pono O Ka ..Aina and presented at the meeting in a slide show. The photographs show homes that speckle the Mana..e shoreline, some with Ho..olehua red dirt piles intended to fill the wetlands.
This imported earth may contain heptachlor, an insecticide used on the old pineapple plantation fields. Many residents fear water contamination. Exposure to heptachlor has been linked to liver damage and is associated with an increased risk of cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency banned heptaclor in 1978, yet it still lingers in the environment.
Other wetland residents may have illegal sea walls, boat ramps, and roads through the loko i..a. In some instances, shoreline trees were cut and bulldozed right into the ocean.
Attendees were frustrated with the lack of consistency and communication between various governmental agencies, as well as inadequate enforcement. Currently there is no zoning enforcement agency on Molokai, and meeting attendees feel this is one reason why there is wetlands abuse.
Malama Pono O Ka ..Aina President Linda Place wants to “work together to protect the wetlands.” She said this is possible through a “management swap,” which would transfer sensitive coastal lands into the protective custody of an appropriate governmental or non-profit entity.
Malama Pono O Ka ..Aina strives to “assure development that is lawful and respectful of the environmental health and historical culture of Mana..e, Molokai,” according to its mission statement.
Malama Pono O Ka ..Aina will host its next meeting March 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Kilohana Community Center. All interested persons are encouraged to attend and share their mana..o.
~ The Song of the Whale ~
Posted by msterilinn on Aug 18, 2007
Did you know whales sing to each other? Humpback whales sing as a form of communication, ranging over thousands of miles of ocean. Singing is part of their Community and Social System. They will travel thousands of miles as a group, singing to each other as they go. Their songs last as long as 30 minutes and it is told that they embellish, just like Jazz musicians, to see who can improvise better than the other whales. Now that is totally cool!Male humpbacks sing to establish hierarchy as well as for navigating. Even more fascinating is the belief that whales sing as a part of their courting ritual, not to mention their competitive behaviour during mating challenges. How amazing and beautiful is that? These are beautiful and wonderful creatures… fascinating to observe and to listen to.Would you like to enjoy the Symphony of the Sea? Take a few moments and allow these amazing creatures to take you on a fantastic Journey through song…
Songs of the WhaleHawaii has several species of whales and large dolphins that make their home here, including the melon-headed, false killer and pilot whales.
Whale Watching in the Sanctuary
Sail Hawaii has some cool Trivia
As I was searching for more information about whales one of my favorite sea creatures, I decided to find out more about the sonar testing in Hawaii. It is commonly known that whales and dolphins communicate through sound waves. It stands to reason that testing of this kind may be quite stressful, harmful and even lethal to the whales and dolphins. Mid-frequency sonar used during training exercises can emit continuous sound well above 235 decibels—an intensity roughly comparable to a rocket blastoff, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a conservation nonprofit group.
This would be a tragedy of horrific proportions, and I would encourage people to get involved in protecting our fellow creatures in the world beneath the Seas.
~ In Hawaii, Kilauea raises her voice in a new eruption ~
Posted by msterilinn on Jul 26, 2007
There’s a new eruption site on Kilauea volcano. It’s the first time lava is flowing east of Puuoo in 15 years. There’s been quite a bit of activity on Kilauea for the past five weeks…earthquake swarms, Puuoo crater collapsed, and now a new eruption site.
It’s known as the most world’s most active volcano. Experts say it’s the most activity and changes they’ve seen in a few years. Most of Kilauea’s Eruptions happen at the summit or within the two rift zones. Now there’s a new eruption site, just east of Puuoo crater. The lava is oozing along one mile fissures. It’s the first time this area has had any activity in 15 years.
The last time there were eruptions at this site in 1990. The lava ended up flowing downhill to Kalapana and destroyed the entire community. Experts monitoring the new lava outbreak don’t believe this flow will take that same path. Scientists say if Kilauea is trying to tell them something, they’re listening carefully.
When Mother Earth decides to rumble and grumble, we are humbly reminded how pitifully small we are in the scheme of things. At this moment I wish to send out heartfelt prayers for the safety and well being of folks within the vicinity of this Volcano as she vents…
~*~ Taking Root.. a Family in Nature reunited ~*~
Posted by msterilinn on Apr 17, 2007
Taking root
By VALERIE MONSON, Staff Writer
ULUPALAKUA – Hawaiian family members long separated from their roots returned home Saturday in an emotional reunion that many thought might never happen.
Eight alani seedlings went back to the Auwahi forest, taking their place in the shadow of their only known ancestor living in the wild.
“This is where they’re supposed to be,” said a proud Martha Vockrodt Moran, caretaker of the tree that produced the seeds, as she watched another plant go from pot to posterity. “It’s so great that they’re going home.”
The story of the alani – a native Hawaiian tree that once flourished on the back flank of Haleakala – has become yet another piece of the ongoing miracle at Auwahi, the dryland forest that was all but dead five years ago. With its dwindling collection of rare trees reaching old age and unable to reproduce in a landscape made hostile by cattle, kikuyu grass and fire, the native forest was fading away.
Since it was man who unwittingly led to the downfall of the forest, it seemed only right that it was men – and a whole lot of women, too – whose exhaustive efforts have brought a strand of it back, restoring hope for the land and the Native Hawaiian people whose culture centers on the sights, the sounds, the smells and the very spirit of the forest.
“In a Western sort of thinking, man has dominions over nature,” said Kalei Tsuha, the kumu whose family led the chants and prayers that welcomed back the alani. “In the Hawaiian perspective, we are one and the same. As Hawaiians, we need to have contact with the forest and the forest needs to have contact with us.”
Until a year ago, there was the very real possibility that contact with the alani would become a thing of the past. Biologists were aware of only two left – one in the wild at Auwahi on Ulupalakua Ranch and the other in the arboretum started by Moran’s grandfather, the renowned agronomist D.T. Fleming. Even worse, both were ailing and appeared to have lost their capability for producing viable seeds.
But Moran was determined to carry on the legacy of her grandfather who had collected the alani from Auwahi 50 years ago and planted it in his arboretum at nearby Puu Mahoe along with other plants that he feared were nearing extinction.
Alani were once prolific at Auwahi, where they grew to 30 or 40 feet tall and developed trunks a foot in diameter. Formerly known as “Pelea” for Pele, the goddess of Hawaiian volcanoes, the leaves release a fragrance similar to oranges and were used to scent kapa. The bark was used for medicine.
Calling herself “only a gardener,” Moran knew she needed help to save her tree, so she assembled a crack team that made Saturday’s homecoming possible: Makawao arborist Ernie Rezents, who diagnosed the tree’s disease and prescribed the cure; Nellie Sugii, a researcher at Lyons Arboretum on Oahu, whose experiments led to germination; and expert growers Anna Palomino, Richard Nakagawa, and Dan and Noah Judson, all of Maui, who produced the eight seedlings.
Meanwhile, Auwahi, with the permission of ranch executives Pardee and Sumner Erdman, was being readied for its return by tireless biologist Art Medeiros and his crack team of volunteers who have spent the last eight years fencing, weeding, digging, propagating, planting and willing the land back to life. After successfully restoring one 10-acre enclosure, they have fenced off another 20 acres that includes an old lava channel where the last alani was struggling to survive.
“When it gets cloudy here, it’s like you’re in a cathedral,” said Bob Mikell, one of the volunteers who has given up weekend after weekend to see Auwahi revived. “Everyone here is really possessive of this place. It’s part of their body and part of their spirit.”
The feeling of family was in the forest air as the plants were unloaded from four-wheel drive vehicles that traveled as far as they could, and then the plants were carried by hand the rest of the treacherous way across loose rocks and tangles of weeds. As the alani were going home, Moran couldn’t help but think of her grandfather on the afternoon that he went to Auwahi and gathered the alani that would become the mother to this new generation. Also thinking back was Mahealani Kaiaokamalie, seventh generation of his ohana to live in the area. Kaiaokamalie’s grandfather, William Ainoa Kaiaokamalie, saw the forest collapse in his lifetime. When famed botanist John Rock, who once described Auwahi as one of the top two dryland forests in Hawaii, returned in the 1960s to see it again, he asked the elder Kaiaokamalie to lead the way. As the men came upon the forest near death, Rock broke down and wept.
Mahealani Kaiaokamalie, who has spent much of his adult life restoring native ecosystems, wondered what his grandfather – and other ancestors – would be thinking at the scene below.
“I can only imagine they’re looking down and saying ’mahalo,’ ” said Kaiaokamalie. “My family has always been private, but I think they would be proud that somebody from their genealogy is here today. That’s all I live for – to make them proud.”
It was a day when pride seemed to ooze from the ground. Once the holes were dug, they were checked and rechecked to make sure they were deep enough (but not too deep) and wide enough (but not too wide).
Finally, with the holes deemed ready for occupancy, Kalei Tsuha and her family – husband, Mark, and daughters, Kawai and Joanna – called for silence as the crowd gathered around the single ancestor alani left in the wild. Holding the keiki up to the kupuna tree, Kalei Tsuha summoned the forest gods in a chant of celebration and introduced the young alani to the old one while reuniting a larger ohana.
“The forest is the greater kuahu (altar),” Tsuha said earlier. “The kuahu is where the gods dwell. For Hawaiians, those are our ancestors. Since we’re losing them, we’re losing ourselves.”
But on this afternoon, the ancestors – and their living descendants – got a boost and made contact. Moran was even startled to see how different the alani seedlings looked once they were sprung from their pots and had settled into their beds of rich volcanic soil.
“They seem to have gotten bigger by just getting into the ground,” she said with joy.
After years on the brink of extinction, the alani were back where they belong. They were home with the ancestors.
Valerie Monson can be reached at vmonson@mauinews.com.
