Kaloko-Honokohau NHP is Growing Hawaiian Plants

Bottle gourds, used to make ipu drums for hula.

Greenwell Continues Charm Offensive; Hokukano Shenanigans

Evidently, Kelly Greenwell is worried that he hasn't alienated enough voters with his " Let's bring some Al Qaeda guys to Hawaii" proposal or his getting himself arrested for a simple speeding ticket. His new cause is protecting the County Council's ability to decide policy in secret. That should turn his campaign around!

Interesting story in today's West Hawaii Today alleging that local residents Jeff Lee and Wade Lee (through an LLC, natch) are logging old-growth sandalwood from land on Hokukano Ranch above Kealakekua, and selling it under the name "Keala Ke Aloha." It's true that Keala Ke Aloha is selling sandalwood, and that Wade Lee is the contact person, according to this site. Unknown if the sandalwood is being taken from old-growth, but if the company is in financial straights and needs quick bucks, it could be desperate. The only part of the story that seems odd is Tom Pace as guardian of the environment.

Semi-Wordless Sunday

Moss on a fallen hapu'u, Makahi Street trail, Kaloko Mauka.



Bishop Estate is back to enforcing "No Trespassing" at the top of Huehue Street. They've added a sign noting the cultural resources and asking "please" no trespassing, which will be harder to ignore in good conscience.

"Kitty" Galore. Haha, Get It, Children?

Noted in West Hawaii Today; a big layout on the new "kids'" movie "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore."

I remember when the movie "Goldfinger" came out. I was in high school. How we snickered about the naughty character name, Pussy Galore. The name of the new "kids" movie is a play on that name, obviously. Kids won't get it, unless they check the internet or ask their parents. Is the title supposed to convince grown-ups that the movie's for them? Who could think that such a reference is appropriate for a kids movie? Or was it, as so many references in kids movies seem to be, just a sniggering in-joke for the parents?

Is our popular culture crude and debased, or am I just too old? Or both?

Jumping on the Bash Kelly Greenwell Bandwagon!

It's been more than a year since my first reasonable, thoughtful, non-inflammatory post about our Kona Councilman, Kelly Greenwell ("Kelly Greenwell: Insane or Reckless?"). Now, with his recent arrest for resisting arrest, bashing Greenwell in in fashion. I think whatever slim chance he had of getting re-elected has evaporated. Some random thoughts:

• Has he never been stopped by the police before? How does someone get to be 69 years old without learning not to get out of the car and not to be aggressive and confrontational with the police? For that matter, how does one get to be 69 years old without knowing that "Why did you pick me, because other people were also speeding" isn't an effective defense?
  
• Was it the combination of being born a Greenwell in Kona and becoming a Councilman that gave Kelly such a toxic level of entitlement? He probably considers himself one of the ali'i.
  
• 35 really is a ridiculous speed limit for a four-lane divided highway with no cross streets, and 51 is a perfectly safe speed for that area. Setting up a speed gun there has nothing at all to do with safety - it's an opportunity to increase the number of speeding tickets, nothing more.
  
• The police have become more military-like over my lifetime, in their treatment of citizens, but then citizens have gotten more aggressive and confrontational with the police. Sheriff Andy Taylor would have just laughed if the mayor had gotten out of his car to challenge a speeding ticket, and gently steered the mayor back to his car. Another reminder of the age we live in, I suppose.
  

Furlough Friday Pu'uwa'awa'a Workday

Since today was a furlough day for us state workers, I was able to take part in a planting day at Pu'uwa'awa'a. We were trying to re-introduce forage plants and other native species to a nene sanctuary about 3800' up the mountain. I had forgotten how tiring it is to use an o'o to dig holes in very rocky soil.

This is the view from where we planted native plants today. Pu'u Wa'awa'a (seen from the rear ) with Kohala and Mauna Kea behind.

The planting site.

A fenced-off area in the wildlife sanctuary. Volunteers are looking at a planted Hau Kuahiwi (Hibiscadelphus Hualalaiensis) which, as the Hawaiian and scientific names tell us, is a hibiscus/mallow that grows on Hualalai mountain. The plant is so endangered that no wild specimens exist. These, having been planted, don't count.

Wordless Wednesday

Lava formation, Ka'upulehu lava flow @ 1700' level, below the scenic lookout.

More fire, ghost forest, and scenery from last weekend

The fire was stopped by the bulldozed service road. The burned area looks grey. That whole tan (fountain grass) area below the road, containing remnants of the dryland forest, could easily have been burned out. The fire was probably caused by fireworks, according to police. Morons playing with fireworks. The police didn't specify morons. I'm guessing.
Click for larger picture

We're witnessing a decades-long slow-motion battle between native plants and invaders. The native plants aren't winning. 95% of dryland forests are gone, a little more with every fire season.

So we all just lost something even if we didn't know it was there.

And the ghost forest is dispersed by the wind and rain and scattered.


[/maudlin]
On the other hand, Saturday was a fine day, with fine views below the lookout, Kiholo in the background.

Enock Freire: Guy Enriques Redux?

Suddenly there are huge "Enock Freire District 7" signs everywhere. The candidate and his family wave to me as I drive home, but I live in District 8 and am favorably disposed toward Brenda Ford, based on her record, so my opinion is neither all that relevant or important. Plus, I'm old and cranky and inclined toward cynicism. But all the signs make me wonder.

Feire's website stresses, with Bold Typeface, that he will WORK TOGETHER WITH OTHERS because WE WON'T GET ANYWHERE BY CAUSING DIVISION. Brenda's been a reliable thorn in the side of the majority, and their sponsors. Does that mean that Freire will be a pro-development drone, like Enriques (who also had big advertising), who had big bucks behind him and took out a conservationist council member, becoming a reliable vote for the grease machine? I don't know the man, and I don't vote in his district, but I wonder.

Ane Keohokalole Highway Already Graded Almost to Henry Street

Just to remind everybody: This project was approved last November; groundbreaking was in March (4 months ago). At this point, a year or so in, most government highway projects are just getting to the second revision of the EIS. Actual construction work would be years away. This project is roughly graded, four lanes wide, from the high school to within (my guess) half a mile of Henry Street. Good to see "stimulus" money used to actually improve the infrastructure, and construction moving (for a government project) at lightning speed. Kudos all around.

Looking back (north) at Kealakehe H.S.

Hawaiian Dryland Forest Update. The undeveloped land along the new highway is dominated by haole koa and fountain grass, with clumps of christmas berry (at the right). The conifer-shaped bush at left center is another remnant of the Hawaiian dryland forest: the native alahe'e, the indigenous member of the coffee family. After rains it produces masses of fragrant flowers.

Ghost Forest - One of the world's most endangered ecosystems just got smaller

Click for Larger Version
Earlier this month, there was a "brush fire" around the 27-mile marker on the upper highway between Kona and Waimea. It was a fairly small fire, no homes were in danger, and the story disappeared. This afternoon I went walking below the scenic lookout, and I made my way down and over to the fire area. A few places were still smoldering in the blackened 500 acres, and a few scorched, doomed trees still were standing, but what caught my attention were the white outlines of the trees reduced to ash.

Hawaiian dryland forests are one of the most endangered ecosystems on the planet. And we just lost another chunk. Not 500 acres, though. Most of the area burned by the fire was devoid of trees due to a previous fire in 1993 or so, but there were significant stands of native lama and ohia, now ghostly outlines.

The native trees adapted (or evolved) to withstand brushfires of native pili grass, but fountain grass has displaced the native grasses and it burns at a higher temperature, so when it burns, a forest remnant is lost forever, unless expensive and labor-intensive reforestation happens in the future. Fountain grass seeds are fire activated, so the fire helps the invader. And the current terrible drought looks to continue, so expect at least one more fire this year. And the endangered ecosystem will continue to shrink, another remnant of the dryland forest will be lost, leaving only a ghost forest behind. And even that will be gone with the first good rain.

Turkeys are bad mothers (shut your mouth)

Today I arrived home to see a mother turkey with about 12 new, fuzzy chicks in our back yard. About half an hour later the turkey lands on our roof, making those turkey-mother-come-here-where-are-you sounds, obviously having lost track of her chicks. A little while later, the mother and about seven chicks are trying to get down into the yard behind. They disappear.

A little while later I hear a chick's "here I am" urgent peep. I hear it again when I'm in the kitchen but I look out the window and see two turkeys, two chicks and figure everything is cool. The turkeys start out with a lot of chicks so that when 90% are picked off by mongoose, cats, and dogs, they'll still have a new generation. That's how nature works, I get it.

So I'm back at the computer, checking e-mail, the news, politics, Big Island Chronicle, you know, just surfing, when I hear the chick's distress call again. I walk out in the direction I heard it, look down into the neighbor's yard and see two adult turkeys, no chicks. I go back in. I hear it again, but it stops when I slide the screen door open. I go out to where it seems like it was coming from, but can find nothing. The next time it starts, I pause at the screen to locate the source. I go back to the same place and glancing to the left, I see a chick who looks at me and makes for cover. I go back in, get a shoebox, return and find two little fuzzy turkeys. I take the box across the street to our other neighbor, who once said she had a friend who raises turkeys. They already had five of the same brood, in a little pen in their anteroom.

So in one day this turkey mother LOST (not eaten by mongoose, just left behind) SEVEN of her babies. Not to be judgmental, but that's just poor parenting skills. It's really amazing that we have any turkeys at all, based on that sad performance.