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Saturday, February 06, 2016

Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016

Mining operations in Ocean View can move ahead with their plans. Photo by Richard Taylor
MINING OPERATIONS IN OCEAN VIEW can move forward with their plans, Hawai`i County Windward Planning Commission decided Thursday. Arrow of Oregon/Hawai`i, LLC wants to add 8.009 acres for a total of 13.012 acres of land to its cinder mining operation. The properties are northwest of Mahimahi Drive, between Lurline Lane and Liliana Lane.
David and Laura Rodrigues applied for a Special Permit to allow a cinder and rock
quarry operation on 5.003 acres on the northeast and southeast corners of Kailua
Boulevard and Lurline Lane.
      Both properties are with the State Land Use Agricultural District.
      Recommendations by a panel of Planning Commission members included creating setbacks and buffers, controlling dust and limiting operations’ days and times.
      Before making its decision, the commission convened an executive meeting to consult with its attorney on questions and issues pertaining to the commission’s powers, duties, privileges, immunities and liabilities.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Eucalyptus trees contain high volumes of oil, making them
fire-prone. Photo by Julia Neal
COULD REPLACING EUCALYPTUS with koa be a new forest management practice for the state and other land stewards? The state Department of Land & Natural Resources has decided to replant koa on 3,000 acres in Koke`e on Kaua`i, where high-oil eucalyptus trees from Australia burned to the ground in 2012, the fire threatening native forests. In Ka`u, Kamehameha Schools has planted koa adjacent to burned eucalyptus farms above Pahala.
      DLNR and its partners aim to plant 20,000 seedlings to cover the ground where eucalyptus burned, the local Kaua`i newspaper, The Garden Island reported on Thursday.
      “It’s great to have the chance to come back and heal the land,” Michelle Clark, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, told The Garden Island.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Richard Ha applied for a medical
marijuana dispensary license.
HAWAI`I MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY License applicants are now available online. The state Department of Health yesterday posted the list of applicants. A total of 66 applications were received during the application period of Jan. 12, 8 a.m., to Jan. 29, 4:30 p.m. The names of all individual applicants and applying entities as well as the county applied for are posted online at health.hawaii.gov/medicalmarijuana under the Dispensary Updates section.
      “The department has posted the names of applicants in accordance with Chapter 11-850, Hawaii Administrative Rules,” said Keith Ridley, chief of the DOH Office of Health Care Assurance. “All other information on dispensary applications is confidential as we move into the evaluation and selection process.” The medical marijuana dispensary law allows DOH to award a total of eight licenses initially, with two in Hawai`i County.
      One of the applicants is Hamakau Springs Country Farm owner Richard Ha, known in Ka`u for his work on Hawai`i Island Electric Cooperative, which members see as an alternative to Hawai`i Electric Light Co.
      Each dispensary licensee will be allowed to operate up to two production centers and two retail dispensing locations. DOH expects to select and announce licensees by April 15. A dispensary licensed may begin dispensing medical marijuana not sooner than July 15, with DOH approval.
      For more information, see health.hawaii.gov/medicalmarijuana/.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Flags will fly at half staff Monday to honor the late
Sen. Gil Kahele. Photo by Julia Neal
AS A MARK OF RESPECT for the late Sen. Gil Kahele, who represented Ka`u in 2011 and 2012, Gov. David Ige has ordered the flags to be flown at half-staff at all state offices and agencies, as well as the Hawai`i National Guard, from sunrise to sunset on Monday, Feb. 8. Flag orders are issued to coincide with the day of the memorial service, which takes place at 5 p.m. at Hilo Civic Auditorium. Visitation begins at 4 p.m.
      “Sen. Kahele was a dedicated public servant who spent the last few years working for the good of his beloved community at the Hawai`i State Legislature,” Ige said. “He was a respected and influential leader both in the Legislature and in his hometown community of Hilo. On behalf of the people of Hawai`i, I extend our heartfelt condolences to the Kahele `ohana.”
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

A LONG-LOST GULCH IN HILO is the topic of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory’s current issue of Volcano Watch.
      “In 1881, Joseph Nawahi, a well-known Hilo lawyer, painter and politician, wrote letters about the Mauna Loa flow to Hawaiian language newspapers,” according to the article. “As the flow neared Hilo in June 1881, he described the lava descending into the Kaumana stream and forecast that it would arrive on the Kalanakamaa gulch adjacent to Kukuau Street in Hilo.
      “The Kalanakamaa place name appears several times in 1881, mostly in Hawaiian-language newspaper accounts of the Mauna Loa eruption. By the end of July, the lava flow was reported to be in Kalanakamaa gulch before it stalled in early August 1881. 
      “The next time this place name is mentioned in detail is in testimony recorded by the Boundary Commission in 1900. The exact location of the boundary between the ahupuaaa of Waiakea and Kukuau was being disputed, and lawyers for both sides needed to clearly define each point in its description.
      “A typical example of a kama`aina description of the boundary went like this: “… thence to Kumu, on the banks of the Waialama (Waiolama) river thence to Kalanakama (Kalanakamaa) where the Government road to the volcano runs through the land thence to Huia … .”
      “One of the main questions the lawyers asked each witness was for the definition of Kalanakamaa. Was it a rock, a tree, a pile of rocks, a gulch?
Mauna Loa lava flow cascaded into and ultimately filled a stream
bed near Hilo in July 1881. NPS Photos by Menzies Dickson
from USGS/HVO
      “The name literally means “remove sandals or shoes,” but many witnesses identified Kalanakamaa as a specific breadfruit tree at the intersection of a big gulch and the road to Volcano. Apparently, Hawaiians travelling from Puna to Hilo on this road wore ti-leaf sandals over the rough lava of Waiakea but took them off and hung them in the breadfruit tree before going on to the soft ashy soil of Hilo.
      “It became apparent during our research that the Kalanakamaa name also applied to the adjacent gulch, which carried water when it rained, sometimes overflowing its banks. A bridge was built over the gulch prior to 1881, but it had washed away. All witnesses who described seeing water in the gulch said that it went dry after the ‘flow of ’81.’
      “An unnamed gulch in the area described by kama`aina is shown on a map from the 1870s (available from Hawai`i State Land Survey archives). In a 1954 aerial photo, a gulch in this same area is visible about 100 yards north of and parallel to Hualalai Street, from Kilauea Avenue to the Police Department on Kapi`olani Street. We interpret these features to be the Kalanakamaa gulch. Dry since 1881 and largely filled in by subsequent construction, the gulch no longer exists.
      “From our research, it’s clear that the 1880-1881 Mauna Loa lava flow significantly changed the way streams drained into Hilo Bay. Lava flowed down stream channels, filling some and diverting water into others, such as `Alenaio to the north of Kalanakamaa and Waiakea to the south.
      “This has happened repeatedly in the Hilo area. For example, there’s evidence of filling and diversion by lava flows along the Wailuku River, where the Boiling Pots area shows the remains of two such lava fillings in the past 10,000 years.
      “It’s not surprising if you’ve never heard of Kalanakamaa gulch. On a volcanic island such as ours, rivers and streams are temporary features that often change or vanish as lava flows alter the landscape.”
      See hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch.
      To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Kahuku's human history is the topic of a hike tomorrow.
NPS Photo by Julia Espaniola
HAWAI`I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK presents People & Lands of Kahuku tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The guided, 2.5-mile, moderately difficult hike over rugged terrain focuses on Kahuku’s human history.

KILAUEA MILITARY CAMP’S LAVA LOUNGE in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park celebrates Super Bowl tomorrow beginning at 11 a.m. Kick-off is at 1:30 p.m., with quarterly prizes. Call 967-8365 after 4 p.m. KMC is open to authorized patrons and sponsored guests; call 967-8371.

ST. JUDE’S CHURCH IN OCEAN VIEW celebrates Mardi Gras this Friday, Jan.12. Dinner is served at 6 p.m. Call 939-7000 for more information.

VALENTINE’S WEEKEND HUKILAU is coming up this Friday through Sunday at Whittington Beach Park. Handijam presents the blanket and toy drive featuring Buddy Cage, of New Riders of the Purple Sage. Suggested donation is $15; veterans are free. 
      Call 917-561-4800 for more information.

LOVE THE ARTS: m’ART’i Gras is a week from today on Saturday, Feb. 13 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Volcano Art Center in Volcano Village. VAC’s 12th annual fundraiser gala invites guests to add to their art collection, enjoy gourmet, catered food and wines and partake in silent and live auctions. Tickets, $55 for VAC members and $65 for nonmembers, are available at volcanoartcenter.org or 967-8222.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.












See kaucalendar.com/KauCalendar_February2016.pdf.
See kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.swf
and kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.pdf.