Ka`u News Briefs April 18, 2012

Mayor Billy Kenoi visited Kawa Bay yesterday. Photo by Julia Neal

KA`U COFFEE IS BEING SOLD AS KONA, according to a rumor reported in the Hawai`i Tribune Herald this morning. The issue has come up as legislators debate whether to allow self-regulation of coffee quality and origin. House Bill 280, supported in concept by the state Department of Agriculture, is opposed by the 300-member Kona Coffee Council, which is claiming that Ka`u farmers are selling to Kona and allowing their beans to be sold as Kona coffee.

Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative president Gloria Camba.
at right, urges Ka`u farmers to sell under the Ka`u brand
rather than Kona. Photo by Julia Neal

      The farmers group also testified that the quality of coffee, which keeps its price high enough to make a living on the Big Island, will diminish. They claim that the large coffee farms with mechanical harvesting and lower quality support “self-inspection.” A Senate-House conference committee is expected to discuss the issue soon. Testimony can be submitted at www.hawaii.capitol.gov.
       Ka`u Coffee Growers Cooperative president Gloria Camba urges Ka`u farmers to stick by their brand. Sales have soared and supply is short. “There is no reason to be selling under the Kona brand,” she said.

KAWA BAY was the destination of Mayor Billy Kenoi and staff yesterday when they met with Abel Simeona Lui and supporters. According to a story by Chelsea Jensen in this morning’s Hawai`i Tribune Herald, the mayor said, “We talked story, listened and shared about what is going on at Kawa. This is part of the process toward management and stewardship for the area.” According to the story, the mayor spent about an hour walking with Lui through the property. The story said that Kenoi had never visited Kawa until yesterday.

Lui and Kenoi talked story at Kawa yesterday.
Photo from Big Island Video News

      During his recent talk story meeting in Ka`u, the mayor promised to also consider pleas of other community members who said they are afraid to go to Kawa with Lui and colleagues living there. They mayor said he will look at all sides of the issue and told the talk story group that the county is creating a stewardship plan to include families with ties to the land there.
      The county took title to the property after it was purchased through federal, state and county funding and a discount on the price of the land by the Edmund C. Olson Trust. It is a surfing beach, wildlife habitat with estuaries and a popular fishing and recreational area for Ka`u residents.

Western Pacific bigeye tuna populations, ahi, are declining,
according to ICUN. Photo by Kydd Pollock

AHI SHORTAGES ARE CAUSING HIGHER PRICES, according to an article in Honolulu Star Advertiser this morning. Possible factors the story lists include rough seas, a shift in winds or short-term issues with landings. “It’s too soon to determine whether the shortage is due to a supply or market issue,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration regional administrator Michael Tosatto.
      Another possible supply cause is over-fishing. In November 2009, Honolulu Star Advertiser reported on a possible shortage of ahi for New Year’s. The story quoted environmentalists saying that fishermen were catching so much ahi in the Western Pacific that the population was close to a point where they wouldn’t be able to reproduce fast enough. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List identifies yellowfin and bigeye, the two tuna species known as ahi, as near threatened and vulnerable with decreasing populations, particularly within the Western and Central Pacific. It suggests that as of 2010 bigeye tuna was approaching an overfished state.

Willie Tabios won top in Hawai`i at the 2012 SCAA
Coffees of the Year competition. Photo by Julia Neal

KA`U COFFEE FARMERS AND REPRESENTATIVES left for the Specialty Coffee Association of America this week to celebrate three Coffee of the Year awards won for Ka`u. Willie Tabios ranked highest among the winning U.S. coffees with Rising Sun Coffee, along with Lorie Obra and Rusty’s 100 Percent Hawaiian Ka`u Coffee and Trindad and Francis Marques with Ali`i Hawaiian Hula Hands Coffee. Each of these Ka`u Coffee farmers will be attending the convention this week, joined by last year’s U.S. winner Bull Kailiawa, representatives of Ka`u Coffee Mill, Ka`u Specialty Inc., and Chris Manfredi of Ka`u Farm & Ranch Co., who represents the owners of the land where the coffee is grown and brokered the deal to sell Ka`u Coffee to Starbucks.

MUSICIANS WHO FREQUENT KA`U with performances, classes and music workshops have been nominated for Na Hoku Hanohano awards. Dennis Kamakahi, along with collaborator Stephen Inglis, are up for Group of the Year with their recording, Waimaka Helelei, dedicated to Bernard Punikai`a and the people of Kalaupapa. Kamakahi recently announced that he plans to move to Ka`u, where his wife grew up. He said he longs for the peaceful lifestyle of Ka`u and plans to teach and set up a recording studio here.

      George Kahumoku, Jr. is nominated for Slack Key Album of the Year with Wao Akua: The Forest of the Gods. The album was also nominated for a Grammy Award in the Regional Roots category. It is aimed at instilling “a sense of peace, harmony, and lokahi (unity), found within the Wao Akua, the Forest of the Gods,” he said.
      Winners will be announced Sunday, May 27.

FRIENDS OF HAWAI`I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK seek volunteers to plant native seedlings at Mauna Loa strip to help regenerate the forest. Their forest restoration project takes place Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register, call 985-7373 or email forest@fhvnp.org.

THE PUBLIC IS INVITED to meet County Council District 6 and Prosecuting Attorney candidates on Friday, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at Ocean View Community Center. Candidates for the Council seat are Marie Burns, Maile David, Brenda Ford, Lee McIntosh and Bradley Westervelt. Candidates for Prosecuting Attorney are Lincoln Ashida, Paul Dolan and Mitch Roth. For more information, call 929-7236 or email marge@hawaii.rr.com.

THE FIRST OF REGULAR BARBEQUES on the third Saturday of each month is scheduled at Ocean View Community Association Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. This fundraising Grand Re-opening BBQ and Open House replaces previously held monthly pancake breakfasts. Call 939-7033 for more information.

Visit our sponsors at www.pahalaplantationcottages.com and www.kaucoffeemill.com.

Ka`u News Briefs April 17, 2012

Deadline for vendors to sign up for spaces at May 12 Ka`u Coffee Festival has been extended to Monday, April 23.

KA`U COFFEE FARMERS received news last night that coffee farmers who take good care of their farms can come back from the devastation of coffee berry borer infestation. Those who don’t clean their farms and use at least one of several non-toxic treatments to push back the pest not only risk losing their coffee income, but put their neighboring farmers in dire straits. If more isn’t done to stave off the coffee berry borer, suggested Dr. Elsie Burbano, of the University of Hawa`i, Kona might look for a new crop to replace its century-old coffee industry.

Dr. Elsie Burbano

      Talking during a workshop for coffee farmers sponsored by U.H., the Department of Agriculture and Hawai`i County, Burbano also warned that the spread of the coffee berry borer to places like Kaua`i, where mechanical harvesting is used, would be devastating as the pest would be much harder to control there.
      The Ka`u Coffee industry is in a much better situation than Kona with fewer farms infested and farmers taking care of the problem right away. Visiting agribusiness student Karla Casco, from Honduras, presented findings from farms in Ka`u using the fungus Beauveria bassiana that kills the coffee berry borer. “It is working,” she said. Any farm with more than two percent infestation will find that treating the coffee trees is cost effective, said Casco, presenting a chart showing the point at which farmers start saving their coffee and their income by spending money on treatment and prevention. During her 15-week stay in Ka`u, Casco located coffee berry borers on farms where the growers were unaware of their presence. She also experimented with several prevention and abatement programs.

Karla Casco, a university student from Honduras, gives her
final report to Ka`u Coffee farmers. Photo by Julia Neal

      Another possible deterrent to the coffee berry borer was presented by Burbano. Kaolin spray is made of a fine clay that coats coffee berries like Christmas tree flocking and deters infestation by borers. Kaolin also can protect the cherries from sunburn and does not affect the taste of the coffee, Burbano said.
      Other experiments include various ground covers, an attempt to force the coffee trees to bloom at one time to shorten the season for coffee berry borer reproduction, and various handmade and commercially available traps.

GARBAGE FROM PAHALA, WAI`OHINU AND OCEAN VIEW is trucked to the West Hawai`i landfill, and according to a Nancy Cook Lauer story, more garbage is headed west. She reports in today’s Hawai`i Tribune Herald that “78.8 percent of garbage from transfer stations countywide was dumped at the West Hawai`i landfill in Pu`uanahulu in March, compared to 52.8 percent in 2011.” In February, 70.4 percent was sent to Pu`uanahulu.

East Hawai`i landfill is filling up, and the county is making test runs with
garbage sent to the other side of the island. Photo from University of
Hawai`i Environmental Studies Department

      The pilot program is expected to end this month, the story says, quoting county Environmental Management spokesman Hunter Bishop as saying the purpose is to test a consultant study that concluded that it would be less expensive to truck garbage across the island than to expand Hilo landfill. Mayor Billy Kenoi told the public and the media that no decision has been made on whether to make the trucking permanent.

THE DEADLINE FOR VENDORS to sign up for the Ka`u Coffee Festival has been extended to next Monday, April 23. For information and applications, visit www.kaucoffeefest.com or call Brenda Iokepa-Moses at 928-0550.

JESSICA LANDAU demonstrates the glass blowing process of lampworking, or torch work, tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the front porch of Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-7565 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org for more information.

Pomai Longakit

POMAI LONGAKIT performs original songs and her latest hit, Another Rainbow, tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The concert is free; park entrance fees apply. 

VOLUNTEERS PLANT NATIVE SEEDLINGS at Mauna Loa strip to help regenerate the forest during Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s Forest Restoration Project Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. To register, call 985-7373 or email forest@fhvnp.org.

COUNTY COUNCIL DISTRICT 6 and Prosecuting Attorney candidates meet the public this Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Ocean View Community Center. Candidates for the Council seat are Marie Burns, Maile David, Brenda Ford, Lee McIntosh and Bradley Westervelt. Candidates for Prosecuting Attorney are Lincoln Ashida, Paul Dolan and Mitch Roth. For more information, call 929-7236 or email marge@hawaii.rr.com.

OCEAN VIEW COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION hosts a fundraising Grand Re-opening BBQ and Open House on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. This is the first of regular barbeques on the third Saturday of each month, replacing previously held monthly pancake breakfasts. “Come and see all the recent improvements to the building,” said association member Madalyn McWhite-Lamson. “This new event gives you an opportunity to enjoy good food, socialize, and enjoy a sense of fellowship and camaraderie.” Call 939-7033 with any questions.

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.

Ka`u News Briefs April 16, 2012

Alili tunnel flume, left over from plantation days, is one water source that may be restored for modern-day agriculture.
Photo courtesy of Olson Trust

OLD PLANTATION TUNNELS between Kapapala and Wai`ohinu, some of them built more than a century ago, could transfer from the state to the quasi-state Agricultural Development Corp. within a few months. Deputy director of the state Department of Agriculture Scott Enright brought the news last week to members of the Ka`u Agricultural Water Cooperative District who want to use the water for irrigation and livestock. Twenty-four members and guests attended the session which included representatives of the ag department, Kamehameha Schools, Hawai`i County Research & Development and the county Department of Water Supply. Enright addressed a $700,000 appropriation by the state Legislature released by Gov. Neil Abercrombie for planning. Funding must be encumbered and consultants hired by June 30, he said.
      Jeff McCall, of the Water Co-op, said members are asking each region, including Kapapala, Moa`ula, Keaiwa, Wood Valley, Alili, Ha`ao and Mountain House to produce a priority list by the May 17 meeting for such water projects as tunnel restoration; determination of flow and output, easements across state land and private property, safety and liability, and water delivery and storage.

Historic photo of Noguchi tunnel carrying
water to Wood Valley. Photo courtesy
of Olson Trust

      Moa`ula water co-op has bylaws and articles of incorporation, and Kohala Center will help fund a legal review. The documents could serve as templates for other regions. Anyone interested in this effort to restore water to agriculture in Ka`u can contact McCall at 928-6456 or mccalljeffreyw@gmail.com.

AVERAGE RETAIL GASOLINE PRICES in Hawai`i dropped more dramatically than on the mainland last week, plunging 9.1 cents a gallon compared to 1.4 cents per gallon. Yesterday prices statewide averaged $4.52 per gallon. Mainland prices were still much lower at $3.89 per gallon, according to HawaiiGasPrices.com.
      Hawai`i prices yesterday were still 4.9 cents higher than the same day in 2011 and 6.8 cents higher than a month ago. Nationally, the average price increased 9.1 cents per gallon during the last month and is 9.3 cents per gallon higher than a year ago.
      “The only thing I remain sure of with gasoline prices is that things will remain quite volatile the next four to six weeks,” said GasBuddy.com senior petroleum analyst Patrick DeHaan. He said that “spot prices, a leading factor in retail gasoline prices, continue to swing wildly from region to region.” Such events as last week’s refinery fire on the West Coast can drive up prices instantaneously, DeHaan said.
      Prices in Ka`u this morning were $4.80 per gallon at Ka`u Gas in Pahala and the 76 station in Na`alehu, $4.72 at Kahala Gas and Ocean View Market. The lowest price in all of Ka`u is $4.66 at Kahuku Country Market in Ocean View.

FEDERAL TAX DEADLINE DAY IS TUESDAY. Postmasters throughout Ka`u advise that last minute mailing of taxes and forms to the IRS will show tomorrow’s postmark only if they arrive before each post office closes. Pahala and Volcano close at 3:30 p.m., Ocean View at 4 p.m. and Na`alehu at 4:15 p.m. The main post offices at Hilo Airport, downtown Kailua-Kona and Kamuela will postmark envelopes headed for the IRS until midnight.

KA`U CHAMBER OF COMMERCE invites residents to meet candidates for County Council District 6 and Prosecuting Attorney this Friday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Ocean View Community Center. Candidates for the Council seat are Marie Burns, Maile David, Brenda Ford, Lee McIntosh and Bradley Westervelt. Candidates for Prosecuting Attorney are Lincoln Ashida, Paul Dolan and Mitch Roth. For more information, call 929-7236 or email marge@hawaii.rr.com.

Volunteers pound mamane seeds.
Photo by Carol Johnson

PLANTING NATIVE SEEDLINGS will be the effort of volunteers during Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s Forest Restoration Project Friday, April 20, 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers will plant at Mauna Loa strip to help regenerate the forest, said Forest Restoration Committee co-chair Mark Johnson. 

      The group plans to establish 600 seedlings from nine species in an open area surrounded by native forest. “We’ll also learn about the park’s native forest restoration program,” he said. Volunteers should be 12 years and older, able to hike a mile over uneven terrain through brush on moderate slope. Sturdy walking shoes and long pants are required. Bring gear for variable weather conditions in sun and rain - hat, raincoat, sunscreen, along with drinking water and a bag lunch.
      The goal is a crew of 14 people, and pre-registration is required. All participants will need to sign a Friends release form and a park volunteer form. For those under 18, an adult will need to co-sign.
      “Also imperative is scrubbing the soles of one’s shoes prior to arrival on site in order to ensure outside dirt and invasive species seeds aren’t tracked in,” Johnson stated.
      To register call the Friends at 985-7373 or email forest@fhvnp.org. Instructions on where to meet will be provided upon registration. Additional details available at www.fhvnp.org.

Halema`uma`u Photo by Jay Robinson/NPS

TODAY IS THE DEADLINE to submit entries for Images from the Edge, a photo contest sponsored by Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Anyone with an original photograph taken in the park within the last three years can enter. Photos may be color or black and white and can cover any subject matter. For full contest rules and to enter, visit fhvnp.org. 

JESSICA LANDAU demonstrates the glass blowing process of lampworking, or torch work, on Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the front porch of Volcano Art Center Gallery in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-7565 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org for more information.

POMAI LONGAKIT SHARES her original songs and her latest hit, Another Rainbow, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The concert is free;  park entrance fees apply.

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALALANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.