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Aftershocks: Psuedo-Tsunamis and Food Insecurity in Hawai'i
March 7, 2010
By Eric Holt Gimenez
A couple of my young and highly talented friends were winding down in the wee hours after their snapping GO LIVE! REAL FOOD performance in Waikiki when they got the news of the Chilean earthquake. They 'stood fixated on the flat screens, drinks in hand' as real time images of Chilean destruction were quickly followed by an official tsunami warning and a barrage of historic Hawaiian newsreel footage documenting the devastating tidal wave that hit Hilo back in 1947. After ordering an evacuation of coastal areas, the government advised people to stock up on a weeks worth of food. This is when hip-hop artists Jennifer Johns, Erwin Thomas and Lynnete Kaid learned a sobering fact:
There are only 3-5 days of food reserves available on the island. The land of lush tropical forests, sparkling waterfalls and deep, rich volcanic soils imports over 85% of its food. It is materially impossible for everyone to "stock up" on a week's food in Hawai'i.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from The Huffington Post
Revitalizing the land of plenty with affordable housing
March 2, 2010
By Emily Lo
Hawaii Island is caught in a Catch 22 situation.
Although the island boasts a fertile landscape that can easily support a broad range of agriculture, 85-90 percent of food consumed is imported from the mainland.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from MIT News
20 For the Next 20
March 2010
By Jerry Burris, Cathy Cruz-George, Shara Enay, Dennis Hollier and Jason Ubay
Hawaii Business Magazine has chosen 20 people who will play a role in impacting Hawaii's future over the next 20 years.
...Colleagues describe Matthews Hamabata as the “then what?” guy because he has the brains, connections and vision to turn big ideas into reality.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii Business
Former Yale professor Matt Hambata named as one of 20 up-and-coming leaders
February 26, 2010
Cross Campus 2.26.10
Former Yale professor Matt Hamabata was named by Hawaii Business magazine as one of 20 up-and-coming leaders.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Yale News Daily
Hawaii Business names Hamabata up-and-coming leader
February 25, 2010
By Janis Wong
Matt Hamabata, executive director of The Kohala Center, has been selected by Hawaii Business magazine as one of Hawai'i's next generation of movers and shakers.
Hamabata is profiled in the magazine's March issue, "20 For The Next 20," as one of 20 up-and-coming leaders.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Honolulu Advertiser
More than $180K to boost native culture on Big Island
February 17, 2010
Media Release
The Hawaii Tourism Authority is awarding more than $180,000 to Big Island-based programs aimed at perpetuating the Hawaiian culture.
The grants are among $600,000 spread statewide among 27 projects that are receiving the funds, the HTA said in announcing recipients of the Living Hawaiian Culture Program.
Used with permission from Hawaii Tribune Herald
Kaiser volunteers help out school gardens
February 9, 2010
Media Release
On Jan. 18, in honor of Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr., and his commitment to community service, doctors and staff from Kaiser Permanente joined hands with students, teachers, and volunteers to work in three school gardens around Hawaii Island.
“This is our way of giving back to our community,” said Dr. Jeffrey Tolan, Family Practice Physician at Kaiser Permanente’s Waimea Clinic.
Click here to read the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii 24/7.org
VIDEO: Pelekane Bay Watershed Project progresses
February 3, 2010
By David Corrigan
The Pelekane Bay Watershed Project is moving along here on the dry, leeward side of Kohala Mountain.
The Kohala Watershed Partnership recently took local media for a closer at the effort which is being funded with a $2.69 million federal stimulus through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration coastal restoration grant.
Click here to read the article online and view the video.
Used with permission from Big Island Video News.com.
A Pelekane Bay kind of day
February 2, 2010
By Karin Stanton
What can $2.69 million in federal stimulus money buy? For the Pelekane Bay watershed restoration project, it means six fence builders and six nursery workers, as well as a field operations leader and a field technician working to build miles of fencing, transplant thousands of native plant species and weed out invasive species. It's a job for a laid-off construction worker, steady employment for a long-time plumber and career inspiration for a recent high school graduate excited about conservation. The program, run through The Kohala Center's Kohala Watershed Partnership, also means a job for a laid-off relative, and the encouraging of partnership volunteers to apply for the short-term, full-time jobs.
Click here to read the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii 24/7.org.
Stimulus money means jobs, watershed restoration
January 20, 2010
By Erin Miller
What can $2.69 million in federal stimulus money buy? For the Pelekane Bay watershed restoration project, it means six fence builders and six nursery workers, as well as a field operations leader and a field technician working to build miles of fencing, transplant thousands of native plant species and weed out invasive species. It's a job for a laid-off construction worker, steady employment for a long-time plumber and career inspiration for a recent high school graduate excited about conservation. The program, run through The Kohala Center's Kohala Watershed Partnership, also means a job for a laid-off relative, and the encouraging of partnership volunteers to apply for the short-term, full-time jobs.
Click here to read the article online.
Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Volunteers at work
Kahakai Elementary garden gets a helping hand
January 19, 2010
By Erin Miller
The earthy smell of freshly turned soil mingled with the spicy, pepper scent of just-plucked basil Monday morning, as volunteers from Kaiser Permanente descended on the school's garden for weeding, pruning and picking.
Click here to read the article online.
Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Farmers swap seeds, knowledge
Jan 6, 2010
By Alan D. Mcnarie
Hawai'i gets most of its food from somewhere else. And even when farmers or gardeners grow fruit or veggies here, their plants probably still started their lives elsewhere.
"Here in Hawai'i, as home producers and market farmers, we really have to buy our seed from somewhere else," says sustainable gardening activist Nancy Redfeather. "Most organic market farmers in Hawai'i buy their seed from Johnny's, which is in Maine."
In recent years, interest has grown in changing that fact.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Big Island Weekly
Diana Duff's Master Gardener By-line
December 13, 2009
By Diana Duff
In August, a land-focused non-profit received over two million dollars from an ocean focused
federal agency. It was the first time this agency had made such a large
investment in this type of project in Hawai‘i, signaling a new understanding of the intrinsic connection between land and sea. This project is unique in that the benefits to an historic bay will be a result of restoration efforts focused on land. For truly, what happens at the source point, our watersheds, has direct impact on the end point, our bays.
» read more
Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
'Bay Concert' Celebrates Kahaluu Bay, Kane
November 24, 2009
By Margaret Masunaga
The Bay Concert, a celebration of life at Kahaluu Bay, gave special recognition this year to artist, historian and author Herbert Kawainui Kane.
The fundraiser, sponsored by The Kohala Center, was Saturday, Nov. 21 at the Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa.
Kane, a resident of Honaunau, was honored as a community leader at the very heart of the Hawaiian Renaissance and a celebration of all that is good in life.
Click here to read the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii 247.org.
VIDEO: Herb Kane honored at Bay Concert in Kona
November 23, 2009
By David Corrigan
Legendary artist and community leader Herb Kawainui Kane was honored during the 2009 Bay Concert in Kona on Saturday.
The event organizers, the Kohala Center, said that Kane is "someone at the very heart of the Hawaiian Renaissance and himself a celebration of all that is good in life."
Click here to read the article online and view the video.
Used with permission from Big Island Video News.com.
The "Cool Factor" Bonds Youth and Farming
November/December 2009
By Andrea Dean
Dashiell Hammet was a famous detective novelist.
Dashiell Kuhr, of North Kohala, is the energetic, articulate, handsome (dare I say dashing) driving force behind the Hawai‘i Youth Agricu lture Program and the operations of Uluwehi Farm and Nursery, a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm in North Kohala.
The owners, Tom Baldwin and Shannon Casey, were looking for someone to help manage their two North Kohala permaculture farms. Tom was introduced to Dash through a mutual friend and thus was the beginning of a fruitful (and vegetable!) relationship. Dash, his wife Erika Shickle, and their baby son Cyrus came to North Kohala in early 2008 and the collaboration has grown into a unique CSA educational program.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission by Andrea Dean as published in Ke Ola Magazine.
Big Vision for the Big Island—Step by Natural Step
November 2009
By Andrea Dean
Envision this: You woke up this morning and had a delicious fruit salad comprised of all locally grown fruits—mango, papaya, banana, dragon fruit—and topped with fresh cream from the local dairy, sprinkled with roasted macadamia nuts, and drizzled with organic honey. Feeling so energized by your colorful and flavorful breakfast, you walked the short distance to the local bus slop, where you caught the clean, quiet, hydrogen-powered bus to the airport. Your short interisland ftight on go! was powered by locally produced biofuel. Local farmers, scientists, politicians, and business leaders all came together and helped create a vibrant new economic sector by growing biofuel crops on marginal agricultural lands. Inexpensive leases and tax breaks make it all work financially.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission by Andrea Dean as published in Go!/Mokulele's in-flight magazine Innov8.
Yalies to study environment in Hawaii
November 11, 2009
By Katie Falloon
While many tourists imagine the island of Hawaii as a tropical paradise, it soon may no longer be able to support residents’ current standards of living. Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies professor Marian Chertow was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service in October to study ways to help the island of Hawaii achieve food and energy self-reliance. Chertow and her team will work with the Kohala Center, a non-profit research and education organization, to study human impact on the environment over the past 200 years in the cities of Kailua-Kona and Hilo.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Yale Daily News.
Big Island Big Ideas
Local leaders chart six ways to revitalize the economy
November, 2009
By Shara Enay
“We’re a big island but a small community. That’s what makes Hawaii Island unique. It’s what binds the people and it’s what will get us through this recession. Not, no can. Can!” Mayor Billy Kenoi’s confidence is shared by a host of other Big Island leaders. Where outsiders see a crippled tourism industry, high unemployment and reduced real estate investment, these local leaders see lots of big projects starting or on the horizon, a community consensus that is stronger than ever, and an abundance of visionary but realistic ideas.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii Business.
Student Voices: From King Ferry to Kona corals
October 30, 2009
Courtney Couch is a Ph.D candidate at Cornell University and coordinator for the Coral Disease Working Group, one of six working groups within the Coral Reef Target Research and Capacity Building Program funded by the Global Environmental Facility and the World Bank. Couch, with the assistance of The Kohala Center, will conduct coral disease surveys and measure coral reef community structure at 11 sites in West Hawaii during the next three years.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
Ideas by the bushel at meeting
Farmers, Kohala Center seek ag plan for Big Isle
October 29, 2009
by Nancy Cook Lauer
A nonprofit think tank is recommending Hawaii County take its agricultural base seriously by elevating an agriculture director to a Cabinet-level position and adding staff. Currently only one county employee, in the Department of Research and Development, handles all questions and requests about agriculture. The Kohala Center, which held a public meeting Wednesday night in Hilo to discuss an agriculture development plan for the county, is recommending at least three employees be hired to assist the director.
» read more
Used with permission from the Hawaii Tribune Herald.
National Science Foundation grant for revitalization study
October 25, 2009
Hilo and Kailua-Kona. How have these two Hawaii Island urban areas evolved in such different ways over the last 50 years?
Researchers at Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, the U.S. Forest Service in Hilo, and The Kohala Center, backed by a grant from the National Science Foundation, are going to take a stab at answering this question.
“Hawaii Island provides a model setting to test theories about human impacts on the earth system and about resource constraints on urban growth. Resource management issues are of critical concern for Hawaii Island,” said Marian Chertow, director of the industrial environmental management program at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from international society for industrial ecology.
Plan for growing our own
Nonprofit pushes ag development for isle
October 25, 2009
by Nancy Cook Lauer
Agriculture has been one of the linchpins of the Big Island economy. Yet with all the lip service county officials give agriculture and agricultural sustainability, they've been reluctant to put their money where their mouth is. In an era when it's more profitable to grow rooftops than radishes on prime farmland, when ranchettes are replacing the ranches of old, and paniolo are more often seen in parades than among the cattle, the statistics are sobering.
» read more
Used with permission from the Hawaii Tribune Herald.
Planting 'Seeds of Hope' in the future
Supporters of isle's school garden program board cruise ship in Hilo to promote sustainability
October 21, 2009
By Terrie Henderson
School gardens on the Big Island are growing in popularity, and educators spearheading these initiatives hope that today's keiki will hoe the row towards a future of sustainability. Nancy Redfeather, Hawai'i Island School Garden Network project director, said hopes more will pop up and continue to blossom.
» read more
Click here to view the article online and watch the video.
Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
What does it take to be carbon-neutral?
October 8, 2009
Students enrolled in the 2009 Cornell Earth and Environmental Systems (EES) Field Program experienced firsthand how to minimize their carbon footprint during their five months on the island. The students used solar water heating and monitored their electric and propane usage. They participated in a food cooperative and shopped at the farmers’ market to purchase locally grown fruits and vegetables, and they purchased grass-fed island beef as often as possible.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
No Child Left Inside: Hawai'i Island School Gardens and the Kohala Center
September 22, 2009
By Jacoby Young on KanuHawaii.org
Beginning in 2001, the Kohala Center was created as an independent, not-for-profit center for research and education. The center has made it their mission "to respectfully engage the Island of Hawai'i as an extraordinary and vibrant research and learning laboratory for humanity". They go about this through a multitude of programs; The Mellon-Hawai'i Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, Hawai'i Island Meaningful Environmental Education for Teachers (HI-MEET), the Hawai'i County Agriculture Development Plan, the Waimea Nature Camp for youth, and many more.
Click here to view the article online.
Stimulus funds devoted to Hawaii watershed restoration
September 21, 2009
By Karin Stanton
KAILUA, KONA, Hawaii — Pelekane Bay was a sheltered place where fish once thrived, fed by streams from Kohala Mountain. Today, the inland Pelekane watershed is overrun by nonnative plants and animals, allowing sediment to flow into the bay. Also, ranching, development, feral goats and wildfires have left the land mostly barren or covered with invasive fountain grass. A local partnership is using $2.7 million in federal stimulus money to restore the watershed, located on the northwest coast of the Big Island.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Honolulu Advertiser.
Hawai'i Island School Garden Network is the featured Community Group on the Jack Johnson 'All at Once' Website!
Click here to see the Web site.
Oct. 16 luncheon celebrates school gardens program on World Food Day
September 16, 2009
The Kohala Center celebrates the 26th Annual World Food Day with a benefit "Seeds of Hope" luncheon for the Hawai'i Island School Garden Network (HISGN) from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. October 16 aboard the Golden Princess docked at Hilo Harbor. Reservations are required by September 30.
» read more
Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Kohala Center sponsors benefit for school gardens
September 14, 2009
The Kohala Center celebrates the 26th Annual World Food Day with a benefit "Seeds of Hope" luncheon for the Hawai'i Island School Garden Network (HISGN) from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. October 16 aboard the Golden Princess docked at Hilo Harbor. Reservations are required by September 30. "Children's garden programs are sprouting and growing in schools all across Hawai'i Island," said Nancy Redfeather, HISGN project director.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Honolulu Advertiser.
Stimulus Money Hits The Waves In Hawaii
September 13, 2009
In Hawaii, millions of dollars of stimulus money is going to restore marine and coastal habitats. Wilma Consul visits two of the sites and reports that these projects go a long way in helping ailing local economies as well as ailing marine habitats.
Click here to read more and access the clip online
Used with permission from NPR.
Hamabata honored with Hookele leadership award
Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations
September Newsletter
Matt Hamabata, executive director of The Kohala Center, has been recognized as a nonprofit leader in Hawaii who is making a difference in our community and honored with a 2009 Hookele award by the Hawaii Community Foundation and Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. Hamabata has guided The Kohala Center from its
bare-bones founding in January 2001 to a $4.1 million organization in eight short years, based on the vision of building research and educational programs that help communities on the island and around the world to thrive — ecologically, economically, culturally, and socially.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from HANO.
Deadline for outdoor science education program Sept. 7
August 20, 2009
Big Island students and their teachers will have the chance this year to leave the classroom and study firsthand ahupuaa (watersheds) of West Hawaii. The Kohala Center is launching HI-MOES, or Hawaii Island Meaningful Outdoor Education for Students, an innovative hands-on science-based program that focuses on bay and watershed education in the watersheds of the Kona coast and Kohala Mountain.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
Watershed restoration project underway
Auguat 20, 2009
The Pelekane Bay Watershed Restoration Project on the leeward coast of Kohala Mountain was officially launchedMondayinaceremony that included remarks by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. To fund the project, the Kohala. Watershed Partnership (KWP) 'received $2.69 million in federal funds through a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) coastal restoration grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
» read more
Used with permission from North Hawaii News
Learning event at Puanui gardens
August 19, 2009
Experience agricultural sustainability as the Hawaiians practiced it for centuries at the Kohala Center's learning event at the Puanui Project in North Kohala from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22. The Puanui Project works to understand the agricultural field system of leeward Kohala as cultivated by the Hawaiians and to apply that wisdom to furthering current agricultural sustainability. Its experimental fields, created for a National Science Foundation-funded research project, produce 'uala (sweet potato), kalo (taro), ko (sugarcane), and other plants that supported the Kohala population centuries ago.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Inouye helps kick off Pelekane Bay restoration project
August 18, 2009
by Karin Stanton/Hawaii 247 Contributing Editor
Pelekane Bay is getting some much needed TLC, thanks to a dose a federal stimulus money. The restoration project kicked off Monday, Aug. 17 at an invite-only reception attended by U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye. Pelekane Bay traditionally was a sheltered place for young fish to grow and mature, fed by streams from Kohala Mountain. The ancient heaiu of Puukohola National Historical Park overlook the bay, with Spencer’s Beach Park to the south and Kawaihae Harbor to the north.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
Seed sharing: Public seed initiative gets federal funding to move forward with plan
August 12
By Terrie Henderson
The Hawaiian tradition to mahale with their neighbors didn't start with who's bringing the lau lau to the next beach party. Farmers sharing their crops with the community and giving back to the aina is real Hawaiian legacy, and that's just what the Kohala Center and its partners are hoping to re-invent with the public seed initiative. The "Hua Ka Kua - Restore Our Seed" program recently received a federal grant to move forward on planning a statewide effort to build the program, which basically encourages farmers, gardeners and seed experts to help each other to find the seed variety that will flourish in their particular climate, soil and market.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Hamabata honored with Ho'okele leadership award
August 4, 2009
Matt Hamabata, executive director of The Kohala Center, has been recognized as a nonprofit leader in Hawai'i who is making a difference in our community and has been honored with a 2009 Ho'okele award by the Hawai'i Community Foundation and Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. "Just as a steersman, ho'okele, is key to guiding a canoe successfully to its destination, this award recognizes the significant and often less visible role that a nonprofit leader plays in improving the quality of life for Hawai'i's people," said Christine Van Bergeijk, vice president of programs for the Hawai'i Community Foundation.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Honolulu Advertiser.
Hawaii Public Radio
July 6, 2009
The Kohala Watershed Parnership has received $2.69-million dollars in federal stimulus funds to improve the condition of the Pelekane Bay Watershed. HPR's Sherry Bracken reports from the Big Island.
Listen to the report.
Click here to access the clip online.
Used with permission from Hawaii Public Radio
Habitats getting help
Projects in Maunalua and Pelekane bays will receive $6.1 million in federal funding
July 1, 2009
Projects to restore Maunalua and Pelekane bays will receive $6.1 million as part of the federal economic stimulus package, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced yesterday. [Preview] Federal Money to Help Clean Local Waters [Preview] Economic stimulus money is coming to Hawaii to help our reefs by removing invasive algae from Maunalua Bay. [ Watch ] In partnership with KITV.com The funds will help restore marine and coastal habitats while providing 88 jobs in the state. The two projects were part of 50 national restoration projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Star Bulletin
Environmental Committee supports Kahalu‘u Bay Project
July, 2009
Editors note: The Chamber’s Environment & Natural Resources Committee has selected the Kahalu’u Bay Project as one area of focus for this fiscal year. Awareness, protection and education efforts by the committee will seek to compliment the efforts of the Project. KEAUHOU—How do we restore Kahalu‘u Beach Park, a significant community park dotted with archaeological sites and a rich cultural history, and protect its pristine ocean resources—while encouraging the nearly 400,000 visitors annually to enjoy it?
» read more
Excerpt taken from the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce Newsletter 'Connections'
Hawaii shoreline restoration projects getting $6 million from NOAA
June 30, 2009
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will send more than $6 million in federal stimulus money to support two Hawaii projects dedicated to restoring shorelines. Advertisement On Oahu, NOAA announced today that The Nature Conservancy and Malama Maunalua's invasive algae removal project will receive $3.4 million in federal stimulus money to create 73 new jobs and restore marine habitat in Maunalua Bay. NOAA said it also will send $2.69 million in stimulus money to the Kohala Watershed Partnership as a coastal restoration grant to improve conditions at the Pelekane Bay watershed on the Big Island.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Honolulu Advertiser
Women talk story of good times and bad
June 29, 2009
At age 12, Puanani Burgess had lived in 12 different places. It got to the point that her family never unpacked. One day, Burgess noticed her grandmother never moved and inquired why. The answer was "different time, different place, different situation." When her grandmother was 14 years old and living in Japan, a marriage broker negotiated a bride price with her father. No deal was reached. She stayed. A year later, the marriage broker returned, but she again stayed. The following year, her grandmother, then 16, was sold to a skinny, tall Japanese man in Hawaii, a place she knew nothing about.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the West Hawaii Today
'Papayas and Bitter Melons' is a slice of life
June 21, 2009
Ups, downs of life focus of upbeat look at ohana power The ladies of "Papayas and Bitter Melons: Tales of the Bitter and Sweet," will be at the Keauhou Beach Resort Kalani Kai Grill from 1-2:30 p.m. Sunday, June 28, as part of La 'Ike Day at Kahalu'u Bay. Lucy Gay, Puanani Burgess, Ho'oipo DeCambra, Karen Young, Karen Hackler-Director, and Grace Caligtan of Oahu describe themselves as "community builders/activists/teachers/healers/friends who dive together into a lifetime of memories and surface bearing stories.
» read more
Used with permission from the Hawaii Tribune Herald
Spend a day at Hamakua Springs Farm
June 21, 2009
It's part of Kohala Center's 'Cool Farms, Hot Lunches' fun learning series Farm-fresh lettuce. Tomatoes and cucumbers straight off the vine. The Kohala Center's "Cool Farms, Hot Lunches" learning events continue with a visit to Hamakua Springs Country Farms with owner Richard Ha from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 27. Ha and his wife, June, operate Hamakua Springs Country Farms (formerly Kea'au Bananas). The 600-acre hydroponic farm on the Hamakua coast produces tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and other specialty vegetables for island markets, restaurants, and top local chefs.
» read more
Used with permission from the Hawaii Tribune Herald
Students spend Hawaii semester planting trees, studying environment
June 16, 2009
For the last six weeks of their semester in Hawaii, students in the Cornell Earth and Environmental Systems Field Program fanned out across the island to work as interns for various public and private entities. The students got their hands dirty gathering and analyzing soil samples; studying the effects of sedimentation on nearshore coral reefs; helping visitors to master proper reef “etiquette” before snorkeling; and carefully calculating their own carbon footprint by counting everything from their propane usage to the volume of local foods they consumed during their five months on the island.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
Going green at the Student Congress on Sustainability
June 16, 2009
GOING GREEN—Waimea resident Doug Teeple (right), who has not been to a gas station in more than two years, shares his e-Ghia with students. Teeple, a systems software engineer at Canada France Hawaii Telescope, converted his gas-powered car to full electric. He was one of several workshop presenters during the Second Annual Student Congress on Sustainability held June 11-14 at Hawaii Preparatory Academy. HPA and The Kohala Center sponsored the free event, which was attended by about 80 students and teachers from Maui, Oahu, and the Big Island.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Hawaii247.org.
Seeding the future for local farms
Hawaii Island Seed Exchange shares in gardening success June 3, 2009
By: Roger Harris And Diane Koerner
Experience an island community coming together to literally share the seeds of their gardening success and knowledge. It's happening at the 7th Annual Hawai'i Island Seed Exchange, Saturday, June 13, from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in Captain Cook. Gardeners know that one of the rules of success is to plant what grows well locally -- just look in your neighbors' gardens. And being able to plant their seeds is a special bonus. So, come early and share your seeds, cuttings, roots, and keiki plants at the Exchange to help build community food self-reliance, biodiversity, and health. (No potted plants will be allowed to prevent spreading the little fire ant.)
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Cleaning Kahaluu
Two dozen volunteers remove garbage at beach
May 24, 2009
by Chelsea Jensen
"My hands are full of cigarettes. Look at how much there is ... look ... There's so much cigarettes over here," said Justin Kenoi, 9, as he brought handfuls of cigarette butts, bottle caps and other refuse found strewn about Kahaluu Beach Park to a large garbage bag. About 25 people attended "La Ike Day at Kahaluu Bay" Saturday morning at the park's main pavilion. Mayor Billy Kenoi, along with his family, joined in the day helping community members clean up the 4 acre county park.
» read more
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Researchers study human impact on nature
By KARIN STANTON
Associated Press KAILUA-KONA
A Big Island think tank is leading a 20-year study focused on the intersection of human and natural systems. The Kohala Center, an independent academic institution, is partnering with Yale University to research the development of a long-range industrial ecosystem model that could have global implications. The study will monitor some 77 indicators in the three broad areas of environment, economy and community to determine how human actions influence natural resources. The results will provide ideas, methods and tools to use as a foundation to better manage and sustain communities.
» read more
Used with permission from Associated Press
Artists go with the flow for new Waimea show
May 8, 2009
Mixed-media exhibit opens on Sunday at Kahilu The varied physical and cultural landscapes of the waters flowing through Waimea from Kohala Mountain to the ocean are the inspiration for an invitational artists' event from Sunday, May 10, through June 12 at Kahilu Theatre. Kahe Mau Ka Wai A Waimea: Forever Shall the Waters of Waimea Flow reflects on the enduring waters of Waimea and cultural landscape through art and sharing.
» read more
Used with permission from the Hawaii Tribune Herald
Remembering Hawai‘i’s future by recognizing its traditions at Kahalu‘u and Keauhou
April/May 2009
by Matt Hamabata
Hanau ka ’Uku-ko’ako’a, hanau kana, he ’Ako’ako’a, puka (Born was the coral polyp, born was the coral, came forth.) Thus recounts Martha Warren Beckwith’s translation of the Kumulipo, the chant of Hawaiian origins, signifying na kanaka (Hawaiian/ humankind’s) relation to the natural environment and recently shared with marine scientists from around the world who convened at Kahalu‘u and Keauhou.
» read more
Used with permission from Ke Ola Magazine
Native Species Art Hike - Kohala
Island Events
Saturday, May 9, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Native Species Art Hike - Kohala with Melora Purell, Coordinator for the Kohala Watershed Partnership. This unique art hike is for amateur and professional artists of all ages who plan to submit artwork for the juried show “Hawai’i Nei 2009″ held June 13 to August 2. The exhibition will feature artwork in any medium that highlights native flora and fauna (those not introduced by humans) found from ridge to reef.
Click here to view the article online.
Used with permission from the Big Island Chronicle
Kohala Center’s ‘Cool Farms, Hot Lunches’ Program Commences With A Visit To Kawanui Farm On April 25
April 6, 2009
The first delectable learning event of The Kohala Center’s “Cool Farms, Hot Lunches” is a visit to Kawanui Farm with owners Nancy Redfeather and Gerry Herbert from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 25, 2009. The Kohala Center designed “Cool Farms, Hot Lunches” as a way for participants to connect with one another, with cultural and scientific experts, and with Hawai‘i Island’s natural, cultural, and spiritual landscapes.
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Used with permission from the Big Island Chronicle
Kohala nui
Education, environment and empowerment on the Big Island.
March 11, 2009
by
Andrea Dean
In 1999, Five Mountains Hawai‘i, a community health
non-profit group on Hawai‘i Island, facilitated an ambitious community education and planning process. Faced with a rising tide of health and social problems, residents were asked “What would make us a happier and healthier community?” The community responded with three top priorities: increase educational attainment for youth and adults, increase the ability of local people to qualify for available jobs and diversify the economy.
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Used with permission from Honolulu Weekly
Workshop held for managing, developing coral health strategies
February 18, 2009
by Subashini Ganesan
Is coral disease a threat? This was the focal point of the recent weeklong Pan-Pacific Coral Health and Disease Workshop at the Outrigger Keauhou Beach Resort. Biologists, scientists, professors, graduate students and managers gathered from across the mainland, Hawai'i and the Pacific islands to share data and compare information in an effort to understand coral reef deterioration.
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly
Hope and Change in Our Own Backyard
February 5, 2009
by Subashini Ganesan
In keeping with our national desire to embrace hope and change, I will dedicate the next few weeks to writing about organizations that create opportunities for the Hawaiian Islands. Although some of these organizations are based on Hawai‘i Island, they may serve as an inspiration for program development here on Maui.
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Used with permission from MauiWeekly.com
Scientists discuss coral reef health
February 8, 2009
by Karin Stanton
More than three dozen scientists, researchers and reef management experts met last week on the Big Island to try to kickstart a Pacific coral disease network. Scientists at the four day Pan-Pacific Coral Health and Disease Workshop, sponsored by the World Bank's coral disease working group and hosted by The Kohala Center, discussed data collected across the Indo-Pacific region and methods for integrating microbiology and ecology.
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Used with permission the Hawaii Tribune Herald
Scholarships offered for Cornell and Brown summer programs
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Kohala Center invites high school students to apply for scholarships to summer engineering and environmental science programs at Cornell and Brown universities. Applications are due Feb. 28 for the Cornell CATALYST Academy's one-week residential engineering program and for the Brown University Environmental Leadership Lab, or BELL, this summer.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Kahalu'u Bay Project gets third HTA Grant
January 13, 2009
The bright blue ReefTeach T-shirts will continue to be a familiar sight at Kahalu'u Beach Park this year, thanks in part to a State grant for preservation and marine conservation education programs at the bay. The Kahalu'u Bay Project received its third Hawaii Tourism Authority's (HTA) Natural Resources Program Award...
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Used with permission from Big Island Video News
The Kohala Center awarded 2008 Environmental Education Grant for Kahalu'u Bay Project
January 2009
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The year that was
January 1, 2009
By Rob Parsons
The past year was all about change, as exemplified by Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The call for change delineated some prevailing Rob Report themes: biofuel debates; renewable energy possibilities; water allocation and legal brouhahas; local food "sovereignty," responsible island planning and political leadership; and the over-riding theme of living sustainably in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
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Used with permission from Maui Time Weekly.
Fellowships for Native Hawaiian Scholars
December 31, 2008
The Mellon-Hawaii Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides Native Hawaiian scholars the opportunity to complete their dissertations or to publish original research. Applications for the 2009-10 fellowship program are being accepted by The Kohala Center.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Fellowships for Native Hawaiian Scholars
December 30, 2008
By The Kohala Center
The Mellon-Hawaii Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellowship Program provides Native Hawaiian scholars the opportunity to complete their dissertations or to publish original research. Applications for the 2009-2010 fellowship program are being accepted by The Kohala Center.
» read more
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Used with permission from Guava Bee.
Blessings upon all
December 28, 2008
By Carol Yurth
Happy New Year. May this year bring you unimagined blessings! Here's a year-end message from Matt Hamabata, Ph.D, entitled "Paradoxically, a Time of Opportunity and Optimism."
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Used with permission from Hawaii Tribune Herald.
Growing Trend
December, 2008
By Shara Enay
IT’S NO SECRET: Hawaii is facing a farmer shortage, which could one day cripple the state’s local agriculture industry. That’s why for the past year, Nancy Redfeather, executive director of the Hawaii Island School Gardens Network, has been working closely with Big Island parents and educators to get students interested in farming by creating their own on-site gardens.
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Used with permission from Hawai'i Business.
Saturday workshop focuses on growing food
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
In the last year, the Hawaii Island School Garden Network has expanded to serve school gardens in communities around the island. There are currently 45 projects, at varying stages of development, participating in the Garden Network.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Field of Dreams - Why Big Island farmers are key to a sustainable state economy
November, 2008
By Shara Enay
Friends of Richard Ha, president of Hamakua Springs Country Farm, describe him as the ultimate Big Island boy: humble, a little bit country and deeply passionate about the place he calls home. When he started out as a modest banana farmer more than 30 years ago, he had simple goals: raise his crops and provide for his family.
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Used with permission from Hawai'i Business.
A guide for volunteering out
Sunday October 26, 2008
by Bobby Command
"Preserving Paradise: Opportunities in Volunteering for Hawai'i's Environment." by Kirsten Whatley. Ever since humans have been in Kona, Kahalu'u Bay has been a community focal point. Its fertile soils and water supply once supported a major village of Native Hawaiians, and today snorkeling and surfing attract 400,000 users a year.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Hawaiian park reborn, thanks to UW students
Thursday, July 10, 2008
By Catherine O'Donnell
For Iain Robertson, a UW landscape architecture professor, Kahaluʻu Beach Park turned out to be one of the most fascinating projects he's ever worked on.
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Used with permission from University Week, the faculty/staff newspaper at the University of Washington.
Thinking Big
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
By Shara Enay
Last year, the Big Island spent about $750 million on fossil fuels, despite the abundance of alternatives such as solar, wind and hydro energy right in its backyard, according to The Kohala Center…
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Used with permission from Hawaii Business.
The new energy reality: Kanu Hawaiʻi asks forum attendees to be counted
Thursday, June 12, 2008
By Kristine Kubat
We know, it's The Kohala Center, again. Might as well get used to it. There's just no getting away from these leaders in the transition to Hawaiʻi's sustainable future if your mission is to document the trend.
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Reality check: Actuary advises islanders to cross their fingers
Thursday, June 12, 2008
By Kristin Kubat
It was a day-long gathering of experts as well as business and political players on the subject of Hawaiʻi's energy future and it began with a list of woes titled "Economic implications of the rising prices and diminishing supplies of liquid fossil fuel."
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Burning desire: No new oil-fired plants but HELCO's future is highly combustible
Thursday, June 12, 2008
By Kristine Kubat
They were assigned different topics by The Kohala Center, but private consultant Jim Lazar and new HELCO president Jay Ignacio both chose to focus on how the utility might, or might not, change in the face of the current oil crisis.
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
A call to action: Former state energy director goes activist
Thursday, June 12, 2008
By Kristine Kubat
Maurice Kaya served the State of Hawaiʻi as the director of its Energy Division for 20 years. Working within the confines of a department primarily responsible for business, economic development and tourism, he became known for his stoic persona, perfected during the height of the controversy over geothermal development.
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Energy forum decries dependence on oil
Saturday, June 7, 2008
By Jim Quirk
HILO -- "Wake up! The crisis is upon us!"
Maurice Kaya, a strategic energy and management consultant, used these words during a Friday forum to raise awareness of Hawaii Island's energy crisis, which will worsen without effective government intervention.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Energy freedom begins at home: Consumers can do what government will struggle with
Saturday, June 07, 2008
By Bret Yager
Energy experts and local lawmakers sounded the alarm on rising fuel prices Friday. Calling for greater energy self-sufficiency on Hawaiʻi Island.
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Used with permission from Hawaii Tribune Herald.
Designing minds: The Kohala Center & ʻAno ʻano Aloha collaborate on Institute for Pacific Design
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
By Kristine Kubat
You hear it in boardrooms and government chambers, classrooms and coffee shops, the word 'sustainability' is in standard usage when discussing the future and it seems this island has attracted an exceptionally high number of people who not only believe in the concept but feel compelled to make it a reality.
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Used with permission from Big Island Weekly.
Protecting Kahaluu Bay: Interpretive signs attempt to create awareness, provoke action
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
By Carolyn Lucas
A delicate balancing act is afoot to protect the resources at Kahaluu Bay while trying to bring people closer to the wildlife and appreciate the sacredness of this place.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.
Kahaluu Beach Park to get fresh coat of paint: Volunteers needed for the next two Thursdays
Monday, March 19, 2007
By Carolyn Lucas
Kahaluu Beach Park's main pavilion is getting a facelift this week. Hawaii County Department of Parks and Recreation recently gave The Kohala Center and University of Hawaii Sea Grant Extension Service permission to paint the building, benches and tables.
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Used with permission from West Hawaii Today.