Growing Pains

Photos above and to the left: Waimea cows and view of Waimea from Parker Ranch. Photos courtesy of David B. Gomes.

The community is invited to participate in The Kohala Center’s upcoming Designing Our Future program, slated for October 1-9, 2005. Thirteen graduate architecture students from Montana State University and their professors will journey to Waimea for a week-long residential studio. They will study the triangle of communities formed by Waimea, Kawaihae, and Waikoloa, and consider possible ways to address the “growing pains” these communities are currently experiencing. This will be a “real-life” case study for the students, and their studio assignments will consider the potential impacts of proposed bypass roads in the region. Such impacts include development of lands adjoining the new bypass roads, potential impacts on existing commercial centers, and increased demands on existing infrastructure such as schools – necessitating planning for new public facilities in the region.

As part of the design studio, students will participate in an orientation to Hawai‘i Island’s cultural and spiritual landscape. Tom Witten, President of land planning firm PBR Hawaii, will present an overview of the planning and community issues of the region and how those have changed with time. Students will also meet with Riley Smith, representing Parker Ranch, a major landowner in the region, and with Bob Hunter, President of the Waimea Community Development Planning Committee, who will discuss current community-based planning efforts (see www.waimeaplan.org).

The public is invited to two evening talks in conjunction with the design studio. The first is on Monday, October 3 at 6:30 pm, at Parker School Auditorium. At the introductory talk, Tom Witten will discuss the history of Waimea and Parker Ranch’s previous planning efforts. Clark Stevens and John Brittingham will discuss general case studies from other locations that have successfully confronted their growing pains and retained their rural character and quality of life. On Friday, October 7, the public is invited back to Parker School Auditorium at 6:30 pm. Mr. Brittingham and Mr. Stevens will recap lessons learned during the week-long studio, followed by MSU student presentations. Both talks will be followed by an audience question and answer session with the students and their professors. Both talks are free of charge and open to the community. Resource materials that the students assemble during the week will posted online at the www.waimeaplan.org website and made available via CD at the Thelma Parker Library.

Photo: Ocean Science campers return to shore after snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay (top), and Fantastic Campers on Hoku‘ula pu‘u overlooking Waimea (bottom).

Parents, campers, and staff agree that The Kohala Center’s 2005 Science Camps, directed by Susan Lehner, were a success! The Kohala Center also received lots of positive feedback from parents and from our partners at Waimea Middle School:

“Thank you for your partnership and generosity of time and funding to make it possible for a number of our Waimea Middle School students to participate in this summer's coral reef science camp at Ke'ei! We have had great feedback from students and parents! And we know it would not have been possible for many of these young adults to have participated without your collaborative support. There were several who registered who can be challenging, but they are also exactly the students who NEED this kind of opportunity to get connected to learning...and to life. We genuinely hope this helped them discover how much fun learning can be...We know the entire Kohala Center staff poured a lot of time and effort into making this possible -- in partnership with North Hawai‘i Community Learning Center at Waimea Middle School's 21st Century grant. May we extend a warm mahalo from all of our Waimea Middle School team.” - Patti Cook, Site Coordinator for North Hawai‘i Community Learning Center at Waimea Middle School

The 43 local fifth- through ninth-graders who attended the Ocean Science Camp at Ke‘ei were invited to share what they liked best in a post-camp Art & Writing Competition. The campers’ original artwork and written entries were judged by Kohala Center senior staff, and Mindy Campbell of Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy was selected as the grand prize winner. Mindy received a $25 Border’s Gift Certificate generously donated by Todd Presley, Borders Books General Manager. Each entrant was awarded free Dilly bar ice cream coupons, thanks to Jeff Mehring of Parker Ranch Shopping Center’s Dairy Queen. View some of the impressive entries, and see why the judges felt that each entrant deserved a treat.

The Fantastic Incredible Science Camp in Waimea was also a success. Campers went on two excursions into the Kohala Forest Reserve with Marty Meyer, “snail guy” and doctoral candidate at UH Manoa in conservation biology. The campers saw firsthand the threats to native ecosystems presented by the numerous invasive species which have established themselves in our forests. They hiked through the forest (and the mud!) identifying native and non-native trees. They captured invasive ants with peanut butter sticks. They made their own fruit fly traps to hang in their yards. And they enjoyed the view of Waipi‘o Valley from a vantage point high above the valley floor. One Fantastic camper wrote, "Marty is the nicest teacher I've ever had!" Several students wrote this on their evaluation forms: "I loved this class!" Read Backyard Biology, a West Hawai‘i Today feature article on the camp, to learn more.

Back from Brown

Photo: Erica Perez helps a camper with her snorkel at The Kohala Center’s Ocean Science Camp in July.

Erica Perez, UH Hilo Marine Science graduate, had a very busy summer. Erica was selected by Brown University’s Director of Leadership Programs, Robin Rose, to serve as The Kohala Center’s staff intern at BELL Rhode Island (Brown’s Environmental Leadership Laboratory). Erica first served as a Kohala Center teaching intern for an undergraduate marine biology program offered by Brown University in collaboration with The Kohala Center in January 2005. Erica worked closely with Robin in June and July at their BELL Programs at Narangansett Bay in Rhode Island. A few days later, Erica flew home to Hawai‘i to join our Island staff for this summer’s Ocean Science Camp at Ke‘ei Bay. Here’s what Erica had to say about her trans-oceanic, whirlwind work experience:

“I have never worked so hard in my life. The Brown staff met every day after the program and de-briefed on what worked and what didn’t work. It was so exciting being involved in such a high-quality program where everyone on the staff cared so much about making the program even better. I feel I learned a lot about what makes a program successful. Much as they wanted me to stay on in Rhode Island, I was happy to come home in July and share what I learned with the kids at our Ocean Science Camp at Ke’ei.” – Erica Perez

Three Hawai‘i students also attended this summer’s BELL program in Rhode Island, with scholarship support from Brown University and from The Kohala Center. These three students, Brooke Lawrence, Bryn Lawrence, and Zach Nealy, each wrote Robin Rose at Brown University after the program to thank her for the opportunity to attend and for the great experiences and friendships they enjoyed at the program. Robin shared this excerpt from Bryn Lawrence’s letter with us:

“When my mom first told me about the BELL Program, I was very excited to get the opportunity to go to the East Coast and do research in the salt marsh. The research aspect had the greatest influence on my wanting to join the program. I was kind of nervous about the leadership aspect. I expected myself to become a stronger leader, but I was nervous about meeting all the new people. What I was most amazed about and very pleased about were all the relationships that I formed in only two weeks. In just two weeks, I formed relationships with 24 total strangers. I sincerely love all the people that I had the privilege of spending those two weeks with. Lots of love and aloha, Bryn Lawrence”

New Energy

Photo: Carolyn Blake at Waialea Bay on a recent Sunday afternoon (top). Su-Lyn Poon, enjoying the breeze at ‘Anaeho‘omalu Bay (bottom).

The Kohala Center is pleased to welcome two new staff members to our team. Carolyn Blake joins us as our new Program Coordinator and Su Lyn Poon joins us in the role of Staff Associate. Both Carolyn and Su Lyn are hard at work in our Waimea office, crafting new programs for the fall and winter seasons.

“When I arrived here in 2004, I knew almost immediately that the Island of Hawai‘i is where I belong. Before my move to the Island, I coordinated a program in the remote northeastern corner of Washington focusing on water quality through a watershed stewardship approach. Much like Hawai‘i, Washington has a dry side, a wet side, a rich native culture, and a wide range of ecosystems. Working with my community to protect and preserve our environmental, economic, and cultural well-being through research, education, and local involvement is familiar territory for me. As The Kohala Center’s Program Coordinator, my personal goal is to create the best possible experience for every person involved in every program.” – Carolyn Blake

“I just graduated from Haverford College. As a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science and Society Scholar, I spent a summer with the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, conducting visitor studies for the Marian Koshland Science Museum. I was selected as a StartingBloc Fellow at the Institute for Responsible Leadership, a competitive program on corporate social responsibility, social enterprise, and sustainability, organized by top business schools on the East Coast. My team submitted and presented the winning business proposal for the Social Innovation Competition. I'm excited to be in Hawai‘i, learning about culturally appropriate ways to combine my training in anthropology and biology and my interest in social responsibility.” – Su Lyn Poon

Call for Papers

Photo: Fijian sailing canoe illustration from The Maritime Compendium: An Encyclopedia of Designs and Motifs.

The 17th Annual Symposium on Maritime Archaeology and History of Hawai`i and the Pacific will be held on February 18-20, 2006 (Presidents' Day weekend), at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, on Hawai‘i Island. This event is co-sponsored by the Marine Option Program and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and the Maritime Archaeology and History of the Hawaiian Islands (MAHHI) Foundation. The theme for this year's conference is "Our Voyaging Ancestors."

Conference organizers are currently seeking papers for presentation at the symposium. Suggested topics include: 1) biographies of notable voyagers within the Pacific; 2) traditional seafaring and voyaging in the Pacific; 3) Western seafaring and voyaging in the Pacific; 4) contemporary voyages using traditional sailing techniques; and 5) recent archaeological research of Pacific maritime cultures. Abstracts should be no more than 300 words and include a title, name(s) of presenters, and affiliation. All presenters will be expected to register for the conference. Information concerning registration will be sent to presenters upon acceptance of their abstracts. The deadline for submission of abstracts is October 1, 2005. Please email your abstract and contact information to Donald Froning Jr. at froning@mahhi.org. For more information about the conference, visit www.mahhi.org, or write to MAHHI, P.O. Box 8807, Honolulu, HI, 96830-0807. All presenters will be notified by October 15, 2005.

Environmental Heroine: Linda Elliott

Photo: Linda Elliott washing an oiled loon (top) and the clean loon in the drying pen (bottom).

For the past month or so, North Kohala resident Linda Elliott has been immersed in an emergency wildlife rescue effort, resulting from an oil spill in Lake Wabamun in Alberta, Canada. The spill affected over a thousand birds and small mammals at this large lake outside of Edmonton. Linda is part of a wildlife emergency response team tasked with the job of working closely with the community to rescue and rehabilitate as many birds as possible. Linda writes this from the field:

“I am still working with the Alberta Canada oiled wildlife response, going into the third week. Just released our first four ducks today, out of about 140 oiled and rehabilitated birds in our care. We will be checking a couple of dozen more for release tomorrow. I have helped with search and collection, rehabilitation, de-oiling, and conditioning for release. It is great to see the birds clean and floating in pools. As soon as they gain weight and healthy blood values, they will be released to a beautiful lake two hours south of this center. I am excited to be able to share my expertise to help this community with their wildlife rescue efforts and to represent North Kohala’s aloha spirit.” – Linda Elliott, Lake Wabamun, Alberta

This past spring Linda Elliott worked with The Kohala Center as a guest presenter at the Brown University Environmental Leadership Lab (BELL Hawai‘i Program). She led twenty four participating high school students on a hike through the Kalopa Forest Reserve, a 100-acre preserve surrounded by non-native forests on all sides. She explained to the students that Hawai‘i is the endangered species capital of the world, and briefly touched on how introduced species, habitat loss, diseases, over consumption of resources, and pollution have wreaked havoc on native species. She pointed out how one species of finch evolved over time into many species of honeycreepers – to fill all the environmental niches which are filled by a variety of animals in most other places in the world. She described the thirty-pound geese and the huge flightless eagles and owls that once inhabited this Island. She explained the need to develop management plans to protect the remaining endemic species. She described her experiences rescuing and rehabilitating wildlife in six countries, as a participant in seventeen oiled wildlife responses over the past ten years. And, finally, she outlined her plans to found the Hawai‘i Wildlife Center: a center for research and education, a clinic to treat and release sick and injured animals, and a place to share endemic and indigenous species (primarily avian) with residents of the Island. Linda is working with local and national sponsors to develop a facility for the center in North Kohala and to open the doors of that facility by summer 2006. Read more about Linda Elliott or the Hawai‘i Wildlife Center. Learn more about the Wabamun Lake, Alberta spill and the Wildlife Recovery Centre.