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Environment & Ecology

Slug Hunting

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Community Contributed by Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent

For many, a slug is just a slug, but there are over nine varieties of slugs in Hawaii, including brown ones, black ones, and striped-back ones. To control them, you treat them all the same way. Get rid of them before they get your food or your beautiful plants.
Slugs thrive in humid and wet areas, and are damaging pests of fruit trees, ornamentals, and vegetables. In dry areas, they’ll start moving on the first rain, and do most of their work at night. They can be very damaging in a garden with tender seedlings by chopping them off at the stem. Slugs are mobile and can cover 20 feet or more in a night.

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Naturally Speaking:

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

Community contributed by G.T. Larson

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Naturally Speaking

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Community Contributed by G.T. Larson

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Side Streets to be Widened

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Side Streets to be Widened

Friendly Market Center (FMC) has recently been approved for a Special Management Area (SMA) permit to subdivide a lot, a first step in widening Kamoi and Alohi Streets along FMC property.

The grocery store’s property falls under the county zoning area classified as Country Town Business District (B-CT). Those zoning requirements, set in 1993 during former Mayor Linda Lingle’s tenure, mandate that the two streets be two feet wider than their current width.

Alohi and Kamoi Streets are 40 feet wide, while the C-BT side street rules designate 42 feet.

The county is undertaking the road widening project, in partnership with FMC.

“It’s part of the B-CT. We have to comply,” said FMC co-owner Crystal Egusa.

The proposed value of the project is $25,000, if it is undertaken, according to its SMA application.

The permit to subdivide was approved by Molokai Planning Commission last week.

FMC also hopes to receive an SMA permit in the future to build a storage warehouse on the lot between Molokai Drive-Inn and FMC. The necessary subdivision for the road widening is also the first step for the possible building of the warehouse.

The MoPC has required McPherson to research more on B-CT, which will be discussed at the next MoPC meeting.

Last week, Molokai Planning Commission introduced Mikiala Pescaia as new chairperson and John Sprinzel as vice-chair of the commission.

 

Departures from Planning Commission

Joseph Kalipi, served since 2006


Radio persnality, public relations consultant and sales consultant for KMKK radio,Executive Director for Habitat for Humanity


“I hope that my presence and my participation on the Molokai Planning Commission will help to ensure our current and future needs as far as the scope of our work is concerned.At the same time, preserve our cultural value and the important things we love about Molokai – the people, simplicity of life, and that our resources are well-protected and preserved.Not only that, but so they can be cultivated and keep can going.”

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Land Crabs and Spiders

Sunday, April 17th, 2011

Community Contributed

By Glenn I. Teves, County Extension Agent

Crabs and spiders are closely related under a family or phylum called arthropods, and some spiders look like crabs. One in particular is the spiny backed spider, also called the crab spider. One of two species found in Hawaii, the more recent nuisance arrived in Hawaii in 1985 and on Molokai around 1989. This spider, with two distinct white spots on its back, is the one that makes webs all around houses, clothes lines, trees, and even your car if you leave it in one place long enough.

Most spiders are solitary, meaning they work and live alone, but the spiny backed spider form community webs and work in teams in areas with high populations. As a team they can cover very large areas with webs over a very short time. The female spiders hang by their short legs in the center of the webs, while the supporting lines or radii are adorned with wooly tufts of white silk believed to act as lures for insects. The male is much smaller than females and may be found hanging from a single web off the female web.


After mating, females lay egg masses on surfaces other than their webs, such as house walls. The eggs are enclosed in a thick, silky fluorescent green web covering, and turn yellow when the eggs hatch. One way of controlling them is to destroy these egg masses, which can contain over 100 eggs. Destroying egg masses is one way of keeping populations down.

Spiny backed spider populations are very cyclic, with high numbers during rainy humid periods, but will drop off in other times of the year. This insect is not known to be an indoor pest, but people have complained of being bitten or irritated by the web, especially in sensitive areas such as the neck. The bite has caused localized swelling in some individuals. Please seek medical attention if you’re allergic to bites.

Insecticide screening tests conducted by the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources have determined that Johnson’s No Roach, Strike Roach Ender, Black Flag Ant and Roach, and Raid House and Garden aerosols killed 90 percent of the females within 24 hours. These chemicals are not cleared for use of plants and trees. As with any pesticide, please read the label before using them, and follow instructions. Again, crushing the egg masses is another way of keeping populations down.

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The Big Wind Scam

Wednesday, April 13th, 2011

Opinion By Mike Bond

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County Budget Mana`o

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Money is short, but the ideas and motivation of Molokai’s youth do not seem to be.  The Maui County Council presented the next fiscal year’s (FY) budget for public mana`o, and students and young entrepreneurs were among those who spoke in support of Molokai programs.

Last month, Mayor Alan Arakawa proposed a $632 million budget for FY 2012.

County operations will be allocated $475.3 million and $157.7 million will go toward capital improvement projects, according the county website.

Molokai will receive $1.6 million in capital improvement projects. 

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Igniting Dreams

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Igniting Dreams

Some artists use paint as a tool of the imagination, others prefer clay, but for one artist, setting her art aflame brings culmination to the project. Mavis Muller, an artist from Homer, Alaska, came to Molokai two weeks ago and began her 20th public basket-burning project.

Muller spent the past week building a 7-foot structure with local community members willing to help. They used coffee plants, haole koa, mangrove, banana and other local plants for the basket.

Muller finds it to be a healing process when people can burn their heartfelt messages inside a hollow pedestal and basket, she said.


Last Saturday at Ali`i Fishpond, she invited people to write down and insert prayers, dreams and hopes on pieces of paper inside the basket. Around sunset, Kauwila Hanchett chanted in Hawaiian and torches were lit. Soon after, the dreams, hopes, and prayers of Molokai took a new form.

One woman even put a piece of her wedding dress in the basket. Another brought old love letters.
Muller calls her project “public art.”

“I feel like I have butterflies in my stomach and my heart is wide open,” one participant said.

Muller has held her burning events on Maui, and in California and Oregon as well as her home state.

 “She uses the art as a healing force,” said Teri Waros, owner of Kalele Bookstore and Divine Expressions, who helped facilitate the event. “It helps serve people here in our community.”

“I think this is a great way for the community to get together,” said participant Drake Wells.

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Naturally Speaking

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Community Contributed by G.T. Larson

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A Place to Honor

Monday, March 21st, 2011

A Place to Honor

Only about 20 percent of former Hansen’s disease patients who died in Kalaupapa have been given a proper grave, but with a commemorative memorial on the way, the remaining 80 percent will finally be recognized.

An Environmental Assessment (EA) for the proposed memorial has entered its final phase. If successful, construction will begin for a memorial to honor the 8,000 Hansen’s disease patients who have died on the peninsula.

The project is being carried out by Ka `Ohana O Kalaupapa, an organization dedicated to protecting distinct Kalaupapa values and history.  Their secretary, Valerie Monson, said she is hopeful about the EA process.

As soon as the EA is completed, a design competition for the memorial will begin, which will be open to the public. To be built on the site of the Old Baldwin Home, across the street from St. Philomena Church in Kalawao, the memorial will contain the names of all of those patients who were exiled to the peninsula and died there.

The memorial will be paid for completely by fundraising, according to Monson. Some organizations have already begun their own efforts to contribute to the effort. The elementary students at Kamehameha School-Kapalama held a bake sale last week and earned over $900 for the future memorial.

take care of this place.”

After all Kalaupapa patients pass away, the DOH will withdraw from the peninsula, and NPS will become the official caretaker of Kalawao County.

Some options incorporated into the plan options include overnight stays for visitors to Kalaupapa and a mandatory presentation before they explore the peninsula on their own.

Tamura said that she wants visitors to be in the right frame of mind before they enter the sacred and holy place.

Currently, children under 16 are not permitted to enter the settlement. But Kahilihiwa, a member of the advisory commission, said he thinks youth should be welcomed after patients are no longer living.

“Children should come, because Father Damien loved children,” he said,

Educating the public about Kalaupapa and its history at various sites around the state are also being discussed.

The GMP options will open for final public discussion on Oahu, Maui and Molokai in June.

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