Clean Up Koheo Wetland
Community Contributed by Arelone Dibben-Young
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Environment & Ecology
Add your commentThrowing Away Our Future
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Community Contributed By Jill Ross
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Building healthy soil takes less effort then a trip to the dump, literally. Your used coffee grounds, paper/yard waste and food scraps are soil waiting to happen. By stuffing them into a plastic bag and driving them to the dump you’re interfering with the natural decomposition process, adding to our island’s looming rubbish pile, and wasting gas.
Every household, school and business could use more healthy soil. You don’t need a green thumb to properly apply compost. Each tree and plant in your yard will benefit from simply scattering your finished compost on the ground around them. Feeding our aina rather than our dump creates a sustainable future for generations to come, and it’s a really easy. There are many methods for composting. My family uses the static or passive method.
Start by gathering your kitchen waste every time you prepare food. We use a plastic Folgers’ canister with a lid. My family of four fills and dumps our canister daily (actually the kids do). Larger families can use five-gallon buckets or any container with a lid.
Collect all the paper and cardboard waste your household accumulates and set it aside or add it directly to your kitchen scraps, this will add carbon to the compost, helping things to break down.
Find a place in your yard to create a compost pile. No need for fancy composting bins – placing your pile directly onto the ground allows worms and insects access to the pile. Dump your kitchen waste, and cover with your paper and yard waste. Composting paperwork with you personal information on it eliminates the need for shredding. If you keep chickens or rabbits, adding their manure to your compost will speed up the process (any non-carnivorous manure will do). Keep adding to the same pile. Water your compost pile to keep it moist. No need to turn the pile, dig into it and you’ll find the bottom is converted into dark, worm-filled soil.
In as little as a month, you’ll have a pile of rich, healthy soil to put in your garden or on your trees/plants. If that sounds like too much work, then simply plant seeds into your pile once your compost is ready. You may also unknowingly create a garden: our compost is currently supporting a huge tomato plant that sprouted independently from an unfinished salad.
By composting all of our kitchen scraps and paper/yard waste, my household has reduced our non-recyclable garbage to three grocery-sized bags a month. Our garbage doesn’t stink or leak. We’re building soil, not landfills. Waste materials are resources. We can drive them to the dump and throw away a sustainable future for our children, or we can manage our waste at home and create soil that will sustain life for generations to come. The choice is yours.
Clear Brush to Prevent Fire
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Community Contributed
By Richard K. Schonely, Fire Inspector
Recent heavy rains have created new brush growth. Check your house and lot now!
The Department of Fire and Public Safety is encouraging property owners to make sure that their homes and land are in compliance with the Uniform Fire Code pertaining to brush as adopted by the County of Maui.
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The Department of Fire and Public Safety will be inspecting vacant lots and large house lots, known as parcels, yearly throughout Molokai. You are encouraged to visit the nearest fire station or the Fire Prevention Office and pick up brochures on how the parcel shall be maintained. You may also visit www.firewise.org to get tips on making your home safe from a brush fire. Please read the following and keep in mind that violators can face a fine of up to $1,000 for each day the violation exists. This does not include the liability that a property owner may face if his/her parcel is responsible for the spread of a fire.
Any person owning, leasing, controlling, operating or maintaining any building or structure in a hazardous fire area, or adjoining a hazardous fire area shall at all times:
1. Remove and clear all flammable vegetation or other combustible growth at least 30 feet on each side of the building or structure. This does not apply to trees, ornamental shrubbery or similar plants used as ground covers, provided that they do not form a means of rapidly transmitting fire from the native growth to any structure.
2. If the Fire Chief determines 30 feet is not sufficient to provide reasonable fire safety, remove and clear all brush, flammable vegetation or combustible growth from 30 to 100 feet from the building or structure. Grass and other vegetation located more than 30 feet from such building or structure and less than 18 inches in height above the ground may be maintained where necessary to stabilize the soil and prevent erosion.
3. Maintain any tree adjacent to or overhanging any building, and clear up dead wood.
4. Maintain the roof of any structure free of leaves, needles or other dead vegetative growth.
Please also keep in mind that electrical transmission lines shall also be kept clear of all vegetative growth. Do not attempt to remove hazardous brush near live electrical equipment without proper training. Contact the responsible utility company for information. Keep a 10 foot clearance around telephone and electrical poles, transformers etc. A 10 foot clearance shall also be maintained along all roadways.
Your cooperation is greatly appreciated and your neighbors will thank you. We must prepare for the next brush fire because it’s not a matter of if it happens but when. Are you prepared? Stay fire safe!
Putting Water in Local Hands
In the midst of a water permit acquisition and an important-agricultural land designation request by Molokai Properties Ltd (MPL), there are many questions remaining for homesteaders who feel bound to Molokai’s water.
Malia Akutagawa is president of Sust `ainable Molokai, a grassroots organization that educates the public on sustainability through traditional as well as modern methods.
Lately, Akutagawa has been teaching homesteaders about their rights to Molokai’s water. “Why are they [MPL] trying to get a permit to draw the water without a permit to pump it,” Akutagawa asked an audience of about 20 Ho`olehua homesteader s at Lanikeha last Wednesday.
A Crop for All Seasons
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For everything, there is a season, and knowing when to plant a certain crop is key to the success of your plantings. For starters, always plan ahead to the next season. Each season has its own set of characteristics and quirks that favor some crops over other ones, including rainfall, day length and temperature.
In Hawaii, there are at least four distinguishable growing seasons. The fall/winter slot, from September to December, has just past, but is usually a repeat of this season which I call the winter/spring slot. It’s a perfect time for broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, Chinese cabbages or mustards, leafy vegetables, root crops, and anything else you might want to take a chance on. January can be a time for beautiful warm sunny days one day, and torrential rains the next.
Hawaiians refer to this kind of weather as kaulua or ‘of two minds.’ This season is strongly influenced by the northerly storms, the ones that produce our large waves. Of these, the northwesterly ones are the most destructive because they’re opposite from our prevailing northeasterly winds, and many areas have no wind protection, including farms and residences. In the peak of this season, there are at least two to three new storms each week, and sometimes more. The rain also brings the weeds, and reminds me of the saying, ‘one year of weeds, seven years of seeds!’ This is one of the greatest challenges of gardening in the rainy season, and one in which farmers would like to avoid.
Of the cold season veggies, the safest ones to grow would be the underground crops, such as radish, beets, daikon, carrots, and even kohlrabi. Mustards kai choy, pak choy, and won bok thrive now. Lettuce grows well from October to May, but heavy rains this season can damage some of the thin leaved types. The thick-leaf, cast iron types such as romaine, heads, and hapa types like Anuenue, Concept, Sierra, or Nevada will do well.
Bulb onions, exclusively the Grano and Granex types, can be sown from September to March. These are the Maui onion types, and will grow just as well on Molokai and get pretty sweet, especially above 500 feet. Bulb onions take about 150 days or more to mature so they’ll be ready in May or June if started now. Irish potatoes also grow well during this season, but getting good seed can be a problem. Buying a big bag of small potatoes is one way to start.
The spring slot, starting in mid-March, it’s the last chance for some of the winter veggies, especially the broccolis and cauliflowers. Some of the Chinese mustards can grow all year round, but it’s good practice to have a crop-free period for each crop to break the insect cycle. Spring runs from March to June. April showers bring May flowers, so plant some flowers as well. Melons, cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers can be planted in mid-spring.
Since this is just a generalization of the seasons, it’s always a good practice to take a chance on a new crop. Who knows, sometimes winter never comes, and other times summer just goes on and on and on.
Wind, Cable on the Table
Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism News Release
With Lanai’s wind farm taking a tentative step forward, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT) are seeking public comment at meetings on Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Oahu regarding the Hawaii Interisland Renewable Energy Program (HIREP), and the Wind Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
A meeting will be held on Molokai on Feb. 3 at the Mitchell Pauole Center at 5:30 p.m.
The EIS reviews possible environmental impacts that may arise from wind energy program development under the HIREP and the range of reasonable options.
Make Your Own Fertilizer
Community Contributed
By Joe Kennedy
Will the price of fertilizer continue to go up? Is importing fertilizers bad for the environment? Yes! Importing fertilizer from thousands of miles away pollutes the environment, and we can make our own. Here are nine ways to make your own fertilizer.
1. Put sticks and branches parallel in piles to attract geckos, worms, and spiders. All animals and insects make manure.
2. Make habitat for birds by building perches and roosts, and bird baths.
3. Attract insects by mulching with newspaper and cardboard.
4. Find things that hold water and raise toads, fish and water plants. The mulch on the bottom makes great fertilizer.
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