(HONOLULU) – Wetland birds on Oʻahu have good reason to be celebrating World Wetlands Day on Tuesday, as wetland habitat at Kawainui marsh on O‘ahuwill soon be improved through a new restoration project.  

(Hilo) – The palila, an endangered, native Hawaiian forest bird, is receiving assistance next month from the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW). DOFAW will conduct trapping of mouflon/feral sheep hybrids, and staff hunting and/or aerial shooting from helicopters for feral goats, feral sheep, mouflon and mouflon/feral sheep hybrids within palila critical habitat in the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve (Unit A), Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve (Unit K), Palila Mitigation Lands, and the Kaʻohe Game Management Area (Unit G) on the island of Hawaiʻi.

(Honolulu) – Researchers with the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Islands Coastal Program (USFWS) have discovered the endangered Hawaiian yellow-faced bee, (Hylaeus anthracinus) is being threatened by invasive ants. These findings are the subject of a new paper being published in the open-access journal, NeoBiota. 

(HONOLULU) – Authorities are searching for the person or people who cut through metal gate poles and fencing at the “entrance” to Pu‘u Ola‘i (Little Beach) at Makena State Park on Maui. The beach section was closed on Jan. 5 in an effort to stop Sunday evening large gatherings (drum circles) attended by hundreds of people. 

(Honolulu) – For most of the past year, boaters using the busy State Boat Ramp at Maunalua Bay in East O‘ahu have not had the benefit of a loading dock. By Friday, a new $400,000 dock will be completed. 

(HONOLULU) – Conservation Resource Enforcement Officers (CREOs) Kelly Woods and Edward Thompson, along with ten others with no background in law enforcement, graduated from the first DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) Academy last July.  

(Honolulu) – The Kaulunani Urban and Community Forestry, a program of the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW), is proud to support Arbor Day Hawaiʻi 2021 through its community forestry grant program.

(Kaanapali, Maui) – A 73-year-old man from California, snorkeling off Airport Beach in front of the Maui Westin at Kaanapali, was bitten by a shark this morning. Fortunately, he suffered  only minor lacerations in the encounter, which happened at about 7:20 a.m. There were no other snorkelers or swimmers in the immediate vicinity and the man swam back to shore on his own and called 9-1-1. 

(Honolulu) – A new beach maintenance project for Waikīkī Beach starts next week. The project is a collaboration between the DLNR Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands (OCCL) and the Waikīkī Beach Special Improvement District Association (WBSIDA).

 (HONOLULU) – State botanist Susan Ching and her team spend their lives propagating, planting, and protecting Hawai‘i’s rarest plants. Today, Ching was sweeping up the mess left by vandals who broke into a DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) greenhouse at Waimano, likely on Friday night. The dirt all over the floor, the broken containers, and the gaping hole vandals cut to gain entry are fixable.