Department of Land and Natural Resources

(Līhuʻe) – Personnel from three DLNR divisions participated in a challenging operation yesterday, to remove an unattended, illegally moored, 29-foot sailboat from the South Shore Ocean Recreation Management Area (ORMA) on Kaua‘i. 

HONOLULU – With support of written and virtual testimony from cultural practitioners, lineal descendants, keiki and kupuna on the importance of stream flow to support their livelihood and the ‘āina, the Hawai‘i Commission on Water Resource Management adopted instream flow standards for Wai‘oli Stream, in Halele‘a, North Kaua‘i, and for Honokōhau, Honolua, and Kaluanui Streams in West Maui. 

(Honolulu) – In an effort to salvage highly valuable corals severely damaged in Honolulu Harbor’s channel, the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) has taken emergency action to recover as many living pieces as possible. The damage took place two weeks ago and was caused by a dredging platform’s anchor and cable dragging over numerous coral colonies. 

(Līhuʻe) – Adventurers seeking to access remote areas in central Kauaʻi can now do so with caution, thanks to the re-opening of the Wailua Forest Management Road.  The road, better known as “Loop Road” has been closed following flood damage in 2018. Repairs to the road have been managed by the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) with contractor Waʻalani Enterprise.

 (HONOLULU) – Community members reported a man taking ‘opihi (limpets) from shoreline rocks within the Pūpūkea Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD).  Friday afternoon, a DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources (DOCARE) officer cited 55-year-old Roland Ching for violating Hawai‘i Administrative Rules relating to prohibited activities within the MLCD. He has no local address. 

(HONOLULU) – Today, the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) fined 54-year-old Wayne Keaulana Spatz, of Hilo, $633,840 for pouring poison into Pāheʻeheʻe Stream in North Hilo resulting in the deaths of an estimated 6,250 Tahitian prawns. This is the largest BLNR fine ever for an aquatic resource violation in the state.

(HONOLULU) – The State is investigating the circumstances associated with what is described as significant damage to corals and live rock near the entrance channel to Honolulu Harbor.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contracted dredging work to the Healy Tibbets Corporation. It is alleged the contractor dragged the dredging platform’s anchor and cable across coral colonies and deposited dredged material on corals. 

(HONOLULU) – Hawaiian monk seals resting on beaches always attract a lot of attention, particularly when it is a mom and her newborn pup. A well-known, 10-year-old seal, Kaiwi, gave birth to her fourth pup two weeks ago at Kaimana Beach on the edge of Waikīkī. Just like in 2017 when a seal named Rocky, pupped a seal which was named Kaimana, the recent pair have become quite an attraction. 

 (Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a Forest Reserve, Hawai‘i Island) – The first scenes for hikers intending to ascend the Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a cinder cone, do not exactly depict a pristine forest reserve.  Remnants of former industrial uses of the property, scattered across the landscape near the beginning of the 3.2-mile-long trail, were the focus of a 2009 Environmental Site Assessment, conducted by the USDA Forest Service Enterprise Program.

(HONOLULU) – Officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) regularly patrol Sacred Falls State Park, though each Mother’s Day for the last 22-years, their efforts take on extra importance and meaning.