Ka`u News Briefs May 16, 2011

Miss Ka`u Peaberry and Young Miss Ka`u Coffee courts rode into the festival on a float
with artwork by Anna Kailiawa.  Photo by Julia Neal

AFTER BEING PRESENTED AT THE KA`U COFFEE FESTIVAL on Saturday, the wetlands plan for Honu`apo drew about 40 people to the park yesterday. Longtime residents like Toku Nakamura, Iwao Yonemitsu and Pele Hanoa, who lived nearby and frequented the area when a sugar mill and port operated at Honu`apo, attended and shared their stories. Wildlife specialists and cultural practitioners also came to the meeting, including Megan Lamson and Bill Gilmartin of Hawai`i Wildlife Fund. Kiko Johnston-Kitazawa took people for rides in one of his outrigger canoes. The public reviewed the plan to protect the wetlands. Consultants said that trees, including some milo that are forming an island in the pond, kiawe, and possibly coconut trees would be cleared from the flat area around the wetlands. The wetlands would be fenced to provide a six-foot-tall barrier with a cap on the top to keep out cats and other predators. Clearing and fencing would require permits and more plans which could cost the county and Ka `Ohana O Honu`apo at least a hundred thousands dollars. The wetlands plan, which cost $40,000, is available by calling executive director Lehua Lopez-Mau. Another overall plan calls for building a new pavilion, roads, public campsites and fireplaces. Call 929-9891. 

Lehua Lopez-Mau (right), Ka `Ohana president Ken Sugai,
vice president Wendy Vance (with hat) and member
Ola Kochis presented a wetlands plan at the Ka`u
Coffee Festival on Saturday and at Honu`apo
on Sunday.  Photo by Julia Neal

KA `OHANA O HONU`APO has a new president, Ken Sugai. Sugai owns the home next to the ponds and has been a key supporter of preservation of the Ka`u Coast and wetlands within the 235-acre park. Also on the board are secretary/treasurer Megan Lamson, vice president Wendy Vance, Chris Manfredi, Michelle Galimba, Puahi Pulham and Sue Barnett.

KA`U COFFEE FARMERS were warned that keeping their farms clean of berries and branches on the ground and using a fungus spray to hold back a coffee berry borer infestation is the only way to keep the pest from destroying farms. Only one active farm in Ka`u has been found with the borers, and Ka`u Coffee Farmers Cooperative members volunteered to help the farmer strip all the branches of berries and bury them. The borers can be buried underground or burned to get rid of them. In Kona, some farms are cleaning up and some seem to have given up, according to UH-Manoa researcher Dr. Elsie Burbano, who has been studying the small beetle that lives inside the coffee cherry and eats the bean.

KA`U COFFEE FARMERS wound up their two day festival with a day of education yesterday from coffee roasters, buyers and café chain owners who have been in the business for many years. They stressed the importance of the place, which they admired as a good coffee growing location in the mountains of Ka`u. They stressed good farm practices, processing and storage and described many techniques to farmers on hand. They noted that the best coffee can bring a high price to people who want the highest grade coffee for their restaurants, stores and homes.

The Norberte family, with their JN Coffee Farms, got ink in
West Hawai`i Today when Joann Norberte called Ka`u Coffee
 "Kona's hotter, younger sister."  Photo by Julia Neal

THE KA`U COFFEE FESTIVAL made the front page of West Hawai`i Today on Sunday. Reporter Chelsea Jensen quoted Joann Norberte as saying, “Ka`u Coffee is like Kona’s younger, hotter sister.” Promoter of her family’s JN Coffee Farms, Norberte told West Hawai`i Today that “coffee all happened in Kona first, and we were able to learn from the good and bad to create a special coffee.” Joann Norberte, daughter of Leo and Herme Norberte, grew up in Pahala and lives in Las Vegas, where she promotes here family coffee online and to buyers and at conventions. The farm has 25 acres and produces 200,000 pounds of cherry each year. She also told the newspaper that she knows that the Ka`u farmers will pull together to keep the coffee borer pest from spreading and ruining crops. 

ROAD PAVING IS PLANNED throughout the week on Hwy 11 in the vicinity of South Point Road. Alternating lane closures will occur between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. each day, as weather permits.

KILAUEA DRAMA & ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK is holding auditions for their July presentation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Patience. They are looking for five women, five men, a chorus of maidens and dragoons of all ages. Auditions take place at Kilauea Military Camp Theater in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park today and tomorrow starting at 6:30 p.m. Contact Suzi Bond at 982-7344 or kden73@aol.com.

THE ENDANGERED HAWAIIAN PETREL is the topic at After Dark in the Park tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Seth Judge, from UH-Hilo, presents his graduate research on this species that has suffered a drastic decline because of numerous threats.

ALSO AT KILAUEA VISITOR CENTER AUDITORIUM, Halau Hula Kalehuaki`eki`eika`iu, under the direction of kumu hula Ab Valencia, performs on Wednesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.