Ka`u News Briefs September 16 , 2011

Get the Drift & Bag It cleans up beaches statewide tomorrow.  Photo from Hawai`i Wildlife Fund

GET THE DRIFT AND BAG IT is the cleanup activity tomorrow, statewide and on the Ka`u Coast. This decades-old event not only cleans coastlines across the state but reports the garbage from around the world that is found on Hawai`i’s beaches. Hawai`i Wildlife Fund will host the beach cleanup at Kamilo Point and Ka`alu`alu Bay here in Ka`u. The event is co-sponsored by NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and supported by the Surfrider Hilo Chapter and University of Hawai`i at Hilo.
      All volunteers will meet at Wai`ohinu Park on at 7:45 a.m. and are asked to bring sturdy shoes, bag lunch, sun and wind protection, plenty of drinks and four-wheel-drive vehicles if possible. Volunteers will set out to the sites at 8 a.m. and finish cleaning at around 2 p.m. HWF will supply cleanup materials. A second beach cleanup for Nov. 17 will gather debris along an undetermined part of the Ka`u coastline.
     Those interested can contact Megan Lamson at 769-7629 or kahakai.cleanups@gmail.com.

Leon Chow and Mantracker during the last filming of Mantracker, which
is looking for new human prey to hunt in Ka`u.

MANTRACKER, the Discovery Science Channel hit that follows riders and horses across the backcountry tracking down human prey, is returning to Ka`u to film two shows. The producers just announced casting calls to the local community in order to find teams of prey who think they can outsmart the Mantracker. Each team of two humans will have 36 hours to make it over 25 miles of Ka`u wilderness without getting caught by Mantracker. Mantracker will be guided by a local sidekick, a paniolo, also on horseback.
     The prey must be “exciting, competitive and compelling, who have the strength, smarts and strategy to outfox and evade,” says Mantracker production coordinator Michelle Budden. Members of each team of prey must be related in some way. They could be siblings, co-workers, or husband and wife.
     The deadline for applications is Friday, Oct. 28. To apply visit www.mantracker.ca or email Budden at contact@bonterraproductions.com for more information. Mantracker airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m.

AN ANIMAL ADVOCACY AND REEF WILDLIFE PROTECTION meeting will take place in Kona at Hualalai Academy School tomorrow. The Humane Society of the United States, the West Hawai`i Humane Society, and For the Fisheries will give an interactive presentation on current animal protection campaigns, past and future animal-friendly legislation, dangers of collecting marine wildlife, and how people can become involved in helping animals. The meeting is from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Bridge Building.

Carol Andrade

MORE TESTIMONY from Ka`u residents has gone up on the state Public Utilities Commission website regarding the proposed `Aina Koa Pono refinery between Pahala and Wood Valley and the biofuel farm on lands between Pahala and Na`alehu.

      Carol Andrade, of Pahala, wrote that she “would prefer that `Aina Koa Pono locate another site for their proposed refinery and power plant.” She wrote: “I live about a 20-minute walk from the proposed site area if the terrain was flat and a road was built to Meyer Camp. How close is that? AKP plans to build the refinery above Pahala which is too close for comfort for me; too close to the population; too close to the school; too close to the hospital; too close to the coffee farms; too close to the vegetable farm; and too close for my health! Sure, AKP will provide jobs, but what kind of jobs that will provide steady employment for the residents of Pahala? What about the quality of air? What about the health concerns for the population on Pahala? How about the EIS? Show us that what AKP says is ‘Pono,’” wrote Andrade.
     Dr. Robert Domingos, a music and language teacher who lives in Wai`ohinu, also submitted testimony, this one entitled A`ole `Aina Koa Pono in Ka`u. “I have read what several scientists and concerned citizens have testified opposing this project - I must speak for the trees. Those beautiful monkeypod trees that give Ka`u a tone of natural grandeur as well as wonderful hardwood for carving --  the humble keawe, its fallen branches prized for mesquite BBQ, even the stands of haole koa -- those trees that give Ka`u its canopy, which as we know, attracts rain. Rain for our arid south!

Robert Domingos leads musical groups and teaches music and language.
Photo by Julia Neal

     We remember when Manuka and Ocean View received more rain, before MacFarms cut down hundreds of koa and other hardwoods. We weep when we consider the ease with which we fell a hundred-year-old tree, helpless before man’s machinery. Don’t cut the trees - instead ask the businessmen on Kalakaua to close their doors and keep the air-conditioned air inside. We in Ka`u don’t use air conditioning, anyway.
      “Our precious landscape does not deserve an overhaul, leave it alone. There are many much simpler and less destructive ways of generating electricity,” wrote Domingos.

`AINA KOA PONO returns to Ka`u next week to discuss with the public its proposed biofuel refinery between Pahala and Wood Valley and a biofuel crops farm between Wood Valley and Na`alehu. The public meeting will be on Monday, Sept. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Pahala Community Center. This will be `Aina Koa Pono’s first meeting with the community since February.

VOLCANO ART CENTER’S FALL ART MARKET takes place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at its Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Fine arts created locally will be available for sale from the artists. There will also be demonstrations and hands-on activities.

ONE JOURNEY, the local group who won the statewide Brown Bags to Stardom talent contest, is scheduled to perform at the Hawai`i County Fair in Hilo tomorrow at 11 a.m.