Since its founding in 1951 The Nature Conservancy has become, “the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.” It’s an international organization with more than 117 million acres worldwide and 11 private preserves in Hawaii totaling 32,000 acres.Active for 20 years in the state of Hawaii, it’s a membership coalition that works in cooperation with more than 100 businesses. In Maui, the Conservancy manages preserves at Kapunakea and Waikamoi, the sites of a feral animal hunting initiative. On Lanai, it manages Kanepuu, the site of a see-it-before-you-die ecosystem. And on Moloka’i, the preserves Pelekunu, Kamakou, and Moomomi, which drew some controversy with its pro hunter approach to thinning non-native feral animals in an attempt to protect the landscape and vegetation, and prevent erosion.

However you feel about conservation and the environment, you owe it to yourself to see these preserves. Get in touch with The Nature Conservancy to find out how.

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler

Beaked whales are among the least understood whale species, as they are believed to spend most of their time feeding on or near the ocean floor.  For the full story on the discovery and transport of this unusual event, see the story at the Honolulu Advertiser.

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler

Here’s a question for you: What’s one of Waikiki Beach’s biggest problems? It’s not topless sunbathing. It’s not sharks. It’s not even the void left behind with the passing of Don Ho.Erosion of Waikiki Beach is one of the biggest problems facing the No. 1 tourist destination in the islands, such a problem that there’s no beach at the Sheraton except during times of extremely low tide. But the Sheraton Waikiki has a plan.

The Sheraton Waikiki will proceed with plans to restore a stretch of beach fronting its property and install groins in the water to inhibit erosion. The plan calls for installing three T-shaped, 160-foot-long groins in the water and pumping in sand to Gray’s Beach, which fronts the Sheraton Waikiki. Other beachfront properties, tourism experts, and environmental and land use planners are no doubt eager to see what happens, as the plan may be put to use by other areas facing the same problem.

There is also some opposition from surfers and locals who worry that the rock groins will pose environmental threats and and damage what has been a popular surf break.

Work could begin as soon as 2010, but before then, a number of state and federal permits are necessary.

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler

During the 1800s, during the rule of King Kamehameha I, Kaho’olawe was the site of the Hawaiian kingdom’s penal colony. Men were banished there, for such crimes as stealing, breaking marriage vows, and promoting Catholicism.

King Kamehameha II reserved the island for government operations, a radical new concept to the old Hawaiian regime. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Kaho’olawe was leased to ranchers, who populated the island with grazing animals that eroded the landscape by summarily reducing the island’s vegetation down to nothing.

Once the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, that was the end of Kaho’olawe as a viable habitat for residents or tourists. For the next fifty years, the island endured virtually irreversible damage from the US government in the form of constant munitions testing.

Today, Kaho’olawe is strictly off limits to visitors, including the waters approaching the shoreline, mostly because sections of the islands are riddled with unexploded ordnance from Kaho’olawe’s days as a practice target for the US Navy.

But Kaho’olawe has sustained some other, indirect climate and environmental changes as the result of farming and ranching. The great bridging cloud that once spanned the forest of Maui to the island of Kohoolawe, has disappeared as cutting and cattle destroyed the upper forests on Maui. With the cloud forest gone, and the rivers dry, Kaho’olawe is a true desert island.

In 1998, the United States Navy began a federally funded 10 year cleanup program which fell far short of its restorative objectives. Now Kaho’olawe preservationists are working diligently to remove the remaining unexploded ordnance, and to resoil & re-vitalize the land, and rejuvenate its cultural and historical value.

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler

If you know the social networking site Twitter, you know how easy it is to make new friends. (Come on over and make friends with me at Twitter or FriendFeed to join in the fun.) One of those new friends, who goes by the moniker LaMama Naturale over at her blog Recycle Your Day, is going to Kaua’i soon; it’ll be her first time to the islands, and her little one’s first-ever plane ride.As you can tell by the title, Recycle Your Day is a site that’s dedicated to green living, and in the post Save Kauai, LaMama addresses an important facet of traveling to my favorite place in the world: the environment is important, even while we’re on vacation. She reminds us that even a vacation is the time to reuse, reduce, and recycle, just like Hawaiian Jack Johnson sings. She plans to pack in, pack out when possible; that’s a good and admirable practice for us all.

I’ve written a few posts about green travel, and b5 media’s own Liz Lewis writes the blog Traveling the Green Way.

Here’s wishing LaMama Naturale a great trip to the islands. I know she’ll be hooked.

Image by Jody Reale

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler

From the environmental files: did you know that Hawai’i is the Endangered Species Capital of the World?According to the Hawaii Biological Survey, there are more endangered species per square mile on these islands than any other place on the planet. On the list of endangered living things are:

• Nearly 300 taxa of plants
• The O’ahu tree snail
• The Monk Seal
• The Green Sea Turtle (honu)
• 30 species of bird including the Hawaiian ‘Akepa, the Hawaiian Duck, and Hawaiin Goose (nene)
• And many more.

There are heavy, heavy fines for tangling with endangered species of any kind, which begs the question, “What can I tangle with?” The common sense answer is: Don’t fuss with any of the wildlife or plants on Hawaii. Everyone is better off.

Photo of nene by Flickr–Creative Commons, by eye of einstein

Post from: The Hawaii Traveler