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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Ka`u News Briefs Tuesday, June 17, 2014


Volunteers from Southside Volleyball team, Pacific Quest and `O Ka`u Kakou removed invasive plants from the pond at Punalu`u Black Sand Beach Sunday. Photo by Katherine Okamura 
BAY CLINIC’S KA`U FAMILY HEALTH & DENTAL CENTER will benefit from a grant of $4,000 from the Friends of Hawai`i Charities, Inc. Funds will be used for preventive health care outreach and education activities. Bay Clinic’s Pediatric Care Management Program provides childhood immunizations, developmental screening, preventive dental care, as well as non-emergency primary medical care for all children regardless of insurance status living in East and South Hawai`i Island.
      According to Bay Clinic CEO Harold Wallace, poor nutrition and limited access to health care are known to cause mental and other developmental delays that affect a child’s ability to learn and develop good social skills, and untreated medical and dental diseases are major factors in excessive absences from school.
      “As a patient-centered medical home, our services are designed to provide coordinated and comprehensive primary medical and dental care for our patients from birth and throughout their lives,” Wallace said.
      The goal of the Pediatric Care Management Program is to increase access to primary medical and dental health prevention, screening, treatment and education services for all children, and most especially the children who would otherwise not have timely access to healthcare.
      To make an appointment for keiki, call the Bay Clinic’s Ka`u Family Health & Dental Center at 929-7311.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

THE BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY ORGANIZATION, which lobbies at the national level, is joining the lawsuit to overturn Bill 113, Hawai`i Island’s ban on genetically modified crops. Anita Hofschneider reports in Civil Beat that the global trade group spent almost $8 million lobbying federal officials last year.
      Karen Batra, of BIO, told Hofschneider the group joined the lawsuit “to show its support for local farmers, including one of its members, the Hawai`i Papaya Industry Association,” also a plaintiff in the case. “Bill 113 is a direct assault on the technology and on the local farmers and growers that utilize that technology to increase their productivity,” she said. “Biology is something that evolves, so you’re going to have evolving pests and evolving plant diseases. You shouldn’t prevent the use of science and technology coming to the aid of this industry.”
Here the giant camera is carried out to sea from New Bedford, Mass. on the
Kathie Marie, also transporting the Hawaiians to document the scallop
population on the floor of the Atlantic. Photo by Richard Taylor
      Hawai`i County Council member Margaret Wille, who introduced Bill 113, said BIO’s decision to join in the lawsuit is a sign of the industry’s influence on local farmers. “It’s just another indication of how these multinationals are sort of using the local organizations,” she said.
      Hawai`i Agriculture Board member Richard Ha, one if the plaintiffs in the suit, told Hofschneider, “It’s good that they’re involved and we have a common interest. But they’re not running us by any stretch of the imagination.”
      See civilbeat.com.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

TWO YOUNG KA`U MEN are in New England this summer, doing what Hawaiians often did in the late 1700s and 1800s, join a ship from New England to explore and work at sea. Isaac Davis and Preston Kana`i Tamura Kuahiwinui are working with Ka Lae resident Richard Taylor, photographing the sea floor to document scallop beds from the boat the Kathie Marie
      Recording of scallop bed locations and estimation of the population helps regulate the industry. Davis also worked in New England last summer with Portuguese fishing crews and with Taylor’s scallop project. The crew operates a large camera with a joystick, guiding it along the ocean floor with its ups and downs. The documentation is funded by the scallop industry and helps determine how many and from where scallops are to be harvested each season.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Volunteers move from a cleared area of Punalu`u pond to continue removing
invasive plants. Photo by Katherine Okamura
`O KA`U KAKOU SPONSORED A CLEANUP at Punalu`u Pond Sunday. Participating were volunteers from OKK, Southside Volleyball Club and Pacific Quest. 
      Southside boys are staying at Pahala Plantation Cottages while they train for the Boys Junior Nationals Championship being held in Houston, Texas from June 28 through July 5. Players from Ka`u are Emmett Enriques, Kai Enriques, Brian Gascon, Addie Enriques, Avery Enriques, Nai`a Makuakane and Kameron Moses.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI`I IS RECEIVING A $3 MILLION grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for energy research. This grant comes as part of the DOE’s nationwide initiative to advance hydrogen production and delivery technologies to produce, deliver and dispense hydrogen at a cost equivalent of less than $4 per gallon. Expanding use of hydrogen in transportation can help to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, save drivers and families money over the long-run and reduce carbon emissions.


      “This federal investment recognizes Hawai`i’s continued leadership in the field of renewable energy research,” said Sen. Mazie Hirono. “As part of the DOE’s initiative to advance cost-competitive hydrogen-based energy, the University of Hawai`i is contributing to efforts that could lead to significant advances in renewable technologies and create a stronger, more sustainable Hawai`i.”

      This grant will fund ongoing research at the University of Hawai`i that examines use of specialized cells, known as photoelectrodes, to harness solar radiation and use it as an energy source to split water molecules into their original building blocks of hydrogen and oxygen. Once separated from the oxygen, the hydrogen will then be utilized for fuel purposes.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u residents can help The Nature Conservancy identify weed locations in
Hawaiian rainforests by studying high-resolution images online.
Photo from The Nature Conservancy
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY IS LAUNCHING the Hawai`i Challenge, a crowdsourcing campaign to help save the islands’ remaining native forests, including, in the future, those in Ka`u. 
      Less than 50 percent of Hawai`i’s native forests still thrive in high-elevation, remote areas of the islands, but they are threatened by invasive weeds and other human impacts. The Hawai`i Challenge targets two plants that started as ornamentals, but have become invasive: the Australian tree fern and the African tulip tree.
      Through DigitalGlobe’s online crowdsourcing platform, Tomnod, anyone can contribute to saving native Hawai`i’s forests by tagging the locations of invasive weeds in high-resolution aerial images. Visit nature.ly/1vw5voZ to start.
      “Crowd participation to identify weed locations in remote, dense Hawaiian rainforest will help us do our job to protect perhaps the most precious resource the forest provides – our fresh water,” said Jason Sumiye, director of Landscape Science for The Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i.
      By crowdsourcing the project, staff in Hawai`i are hoping to identify the number and location of these invasive plants much more quickly than they could on their own, as well as provide a quality check to the individual currently during the image analysis.
      “The crowd can take our analysis ability from one person to thousands of people by sharing the images online through DigitalGlobe’s Tomnod platform,” Sumiye said. “We look forward to the help of armchair conservationists everywhere.”
      DigitalGlobe is best known for its work with rescue and response crises like the missing Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. They have never worked on an environmental project before.
      “DigitalGlobe’s purpose is “Seeing a Better World™. Using all of our tools to make the world better lines up with The Nature Conservancy’s goal to protect nature and preserve life,” explained Luke Barrington, senior manager of Geospatial Big Data with DigitalGlobe. “We’ve had a huge response to global problems in the past, and we’re eager to engage our volunteers to solve new types of problems,” he said.
      This project is beginning with Conservancy-provided high-resolution aerial photography of Kaua`i’s remote rainforests. If it is successful, the Conservancy has thousands more acres – and images – to analyze from across the state.
      To comment on or like this story, go to facebook.com/kaucalendar.

Ka`u residents can meet County Council District Six
candidate Jim Wilson Sunday.
HALAU ULUMAMO O HILO PALIKU under the direction of kumu hula Mamo Brown presents a hula performance tomorrow from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Free; park entrance fees apply.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS SPONSORS a Candidate Forum 
this Saturday, June 21. Doors open at 12:30 p.m. at Christ Church,
 81-1004 Konawaena School Road
 in Kealakekua.
      County Council District 6 candidates are featured from 1 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. State Representative District 5 candidates meet the public from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m.
      The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization established to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation of citizens in government.
      For more information, call 933-VOTE (933-8683).

JIM WILSON, HAWAI`I COUNTY COUNCIL District Six candidate, offers a talk story this Sunday, June 22 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Refreshments will be served.
      For more information, email jimwilsoncouncil@gmail.com.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM. KA`U COFFEE MILL IS OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.




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