Pa'auilo Mauka Kalopa Community Association

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Pa'auilo Mauka Kalopa Community Association
November 2011 Newsletter

President`s Message

Fall has come to our lands and it feels right. We do not have the color changes of our trees but we can enjoy the chilly nights. Keep warm take your flu shots and keep healthy.

On October 1, 2011 Carl Pinahs called a meeting of our CERT team at NHERC. We had the pleasure of having Glen Honda from the Fire Department and a member of our community present a lot of information that we as first responders need. Our entire CERT team except for two members were able to be with us. It was a lot to comprehend but there was much information we needed to know. Thank you to all who serve on this team and to Carl for his leadership.

I have had a few calls about the coqui frogs and I need to thank Eric Witt who was recently willing to help those with questions about getting rid of the noisy creatures. There are a few of our neighbors busy fighting the infestation of coquis. This takes time and patience looking for the little critter. They multiply so fast and if you do not get them immediately you will have a whole family within a few days and the noise gets louder. If you need some advice about getting rid of the coqui I will be happy to help those who are living within the boundaries of our association get in touch with those who have had a lot of experience. I truly believe in the counsel ‘if you teach a man to fish he will have fish all of his life but if you give a man a fish he will have it only for a day”. This is why we are anxious to teach neighbors how to rid your area of the coqui. It would be great if we can work with our neighbors to keep our mountain quiet as we enjoy the stillness that we have taken for granted.

Member John Lindelow, who co-owns Ahu Lani Sanctuary and also manages the mechanics of our PMKCA website, has been busy fencing and planting at Ahu Lani. John and Ahu Lani manager/horticulturist Dave DeEsch have been working with the USDA planting trees and ferns under the Hawaii Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP), a federal and state partnership to encourage conservation and environmentally sound practices on degraded lands. Cost share and incentive payments are part of the Hawaii CREP program to aid the participants.

The first applicant for Hawaii CREP was John Lindelow of Ahu Lani Sanctuary. “Forests make rivers.” Lindelow states, “Our vision is to bring back the native forests, and the resulting permanent streams, that used to exist in our ahupua’a on the North slope of Mauna Kea. The Forest Stewardship Program and CREP helped formalize the vision for our 24 acres into a tangible plan.”

Lindelow further states, “The cost sharing and incentive payments are huge incentives to become involved with these programs. Through getting involved with CREP, we now have great relationships with NRCS, FSA, DLNR, and the local watershed partnerships.”

The Hawaii CREP program will help to restore riparian forest buffers, wetland buffers, and other reforestation sites by primarily planting native trees and vegetation and controlling invasive species. Working to meet state environmental objectives and to protect environmentally sensitive land in Hawaii, Hawaii CREP seeks to enhance wildlife habitat and control invasive species, as well as improve water quality and quantity, increase groundwater recharge, improve near shore coral reef health and diversity by filtering agricultural runoff and increasing water condensation in critical groundwater re- charge zones. Hawaii CREP will aid in creating forest buffer corridors and expanding critical habitat for many threatened, endangered, and rare species of Hawaii.

You can learn more about CREP via the Hawaii CREP web site, and via this PDF newsletter from the USDA Farm Service Agency. Also, for more information on how CREP might apply to lands in the Hamakua area, you can contact John and Dave at Ahu Lani as follows: John Lindelow cybernet@lava.net; Dave DeEsch egznhoney@lycos.com or 775-1663.

Our next board meeting will be held at the Vanilla Company at 7:00 pm Tuesday, November 8, 2011. We welcome any of you who wish to join us. We will work on our membership meeting to be held in Jan. 2012

Dolores S. Ramos
President PMKCA