NOT TOO LATE **DLNR hearing in Kihei Monday concerns number of Endangered Species killed by wind turbines

UPDATE 11/28/17 NO, IT IS NOT TOO LATE!

Sure you missed the meeting, but you can still email in testimony until 12/7/17. After THAT, it will too late to give your input.

UPDATE 11/27/17 With the public meeting tonight seeming to coincide with storm warning , many guys may not attend.

But as shown at bottom you have until 12/7 to submit written testimony.

If you want more reason to testify, see : http://oeqc2.doh.hawaii.gov/Other_TEN_Publications/2017-10-08-MA-DHCP-Kaheawa-Wind-Power-II.pdf

11/26/17 #kihei The euphemism generally used is “take,” probably because it sounds less offensive than kill. The reality is when some projects seek governmental approval to proceed with construction that everyone agrees will be obviously harmful, or deadly, to some specific endangered species, an agreement is reached by somehow deciding that project is necessary or worthy enough that an “allowable” number of them will be killed in the required EIS

One such project is Kaheawa Wind Power II, the series of turbines constructed in the West Maui Mountains above Maalaea. Phase I was completed in 2006, and concern was for the Hawaiian hoary bat and the Nene, the petrel and the shearwater birds, and agreement was reached on the allowable take.

But what happens if the project does not adhere to the agreement, if more individuals are killed? Is the project shut down or forced to mitigate their action to adhere to the agreed number? Generally not.

In what some call a “do over”, a new agreement is proposed to allow for more killing of the endangered species, and that is what is occurring now. This is apparently because the number of dead Hawaiian Hoary bats and Nene is expected to exceed the agreed limit.

With the Hoary bats, the problem is that almost nothing is known about their population on Maui, where they gather, what their foraging patterns are, except for a small area in Kahikinui that has been studied. For Kaheawa, the number of bats in the area was grossly underestimated when the EIS for the site was originally developed, but we still do not know how many bats are in the area or what percentage of them are represented by the turbine take.

Among concerns raised are the frequency of monitoring take (how often trained personnel walk in all potentially affected areas to look for casualties) and how wide a radius is searched. If the monitoring frequency is not sufficient, some dead or injured bats may have been hauled off by feral animals and so not counted.

The two broad mitigation methods are to fund studies on the bat population on Maui and its travel patterns, and to develop protected native plant areas to encourage breeding in other areas.

Illilani Media has an article on the proposal, as does MauiWatch.

If you are concerned, you may want to participate at the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife public hearing at the Whale Sanctuary, 726 South Kihei Road, at 6:00 PM, where public testimony will be received.

No can, you have until 12/7/17 to submit written testimony to Glenn Metzler at the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, 1151 Punchbowl St., Room 325, Honolulu 96813. His email address is glenn.m.metzler@hawaii.gov. Call (808) 587-0166 for more info.