UPDATE: (8/16/12)  Mahalo to Councilman Don Couch for the answer to this inquiry. The numbers were painted on the trees by the County Arborist, to assess the tree’s impacts to the proposed pouring of sidewalks with forms being placed & potential root pruning to the stability of the trees. – Each tree has a number that is 3 times diameter at breast height, D.B.H.; this distance is a guide to the radius out from the tree that is the critical root zone for anchor root function. So now we know. Next we are asking when the Council Committee on Economic Development, Agriculture and Recreation will schedule the hearing on designating these as exceptional trees?

As our community awaits County Councilman Mike White’s announcement, as chair of  his Economic Development Agriculture and Recreation Committee, the hearing on declaring this infamous Monkey Pod Quartet on South Kihei Road as exceptional trees, astute members of the KCA Street Tree Committee noted that three of the four now have numbers splashed across their massive trunks. Since we have had repeated assurances from the County Administration that these decades old stately shade tress will remain in place for several years, we are left to wonder if the markings are some prerequisite to the exceptional tree decision. We are asking questions; stay tuned for the answers.