Some Progress at County Arborist Committee Yesterday

8/10/17 #kihei.
In a prior post, https://gokihei.org/environment/maui-county-arborist-committee-focus-on-proposed-removal-of-trees-at-kcc we referenced the legal requirement for Arborist Committee meetings:

“There shall be six nonvoting, ex-officio members consisting of: the arborist, the plan reviewer, the Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation, the Director of the Department of Public Works, the Director of the Department of Planning, and the Director of Housing and Human Concerns or their respective designees“

Yet none of them were participating. So seeing Parks director Ka’ala Buenconsejo show up yesterday afternoon was a step in the right direction, especially since this committee is under his department. Now we need him (or a designee) to continue while the community works to get the other five involved. There currently is no arborist, but the county is looking to hire one.

KCA had two directors present joining with several guys from “Maui Green & Beautiful”, our Councilwoman Kelly King, esteemed arborist Ernie Rezents and a few local residents, all concerned with the safety and welfare of our trees.

When the meeting concluded, the committee and staff walked the path lined with (mostly) Milo trees which had been “red x’d” meaning removal. The paint had since been modified. As far as we could hear everyone on the site visit (Parks director did NOT participate) agreed the deadwood needed to be removed and trees properly trimmed or pruned (as shown in the County Planning Plan) but not removed.

Another concern was about trees in the area of the Pi’ilani Villages housing developments makai of the Highway. Some have been removed, some drastically cut back and apparently many more are slated for a similar fate. Apparently some are on private property and some on government (state & county) property, but it was not clear to us which were where, and there was no representative from the HOA present. Corp Counsel reiterated that trees on private property were not in the committee’s purview.

The next meeting is scheduled for 9/13/17 at 1:30 PM back at the normal location, the War Memorial conference room.