Community asks that Honomu trees be saved

Honomu residents will ask the county Parks and Recreation Department to save their iconic banyan trees.

The trees in Honomu Park have become so enormous, with intertwined canopies, their roots reach underground to the other side of the street. The gangly trees hold much dead wood ready to fall whenever fate decides. But the trees also are a big tourist draw.

In an informal vote Wednesday night, Honomu residents chose to “save the trees and have the county take responsibility for their maintenance,” said Honomu resident Stone Willow.

The community previously asked for Parks and Recreation intervention. Mayor Harry Kim and new Parks and Recreation Director Charmaine Kamaka asked during a community meeting for a consensus opinion by Jan. 31.

Kamaka, who had not yet received the community’s request, emphasized by telephone Thursday that the job of trimming the trees has not been put out to bid and “nothing’s been done yet.” Rather, she said, she is waiting to get the community’s reply because “we want their input.”

Certified arborist Mark O’Dell, of Arborist Services LLC, said in his report that the trees were planted after Pearl Harbor’s bombing “in honor of the military men.”

The tree canopy stretches a total of 288 feet in the park, located on Government Main Road in Honomu.

O’Dell recommended various options.

To keep both trees, as the community desires, will cost $65,000, plus $10,000 yearly maintenance thereafter.

Kamaka wrote to the community of Honomu with her view that “the most prudent and responsible course of action is to have both trees removed in their entirety.”

But she told the Tribune-Herald that’s not final, and she will closely review what the community says.

“All of this is based on safety,” she said, emphasizing at the end of the interview, “they’re a lovely community.”

Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.