Fire risk
The heavy cost of wildfires, besides lives and homes, includes the huge number of animals killed (estimated to be 3.5 million in California in 2017).
Fuel (undergrowth), not the spark alone, is the cause of increased devastation. Right now, the grass on Maunakea is knee-deep and almost impassable for hunters or hikers. The grass is green and lush due to all the rain, but in the next dry period it will become dry, turn brown and become the fuel for a fire.
Where will our precious palila birds and all our game birds be then!
Add fire to the volcano emissions and think of the pollution that we add to the atmosphere. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service states that grazing keeps the ecosystem healthy and the undergrowth in control, but here we allow the slaughtering of grazing sheep from helicopters.
On a different note, we see that the newspaper always spells our beloved “Mauna Kea” as Maunakea. Is this a corrected spelling? Mauna Loa or Mauna Ulu are unchanged, but suddenly “Mauna Kea” has?
Jim and Norma Watt
Mountain View
Not pono
Leilani Estates residents, even those living right next to fissure 8, got to go home over a month ago. There is a manned barricade, and the residents go back and forth.
Puna Geothermal Venture gets to go back and forth to their property past a manned barricade on Highway 132.
All that Pohoiki residents have gotten is to look at a beautiful new road, finished three weeks ago, complete with a locked gate.
Now, even though the road has been finished for three weeks, Pohoiki residents are being told they have to wait unnecessarily until Dec. 7.
We get to wait in line with our moving vans, trailers and entire households with the rest of the general public, which will be invited to go to a big county grand-opening party at the beach.
This policy is definitely not pono. It is purely political and discriminates against certain landowners trying desperately to go home just like the rest of the evacuees were allowed.
Sara Steiner
Pahoa