Musings: Giving Way to Good

Venus, bright as a UFO in the west and just an arms width from a golden crescent moon, gave way to Jupiter, burning like a yellow coal directly overhead, which gave way to clouds the color of a shiner, streaks of pink and a band of gold in the east.

Slowly, KIUC's reliance on fossil fuel is giving way to renewables, with groundbreaking planned today on a $40 million solar project that will allow our utility to burn 1.7 million fewer gallons of oil every year while keeping tons of emissions out of the air. And it might even save everyone a few bucks. 

Meanwhile, up in Wainiha, swaths of naupaka, heliotrope, spider lilies and other coastal landscaping are giving way to sand. That's right, the state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands is finally making landowners give us back our beach under authority of Act 160.

In some places, as much as 20 feet of beach has been cleared. And when the beach is just 60 feet wide, well, that's significant. Now folks can actually walk that beach when there's big surf without fearing for their lives.

For example, this is a BEFORE picture of the beach in front of actor Pierce Brosnan's place, where an April 2011 post documented his long-term, systematic planting of the beach, replete with chicken shit and wood chips.

And here it is AFTER the state made him, and other landowners, get their vege off the public beach:

To give you an idea of the extent of encroachment along the stretch of beach near YMCA Camp Naue, this picture shows an area where one lot has been cleared, but the other hasn't yet come into compliance:

And yet another example of a cleaned lot next to one not yet cleaned:

Clean up is under way at this lot, where ironwoods were removed:

Unfortunately, Joe Brescia is still encroaching, but feel free to use his lawn chairs and hammock, since he's positioned them on the public beach:

Of course, the state will need to stay on it, since seeds are already sprouting:

But at least for now we have our beach back!

Big shout out to Caren Diamond, who proves once again that persistence, coupled with civility, intelligence, networking, scrupulous research, and a carefully executed lawsuit or two, can bring about positive change. 

If it weren't for people like Caren, Lucinda Pyles (her Oahu counterpart), Mina Morita, Harold Bronstein and a few key others — Rep. Derek Kawakami, who championed the bill's extension, and Sam Lemmo of OCCL for following through on enforcement — this problem would not have been addressed. We owe them a super-sized mahalo for devoting countless hours of their lives to protecting our beaches.