Aloha Kakou,
Elle Cochran here. I was having a hard time logging on to verbally testify. So, I just want to briefly mention that Jay Penniman & Fern Duval were just in West Maui a week ago Working with Hannah Bernard and her new Hawaii Wildlife Discovery Center in Whalers village. They have created a whole section in the Disco. Center all about Birds. This center is a wealth of information and a great outreach opportunity for not just visitors but our local residents too. It is a best kept secret still but the want to change that and have more participation especially with our schools and keiki. Please go by and visit the Center! I was at the soft opening with CARE Chair Kelly Kimg and GREAT Chair Mike Molina.
Soon example of birds will be hanging from the ceiling showing them in flight. At night on the roof tops of the Whalers Village the Seabirds come home to roost. It's an amazing sight to see and hear!
My IEM Committee spent many meetings on the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance and it has always been a work in progress!
Mahalo for your time,
Elle Cochran
Light pollution is growing exponentially across Maui County, making life for native seabirds and other marine animals more difficult with each passing night. I am in support of Bill 21 to amend Maui County Chapter 20.35, because it specifies lighting uses that protect wildlife while addressing human needs. It includes a replacement schedule for existing lighting that is problematic as well as prohibitions on new installations of certain bulb types, light wavelengths and direction of illumination.
The specifics regarding shielding and lights used in and around pools or reflective surfaces are especially important too as people build more along the shore, and install more pools, water features and reflective solar panels.
This is not about aesthetics, its about restoring ecosystem functions humans cannot replicate without extensive technology or expense. Seabirds once inhabited all elevations above the waterline throughout Hawai‘i nei. For eons they fished out to sea and returned to land to nest, bringing with them the gifts of their guano. Rainy, tropical soils the world over are notoriously lacking in an element critical to plant growth: nitrogen. This is no small matter. In the early 1900’s millions of tons of seabird guano were minded from the leeward Hawai‘i an Islands and sold the world over. When seabirds poop on land, they complete the nitrogen cycle. Without their deliveries, we cannot repair our native forests and restore our native trees which have proven superior to introduced species for preventing erosion, sequestering carbon and collecting and storing freshwater in forest soils: all necessary ecosystem functions as we face climate change. We can spend countless dollars on technology and labor to mimic these ecosystem functions, or we can focus on the connections these species have to our well-being and make minor changes to get out of the way and let them do their work. The birds are connected to the land, our forests, our water supplies and back again to protecting the reefs from run-off.
My 35 years of working in conservation in Hawai‘i doesn’t prepare me to speak as someone born and raised in the culture, but I can speak to a conservation concept that needs more emphasis. The modern definition of a cultural landscape is more than an archeological site. It’s a place where you can directly experience the sights, sounds and species that your ancestors would have seen and heard generations ago, and sharing those experiences can help us today understand the origins of a culture. Being able to hear seabirds call at night, to see stars used in navigation may not have scientific or ecosystem function/economic benefits, but those priceless resources and experiences are just as important at preserving the language of a culture.
Careless and over-lighting does not protect us, it robs us of these ecosystem functions and diminishes the intangible experiences necessary to understand cultural origins. Bill 21 works to restore the broken links in nutrient cycling and cultural connections.
Jeff Bagshaw
Communications and Outreach Specialist
State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Maui Nui Branch
Aloha Kakou,
Elle Cochran here. I was having a hard time logging on to verbally testify. So, I just want to briefly mention that Jay Penniman & Fern Duval were just in West Maui a week ago Working with Hannah Bernard and her new Hawaii Wildlife Discovery Center in Whalers village. They have created a whole section in the Disco. Center all about Birds. This center is a wealth of information and a great outreach opportunity for not just visitors but our local residents too. It is a best kept secret still but the want to change that and have more participation especially with our schools and keiki. Please go by and visit the Center! I was at the soft opening with CARE Chair Kelly Kimg and GREAT Chair Mike Molina.
Soon example of birds will be hanging from the ceiling showing them in flight. At night on the roof tops of the Whalers Village the Seabirds come home to roost. It's an amazing sight to see and hear!
My IEM Committee spent many meetings on the Outdoor Lighting Ordinance and it has always been a work in progress!
Mahalo for your time,
Elle Cochran
Light pollution is growing exponentially across Maui County, making life for native seabirds and other marine animals more difficult with each passing night. I am in support of Bill 21 to amend Maui County Chapter 20.35, because it specifies lighting uses that protect wildlife while addressing human needs. It includes a replacement schedule for existing lighting that is problematic as well as prohibitions on new installations of certain bulb types, light wavelengths and direction of illumination.
The specifics regarding shielding and lights used in and around pools or reflective surfaces are especially important too as people build more along the shore, and install more pools, water features and reflective solar panels.
This is not about aesthetics, its about restoring ecosystem functions humans cannot replicate without extensive technology or expense. Seabirds once inhabited all elevations above the waterline throughout Hawai‘i nei. For eons they fished out to sea and returned to land to nest, bringing with them the gifts of their guano. Rainy, tropical soils the world over are notoriously lacking in an element critical to plant growth: nitrogen. This is no small matter. In the early 1900’s millions of tons of seabird guano were minded from the leeward Hawai‘i an Islands and sold the world over. When seabirds poop on land, they complete the nitrogen cycle. Without their deliveries, we cannot repair our native forests and restore our native trees which have proven superior to introduced species for preventing erosion, sequestering carbon and collecting and storing freshwater in forest soils: all necessary ecosystem functions as we face climate change. We can spend countless dollars on technology and labor to mimic these ecosystem functions, or we can focus on the connections these species have to our well-being and make minor changes to get out of the way and let them do their work. The birds are connected to the land, our forests, our water supplies and back again to protecting the reefs from run-off.
My 35 years of working in conservation in Hawai‘i doesn’t prepare me to speak as someone born and raised in the culture, but I can speak to a conservation concept that needs more emphasis. The modern definition of a cultural landscape is more than an archeological site. It’s a place where you can directly experience the sights, sounds and species that your ancestors would have seen and heard generations ago, and sharing those experiences can help us today understand the origins of a culture. Being able to hear seabirds call at night, to see stars used in navigation may not have scientific or ecosystem function/economic benefits, but those priceless resources and experiences are just as important at preserving the language of a culture.
Careless and over-lighting does not protect us, it robs us of these ecosystem functions and diminishes the intangible experiences necessary to understand cultural origins. Bill 21 works to restore the broken links in nutrient cycling and cultural connections.
Jeff Bagshaw
Communications and Outreach Specialist
State of Hawaii, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Maui Nui Branch