HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0186.098 2020-2022 From: tiarelc
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2021 9:07 AM
To: Council Testimony
Cc: Lokemcmichael@hawaii.rr.com; 'Simmy'; Kkoay808@gmail.com; Igskona@gmail.com
Subject: Testimony for Resolution 80-21. Thank you for proceeding with Resolutions;,&�Q-21;!J!
Attachments: Resolution80-21 BanyansKeakealaniwaihine_Banyansjpg; Kailua-
KonaBayPriorToMudRockFloods jpg; Kailua-KonaAfterMudRockFloodsjpg
Importance: High
Aloha Honorable Council Members,
First of Al I,Thank you for Approving and Proceeding with Resolution 80-21 and all the other 3 too.. These properties will all in
each way protect aur Land, Culture and Ocean. They are all located in areas that can help buffer,and prevent floods and
prevent muddied waters with debris from entering the ocean and also provide areas of recreation and act and Nature
Habitats. The timing is perfect too, before the land becomes scarcer and also before the prices continue to escalate.
Kona is one of the only areas in the major Hawaiian island where the Coastal Waters are still quite pristine and have not
been substantially damaged by Sugarcane and Pineapple related processing, pesticide/chemical, soil, pollution and mill
runoff. We still have a lot of marine life compared to other parts of the State of Hawaii, encouragingly,this setting aside these
lands will help to further protect our Lands and Ocean. The Development of land and the population growth due to our
appealing weather and ocean will continue to add to damaging our ecosystem, so acquiring these 4 lands will at least help and
not hurt and is a good partial solution and is definitely a positive step in the right direction. Once the lands are gone,they're
gone and once the Ocean is damaged, it may become irreversible in the near future and have chain reaction consequences
that we are already experiencing. Case in point, we in the USA which covers thousands of square miles have lost almost
600,000 valuable human lives in about 400 days to this horrible pandemic,and our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones,
some losing several members in their family. Not to minimize or seem unsympathetic to those lost human lives, but just to
show a contrast on how many coral polyps lives are lost in a flood like those lost in the 2015 flood(caused allegedly by poor
landclearing in the mauka Kona lands)that muddied our Kona Shoreline,we lost 600,000 coral polyp lives in just 600 square
feet of area,a size of a very small apartment room in just one day. That flood affected over 2,000,000 square feet or over
3300 quantity of those 600 square foot apartment rooms, in equivalence of coastal waters and marine life.. That is just the
Coral polyp lives we lost,that doesn't count all the other thousands of marine life species that live along the coastline that
were lost, in addition to the coral lives.
In a Bioscience Volume 47, Number 9 article by Don Hinrichsen, he states what the Coral Reef Alliance Conservation Group
based out of California researched,that in just shoreline protection function alone, not counting all the other benefits of the
coral reefs,that one shoreline protection function alone is valued at a minimum of $50,000 per square foot of healthy coral
reef. So it is a win-win situation when we can purchase these lands in these Resolutions for$10 to$100 per square foot
which in turn can protect the shoreline waters which have these Millions of square feet of Kona coral reefs that have a
minimum protection value of$50,000 per square foot. If we do the"math"in all aspects,we save these lands,we end up
higher quality lands, higher quality oceans, higher quality of Life for humans and for all Life.
One day I would like to walk some important lands with the Council Members,especially some of the Mauka lands in Kona,
to show how critical it is to save and protect these lands for the chain reaction benefits of all Life, in such ways as better
quality drinking water, better Ocean Quality, less Pollutants entering our Oceans, less flooding, less soil erosion, Healthier
Ohia Forests, for the betterment of our Lives,for many generations to come. In addition to that,we can prevent the costly
devastating floods, costly due to the damage it does to our infrastructure and to Nature. Now is the time to do it,while we
still can and before it becomes not just unaffordable,but moreso irreversible. t
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Again many Mahalos to the Council Members for pushing these resolutions forward and having the foresight and true
wisdom in seeing the extremely high importance in these lands and the chain reactions of benefits it will create, not just
for now but for the Generations to come.
George Kaimana Yasuda
President/CEO Tiare Lani Coffee, Inc and Team Tiare, a Humanitarian Team.
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