State DLNR issues report on 1999-2001 activities

By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer

After doing without departmental reports for four years, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources this week released a report covering fiscal years 1999 to 2001 in a 179-page document heavy with statistics.

The DLNR has done annual reports since at least 1952, but they became biennial from 1994 to 1998. This the first and hopefully last triennial report, said Public Information Officer Mike Markrich, who put together the in-house document.

"Data is a benchmark that tells you where you are with whatever you are managing," said Markrich. "This report is an inventory of what belongs to the people of Hawai'i."

Outgoing DLNR Chairman Gilbert Coloma-Agaran said the department has concentrated on specific reports for the Legislature in the past few years rather than an annual report.

"If people want to know what is happening here and don't want to go through the separate reports we make to the Legislature, this report is good," said Agaran, whose replacement has not yet been named by Gov. Linda Lingle. "It is unfortunate we haven't been able to put out something like this every year."

Coloma-Agaran will become the Maui County Director of Public Works and Environmental Management next month. He said the work of the DLNR is to protect Hawai'i's natural resources, and the report shows the progress that has been made and the challenges that persist in each division.

"Government needs to be transparent about what we do, especially in a department like this where we deal with some of the most important resources in the state," he said. "People should see what we have been doing."

Here's a snapshot of where the department's various divisions stand:

• The Division of Forestry and Wildlife manages the 11th-largest forest area in the United States. The state's hiking trail and access program, Na Ala Hele, is under this division and is creating a formal risk assessment and management plan for public areas.

• The Division of State Parks manages 54 parks encompassing 26,814 acres visited by 12 million to 14 million people a year. Despite the heavy use of state parks, the division's budget has been cut from $9.4 million in 1995 to $6.3 million in 2001. Of the $750,000 in annual repair and maintenance funds, $250,000 is used to replace damage from vandalism.

• The State Historic Preservation Division protects and preserves all historic sites in Hawai'i and reviews 1,600 to 2,300 historic sites per year. The division has three branches — archaeology, architecture and history and culture i and manages five historic properties. When a developer finds ancient human remains, they must consult the division's Burial Sites Program which is involved with the proper treatment of 250 to 300 burial cases annually.

• The Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement provides statewide law enforcement to protect Hawai'i's parks, state lands and wildlife. The division employs 83 full-time patrol officers and 21 volunteer officers to patrol 2 million acres of government and privately owned conservation land. About 70 percent of their time is spent patrolling in small boat harbors and on the open ocean. In fiscal year 2000, the division made 68 arrests, issued 1,489 citation and issued 579 parking tickets.

• The Division of Aquatic Resources manages the fourth-largest coastline in the country, containing 80 percent of all coral reefs. It also oversees commercial fisheries, aquaculture, freshwater streams and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Ecosystem Reserve.

• The Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation provides facilities for recreational boats and manages 21 small-boat harbors, 54 launch ramps, 13 offshore moorings, 10 designated ocean water areas and 108 ocean recreation management areas. The ocean recreation industry contributes about $800 million a year to the state economy and the division has developed a five-year, $250 million capital improvement program for small-boat harbor facilities.

• The Commission on Water Resource Management regulates and administers the state water code enacted by the Legislature in 1987. Lingle has advocated elimination of the commission in favor of county-controlled water management. There are 376 streams in Hawai'i and the total groundwater pumped per day is estimated to be 516 million gallons.

• The Land Division plans, manages and develops public land and water resources. The division manages 1.3 million acres and leases more than 230,000 acres of public lands.

• The Bureau of Conveyances, created as a result of the Great Mahele in 1839, records and preserves all real-estate transactions in the state. The bureau examines, records, indexes and microfilms all title deeds, which increased from 21,000 in 1998 to 28,032 in 2001.