Posted on: Wednesday, September 8, 2004

EDITORIAL
No time to waste at Lyon Arboretum

No explanation of the tragic closing of the Lyon Arboretum, a unique treasure in the back of Manoa Valley, is consistent with a record of good management.

When some staff members complained that conditions at the arboretum were deteriorating to the point of danger to them and to visitors, of course liability concerns had to become paramount.

But there's no excuse for UH to have allowed the arboretum to deteriorate in the first place.

Lyon Arboretum, 194 acres of lushly wooded tropical rain forest in addition to its rotting buildings, is a magnificent resource. It's valuable for its critical research on endangered and rare native plants, its dozens of educational classes for the public and visits for schoolchildren, and as a source of plants for Hawai'i's gardeners. It's criminal that it's been treated as a forgotten stepchild.

Perhaps you were struck, as were we, by the artful front-page photograph by Advertiser staffer Deborah Booker of arboretum researcher Nellie Sugii gazing at a vial from her collection of rare and endangered Hawaiian plants.

Some of these plants no longer exist in the wild. It's inconceivable that the university would allow the facilities that house them to deteriorate to the point where their continued existence is becoming a worry.

The administration's approach at the moment appears to be to err on the side of safety. That is, to close buildings and limit access in every conceivable way that might become a liability problem.

That's simply not good enough.

The university must make up for lost time with Lyon Arboretum. Decisions, such as whether to repair or replace the cottages, must be made on a crash basis.

The university has some serious amends to make, to the people who work at the arboretum, to the army of volunteers who have made it part of their lives and to members of the public who rely on its services and treasure its beauty.