Posted on: Thursday, April 21, 2005
ISLAND VOICES
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By Mary Steiner
Concerns about the future of trees recently planted along Kuhio Avenue are a strong and positive sign that the people of Honolulu deeply care about the environment of our city.
The Outdoor Circle shares the public's insistence that everything possible be done to ensure that the promise of the Kuhio Avenue beautification project be fulfilled. However, as the organization whose mission is to protect and preserve Hawai'i's visual environment, we'd like to set the record straight about the evolution of the city's plans to revisit the project.
Before The Outdoor Circle began speaking with the city about its Kuhio Avenue plans, we sent a certified arborist and landscape architect to conduct a thorough review of the project, as it exists today. Our assessment, prior to even speaking with the city, was that while hundreds of new trees along Kuhio are clearly a wonderful and welcome addition to Waikiki, the project itself was flawed.
Our experts identified numerous newly planted trees that create problems for public safety, for aesthetics and, in too many cases, for the health and viability of the trees themselves. Many trees, for example, were planted too close to each other to allow them to grow and mature. Others were planted too close to existing trees or other fixed objects. A smaller number of the trees actually pose potential safety concerns for firefighters or for traffic visibility.
Advertiser library photo • April 15, 2005 Those are the nuts and bolts about how the final plan was created, but it's not the whole story. A few months ago, The Outdoor Circle, like many O'ahu residents, worried that the Hannemann administration was on a mission to arbitrarily dismantle projects created by Mayor Jeremy Harris, cut maintenance costs and in the process cut trees without proper justification. Many in our community expressed similar concerns in letters to the editor and contacted The Outdoor Circle to urge us to intervene.
Based upon our discussions with the city about Kuhio Avenue and other important issues, we found that those suspicions were wrong. We were prepared for the worst, but we found the city, Mayor Mufi Hannemann and his administration to be eager for an independent review of their plans. Even before our input, the Kuhio Avenue plan was balanced and took great care to preserve most of the project. During our tree-by-tree physical examination, The Outdoor Circle was able to offer a number of suggestions to improve the project even further — almost all of which were gratefully received and incorporated into the final plan that was presented publicly.
In the end, The Outdoor Circle believes that the city's plan will ensure that Kuhio Avenue becomes the tree-lined, green refuge that was the original intent. As part of the project, all but four of the trees will be saved and replanted elsewhere on the island — not turned into wood chips, as some feared. We also firmly believe that left as they were planted, many of the new trees would never have reached maturity and would have died.
In addition, the mayor also has decided to leave the improvements and beautification of Ala Wai Boulevard as they currently exist.
Clear thinking has won out over clear cutting — and Honolulu will be a better city because of it.
As the organization that has successfully stood up for the beauty of our islands for nearly 100 years, The Outdoor Circle will not "go along" just to "get along," as the Hannemann administration knows. We will no doubt have disagreements in the future, and perhaps some of them probably won't end as peacefully and successfully as this one.
Mary Steiner is the chief executive officer of The Outdoor Circle.
Independent of our own assessment, The Outdoor Circle was asked by the city to review its proposal to deal with Kuhio Avenue concerns. We insisted on a separate walk-through of Kuhio Avenue with key city staff to specifically look at each individual tree from Kapahulu to the 'ewa end of Waikiki. As a result, the city is modifying its plans to conform to nearly all of the recommendations we made during that tour.
These shower trees on Kuhio Avenue are some that will be removed.
