EDITORIAL
DLNR audit needed to resolve dispute

Recently, criticism of Department of Land and Natural Resources Director Peter Young's stewardship of the agency has been growing.

It ratcheted up last week when representatives from the Sierra Club Hawai'i Chapter, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. and Hawai'i's Thousand Friends undertook an extraordinary public airing of their complaints. They accused Young of putting private landowners above the public trust and so mismanaging the department that several upper-level staffers have resigned.

Gov. Linda Lingle says she has full confidence in Young. Leaders of the Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i and the Hawai'i Nature Center stood by him at a press conference he held in response to the criticism and acknowledged his support of the environment.

Most of us pay scant attention to the daily workings of government unless we have a personal interest in the matter.

But we all need to pay attention if there are problems affecting the DLNR. The department manages more than 1.3 million acres of conservation land, one-quarter of the land in the state, making it the state's largest landowner. The department also is responsible for managing historic sites, water resources an ocean recreational concerns, wildlife, hunting and natural area reserves.

DLNR's responsibilities are too important for this dispute to linger.

A legislative committee will meet tomorrow to decide if an audit of the department is in order. For the sake of the department, the public resources it manages and public confidence, the answer must be yes.