Hanalei Fall Report - 2000

1. HHR Operations. The Forest Service grant funds Hanalei's participation with the American Heritage River Initiative, which now includes 4 paid part-time staff and the HHR office. HHR Staff received Hui approval to make slight staffing changes and set aside a contingency to be used in the event of a personnel change or for end-of-year administrative work. The staffing change will also provide a small contingency if the program's budget for supplies and outreach is depleted prematurely as currently anticipated. Hui members contributed over 100 hours in this reporting period toward program planning and administration (293 hours to date toward year target of 360 hours). Hui and Staff spent considerable time this quarter refining program policy. The attached HHR Policy was affirmed by the Hui at its 1/13/01 meeting and represents a compilation of all policy decisions reached by the Hui since its inception. Dwindling meeting attendance sparked discussion on how to better engage and measure community participation and as well as how to quantify the success of the program's numerous public outreach efforts. HHR Staff clocked over 236 hours toward their in-kind contribution commitment (727 hours to date toward year target of 780 hours).
2. Community Resource Library. Substantially readied in the first quarter, the HHR Library has not yet enjoyed much community use, but staff are working to get the word out. Several agency partners voiced appreciation for the bibliography circulated as part of the Watershed Assessment Scoping (see below). Staff hope to focus on making the library compatible with national standards before the end of the year.
3. Specialized educational and informational opportunities. The grant workplan specifies the HHR program will convene a minimum of 20 forums on various issues relevant to the Hanalei Watershed and Community Planning, funded by a $10,000 grant from the Wallace Gerbode Foundation. As of December 31^st, HHR staff had facilitated 14 forums, 12 of which were originally identified in the grant proposal. Ho'ike Public Access Channel provided the HHR Series with a regular schedule, contributing $6,000 ($14,400 to date toward year’s $24,000 target). In its review of the workplan, the Hui removed the forum topic "County of Kauai General Plan Update" from the year’s workplan as the County Planning Dept. and project consultant chose not to participate in a forum in Hanalei (the island-wide meetings were also very well publicized and attended). See attached HHR Community Forum Series.
4. Public Outreach. With HHR newsletters published in June, August, October and one planned in January, the workplan's minimum will be met (future issues anticipated in March and May). Work on the HHR website was postponed in the second quarter, with several improvements identified and prepared but not yet uploaded until staff is able to install and learn the necessary software. Although temporarily causing a delay, the change in planning will result in new skills and capabilities in-house and make future updating much easier. Attached, Its About the River (10/00)
5. Watershed Action Plan.Many of the priorities in the WAP are well under way and further discussed as separate activities below. The Hui has decided to host informal events to gather community recommendations for program focuses and priorities, rather than more formal workshops or meetings.
To address community uncertainty about a proposal to study the effects of Hau bush (a riparian shrub) removal on river flooding, HHR Staff are investigating project revisions with the granting agency, National Fish & Wildlife Foundation and looking for funding for computer modeling.
6. Community-led communication & planning processes. Program efforts to assist the community in establishing relationships and authority with governmental agencies and decision-makers continue to include publicizing, hosting, and/or broadcasting forums as appropriate. In the Hui's first step toward collaborating with other watershed efforts, staff is actively seeking funding for a project proposal to export the Hui's water quality program and newsletter model to other Kauai groups.
7. Ahupua'a Inventory & Assessment. As specified in the work plan, the Ahupua'a I&A would see two phases this year, compilation of existing data into a GIS project and written analysis and scope to inventory and assess the physical, natural and cultural resources identified in the community’s Watershed Action Plan.
This fall, the existing scientific and GIS data were analyzed qualitatively to assess the health of the Hanalei Ahupua'a. The results of this assessment were formally presented in a master's project written by Jay Griffin, which has been added to the HHR library and will be made available to both the community and program partners. Jay, a Duke University graduate student and Doris Duke Foundation Fellow, also provided the program with numerous GIS project maps that can be used for public presentations and as templates for future mapping. These include wetland habitat, coral reef, tax-key maps, water quality sampling sites, vegetation classification and others. Community GIS training is available upon demand. HHR staff are making arrangements to produce a pamphlet describing this project and its findings.
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) received preliminary funding (approximately $20,000) to scope the Hanalei Watershed Cooperative River Basin Study in federal FY00-01. Additional funding has been requested. Several agencies, including NRCS, U.S. Geological Survey, State of Hawaii Office of Historic Preservation, Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry (USDA Forest Service), State Dept of Land and Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources and US Fish & Wildlife Service, provided scientific consultation at planning meetings in October and November. Participants agreed the best result of these meetings has been increased interaction between the partnering agencies. HHR Staff provided NRCS with a copy our bibliography, citing most of the scientific studies done in the Hanalei watershed. NRCS is consulting with interested agencies to coordinate scientific proposal.
8. Fisheries Management. The Hui's first effort to spark community interest in pro-active and sustainable management of the river and estuary fisheries resulted in our partnership with State of Hawaii Dept. of Land & Natural Resources Division of Aquatic Resources to develop the LTEMP project. LTEMP, Long Term Ecological Monitoring Program, is focused on bringing in community volunteers to learn about and assess Hanalei River's o'opu nakea fishery. The o'opu nakea is a threatened and regulated native fish.
Project methodology included volunteer training in both in-the-water visual assessment and creel surveys, development of field literature and protocol, mapping of three transects and pre-spawning data collection. Due to unusually dry weather and possible other unknown circumstances, the o'opu population did not enjoy a "run" in Hanalei this fall as it has traditionally. A new methodology to the project, larval sampling, has shown dramatically low larval counts in Hanalei in comparison to other area streams. What this means as an indicator of Hanalei's o'opu population is still not clear. Monthly instream visual assessments and weekly larval samples will be collected through 2001. As people are observed fishing on the Hanalei River, volunteers will continue to collect creel survey data. The data will be tabulated and a data report will be produced.
9. Water Quality Monitoring. Hui Water Quality Project Leader Dr. Carl Berg analyzed data collected during the Hui's Hanalei Bay Water Quality Project (a partnership with State Dept. of Health to assess the impact of summer boating). Although water quality was occasionally compromised, bacteria counts were not correlated with the number of summer boats. Interestingly, these findings contradict local beliefs that sewage from summer boats cause a host of various ailments in swimmers and surfers, most notably rashes. Heavy use of the beach, park restrooms and area vacation homes (most with very old cesspools), along with decreased river flow during the summer are more likely contributing factors to the few times when bacteria counts exceeded state standards. Increased boater education and enforcement may have also improved conditions this year.

10. Promoting Heritage Enterprises. HHR staff are talking with several organizations and individuals working to link the values of our past with the needs of our future. Dr. Mike Kido, Dr. Bruce Wilcox and Kepa Male, University of Hawaii, presented some of their work concerning the health of the ahupua’a (watershed). The gathering was taped and broadcast and a project recording historical place names has begun by collecting oral histories of individuals who have this information.

The Hanalei Heritage River staff has also begun dialogue with several entities interested in the heritage of Hanalei. A representative of the Historic Hawaii Foundation will visit Hanalei in January to discuss ways to coordinate our efforts and needs.

11. Taro Support. In light of questions regarding the benefits of taro lo’i as native waterbird habitat, HHR Staff are encouraging U.S. Geological Survey Biological Resources Division to work with the US Fish & Wildlife Service in developing a suitable study. Hui and Staff also hosted an informational booth at this year’s Taro Festival. The booth’s highlight was an aquarium containing rare native Hawaiian fish- ‘o’opu nakea, ‘o’opu nopili and ‘o’opu naniha. Their display served as a reminder of water quality concerns in Hanalei and surrounding areas.

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