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Guard seeks
help grooming
Diamond Head

The Earth Day project
is an award-winner for
the local Army contingent

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

The Hawaii Army National Guard wants your help on Earth Day 2000 to beautify Diamond Head Crater.

On April 22 the Guard and its volunteers will weed and groom the slopes and crater of Diamond Head, "removing invasive species such as fountain grass and planting native Hawaii species," said Capt. Steve Lai, Hawaii Army National Guard environmental awareness manager.

The Diamond Head project is one of the reasons the Hawaii Guard will be cited for providing realistic training on 34 sites throughout the state while protecting a variety of species and for promoting sustainable practices in land use.

On April 25 Hawaii Army National Guard officials will receive one of 19 Army awards at a special Pentagon ceremony.

The award is in the Army's natural resources conservation category for installations of less than 10,000 acres.

Chosen as the Army's best, Hawaii's program will then compete with entries from other service branches for the Secretary of Defense's environmental security award, Lai said.

That award will be announced April 26.

In applauding the Hawaii National Guard's environmental programs, a panel of Army and civilian natural resources management experts from the Nature Conservancy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cited as "exemplary the Hawaii Guard's efforts to combat invasive plant and animal species that are major threats to the island's endangered native species."

On Maui, where elements of its 2nd Battalion infantry units are stationed, the Hawaii Guard has fenced off five miles of the Kanaio training area on the southern end of the island to protect the rain forest from feral animals.

"There is a very clear and visible difference," Lai said, "between the two sides of the fence."

Lai said the land managed by the Hawaii Guard under its integrated natural resources management plan contains at least 33 rare, threatened or endangered species and five distinct habitat types.

Nearly 40 percent of all plants and animals on the endangered species list live in Hawaii. Many are found nowhere else in the world.

Lai cited as an example the Aama, which live the Honopou Stream on the eastern part of Maui.

Hawaii National Guard orders prevent soldiers from training in the stream, Lai said.

In the case of the Hawaiian hoary bat, which Lai described as Hawaii's only native land animal, its habitat in Keaukaha Military Reservation in Hilo is off limits and soldiers are not permitted to train in the area.

Lai said the Hawaii Guard's management plan, which was developed in 1994 and updated two years ago, "has been working really well for us."

"The Hawaii Army National Guard has done an impressive job in fulfilling its military mission in an environmentally sensitive way," said Don MacLauchlan, of the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies who was a member of the judging panel.