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Environmental People involved say it's one of the best programs ever carried out in Hawaii.
group ends work
State officials laud contributions
Experience helps workers
of the post-Sept. 11 programBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comIt gave 225 unemployed workers jobs during an economic slump. It helped understaffed state and federal agencies tackle vital projects that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. And it made big strides in battling threatening invasive pests.
The Emergency Environmental Work Force, created by the Legislature in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and economic plunge, has ended after six months.
"It took tremendous cooperation and really a 'can do' attitude," said Tom Ishii, program coordinator.
The $1.5 million provided for the program in a special legislative session last year ends today.
Gov. Ben Cayetano vetoed a $500,000 appropriation bill passed by the Legislature to extend the work force. He noted the unemployment rate has dropped and said the amount appropriated would only provide jobs for few people for a limited period.
Ishii said the money began running out in late April and early May and only about 42 people were still working in the emergency program through this week.
However, many have landed other jobs; some were rehired by the environmental programs and are looking to new careers.
Fanning out to statewide problem areas, the emergency crews battled coqui frogs and fire ants, established firebreaks to protect forests and communities and removed tons of debris to stop the dengue outbreak and eliminate potential mosquito breeding sites.
They cleared thousands of acres of miconia plants, kahili ginger, fireweed, long-thorned kiawe and other invasive species threatening plants, birds and watersheds.
"Everyone was happy to be involved with it and disappointed that we're not going to go on," said Christy Martin, education specialist with the Maui Invasive Species Committee.
She said 15 environmental workers destroyed 611,000 alien miconia plants on Maui but hundreds of thousands remain and the committee has only seven people left to work on all threatening invasive species.
Katie Cassel, program coordinator for the Kokee Resource Conservation Program with Kokee Museum, Kauai, said, "The flexibility of the program really helped in an area in which the state was weak."
The program developed a pool of trained people now available for conservation and resource management in Hawaii, she said.
Greg Santos, project coordinator for the Big Island Invasive Species Committee, said he started with 64 emergency workers and 31 found jobs after leaving the program.
He said they're getting good recommendations for other jobs: "They earned it with their sweat."
Santos said the workers "far exceeded our expectations ... Quite a few of them said it was the best job they ever did."
They said in a survey that the thing they least liked about it was "the days that were rained out and couldn't work," he said.
Reflecting the workers' dedication, he said, was a 77-year-old man who was in the field every day, making a round trip of more than 100 miles a day from Pahala.
In another case, he said, "One woman on a work parole program trying to turn her life around came every day on a bicycle. We were able to give her a good job recommendation.
"These people, they were just wonderful. They never complained about anything. It was a project initiated by the Legislature that actually directly helped people, especially on the Big Island where our economy has been so bad for so long ..."
The program was administered by Nelson Sakamoto, human services director at the UH Research Corporation, and professor David Duffy, head of the Cooperative Studies Unit in the Botany Department.
Duffy said the emergency work force could be used as a model to respond to a natural disaster, such as a hurricane or another dengue fever outbreak.
"It showed that we can take ordinary folks of diverse economic backgrounds, give them good leadership and they can work together on tough problems, doing good work."
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No one is more enthusiastic about the state's emergency environmental work force than the ex-workers. Former program workers
receive experience that
proves valuable in new
environmental jobsBy Helen Altonn
haltonn@starbulletin.comJohn Hennessy applied for the environmental program as a stopgap after he was laid off from a money management company and led an emergency crew for the Kaneohe Marine Corps environmental program.
They cleared mangroves, long-thorned kiawe, pickle weed and other invasive species from the Kaneohe base and Bellows and did some work at Sand Island for the Department of Agriculture.
"It was miserable work picking up long-thorned kiawe and it's really dangerous stuff," he said. "You get poked with that and have toxic reaction. It's really tough stuff. We used gloves, eye and ear protection, protective clothing, machetes, chains and lopping shears."
Four found other jobs after leaving the emergency program but three are affected by the new layoff, he said.
"We're all very grateful for the program and what it did, and just disappointed that it didn't continue," Hennessy said.
"It would have been good for us as individuals for income but, larger than that, it was really important for the community."
Ben Skellington had returned here after working in construction in Alaska and was looking for different work when the emergency program began.
He was assigned to the Army National Guard invasive species unit and is one of two emergency workers hired to stay on in the Guard's environmental program.
He traveled throughout the islands getting rid of fountain grass, miconia and other invaders and restoring native plantings.
He hopes he's on his way to a new career: "I hadn't anticipated a job in this area. I'm really learning a lot ... It's really neat because we get (to plant) native plants and watch them grow and monitor them."
Keren Gundersen and Meghan Halabisky, emergency workers for the Kokee Resource Conservation Program on Kauai, have been offered temporary jobs with the newly formed Kauai Invasive Species Committee.
Eight other Kokee emergency crew members are continuing work in the field under a state Department of Land and Natural Resources grant.
Gundersen, who applied for the environmental work after being laid off from a glass gallery in Kapaa, said she has gained new skills, met many people and seen parts of the island that would have been inaccessible to her.