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Isle projects receive $14M
in federal funds

Initiatives include species
protection and the expansion
of parks and reserves

Hawaii will receive more than $14 million for 10 projects that include national park expansion, environmental and native species protection, and brown tree snake detection, U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye announced last week.

The Hawaii initiatives are part of the Department of Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2006.

"Given the many competing demands for federal resources in this tight budget year when our nation is at war, I am pleased that important Interior-related programs in Hawaii were funded," Inouye said.

"As a result, we will be able to expand the Haleakala National Park, which is both a state and national treasure, and preserve the Big Island's Wao Kele o Puna, one of the last large intact lowland native Hawaiian forests in the state of Hawaii, which is home to more than 200 endemic and native species. Under the new funding law, we are also able to continue the vital work of preventing the brown tree snake from entering Hawaii."

In addition to the $14 million for individual Hawaii initiatives, the bill appropriates $30 million to be divided between Hawaii, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands for impacts caused from the Compacts of Free Association.

Hawaii initiatives include:

» Expansion of Haleakala National Park, Maui, $3.7 million, for addition of Campbell Estate koa forest lands and Cordelia May estate Hawaiian archaeological sites.
» Wao Kele o Puna, Big Island, $3.4 million, a 26,000-acre tract that includes habitat for the endangered forest bird ou, and a key replenishment area for the Pahoa aquifer, the single largest water source on the Big Island.
» Brown tree snake, $2.7 million, to support the cooperative efforts of the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Transportation and the Interior, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the territory of Guam and the state of Hawaii. Funds will be used to evaluate and improve brown tree snake detection, monitoring and control and to support the control of the coqui frog.
» Cesspool management, $1 million, to allow the counties of Honolulu, Hawaii and Kauai to continue replacing cesspool systems with septic systems to comply with Environmental Protection Agency mandates.
» Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge, Big Island, Alala Recovery and Restoration, $700,000, for programs to release captive-bred Hawaiian crows, which are extinct in the wild, to wild areas.
» Native Hawaiian Culture and the Arts Program, $600,000, a creative partnership to assist native Hawaiians to be practitioners of their culture in a rapidly changing multicultural world, linked to a resource center at the Bishop Museum.
» Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, $550,000, to assist the state-of-the-art Keauhou Bird Conservation Center and the Maui Bird Conservation Center with captive breeding programs of endangered Hawaiian birds.
» Big Island Recycling, $500,000, to develop a sustainable, community-based waste recycling and reuse system.
» Exploratory Wells and Hydrological Data Collection, $450,000, for U.S. Geological Survey assessment of water resources.
» University of Hawaii Volcanic Processes Study, $450,000, to support cooperative partnership between Hawaii Volcanoes Observatory and the University of Hawaii Center for Study of Active Volcanoes.



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