91直播 County has paused plans to remove 37 trees in the Honoka‘a Sports Complex following pushback from the community.
“The tree removal project is currently on hold pending recent discussions with community tree advocates,” said Parks and Recreation Director Clayton Honma in a statement to the Tribune-Herald.
According to Honma, the plan to remove the trees is part of ongoing efforts to bring county parks into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act as part of a federal court-ordered plan.
He said the trees also pose safety hazards that need to be addressed.
“Over time, the root systems of numerous trees have inflicted significant damage to the parking lots and concrete walkways at the Honoka‘a Sports Complex, lifting and breaking pavement and curbs and creating significant trip hazards for park users,” Honma wrote. “We are under court order to address this matter swiftly, so we are negotiating with a contractor to address this work specifically, which includes tree removal.”
According to a spokesperson for the Parks and Recreation Department, the plan was initially to remove 43 trees, but that number was reduced to 37 after further evaluation by the arborist contracted by the county for the $120,000 project.
Honoka‘a residents said they were not informed of the plans and only learned that the trees were slated for removal after several community members inquired about pink markings on the trunks in fall of last year.
In the months that have followed, a petition opposing the removals has received over 600 signatures, numerous residents have submitted letters in support of maintaining the trees, and some reached out to arborists and forestry experts asking them to come evaluate the trees.
Adam Trujillo, a certified International Society of Arboriculture arborist, was one of those experts.
While Trujillo acknowledged the damage to the parking lot and potential safety concerns, he said he did not feel that removing all of the trees, the majority of which he said appear healthy, was the best course of action.
“I would stay pretty firm on that,” he said. “However, I would suggest selective removal … and replanting of native species.”
According to a letter from Mayor Kimo Alameda, the county does intend to plant native trees at the park as part of a landscaping plan he said is being created.
“Parks and Recreation is developing a landscaping plan for the Honoka‘a Sports Complex with the intent of using a variety of mainly endemic/indigenous trees and some introduced species whose growth characteristics are appropriate for their intended setting … ,” he wrote.
JB Friday, a forestry expert with the University of 91直播, who also went out to evaluate the trees targeted for removal — which are primarily Cuban mahogany, but some African tulip — said that while they are not native, they are not harmful either and their size and age gives them value which could not be easily replaced.
“I’m all for planting native trees, but these are 50-year-old trees. It’s going to be 50 years before you get other nice, big, shady trees in there,” he said. “So, it’s not an even swap to cut down a 50-year-old mahogany and plant a native tree seedling.”
Both Friday and Trujillo also noted the importance of trees in mitigating the impacts of climate change and increasing temperatures resulting from excess carbon in the atmosphere.
“You’re reducing heat by providing shade from the trees, you’re sequestering the carbon that’s coming out of your car by the tree using it in its processes, and also just culturally and communally, everybody gathers under the shade tree,” Trujillo said.
“Things are getting hotter, and trees give us shade, so in a community like this, they’re providing shade for the area,” Friday said. “And they’ve been there for a long time, so people in the community have grown up with them. They value the trees — those trees have an enormous amount of value.”
Friday also helped the community prepare an application to have the entire grove of Cuban mahogany trees in the park designated as “exceptional trees” by the county, which would protect them from removal.
Jill Wagner, the chair of the county Arborist Advisory Committee — which processes applications for exceptional trees — said the committee received letters and heard testimony from dozens of community members in support of the trees at its meeting on April 29. She said the committee then decided to send a letter to the mayor asking for the removal plans to be halted.
“I’m hoping that all of this community outpouring will help just pause,” she said. “Let’s pause and be collaborative and figure out if this is really the best thing to do for nature and for people.”
She said she also hopes the county takes the time to talk with the community about plans for the park, which resident Nicole Garcia said is really what they have wanted all along.
“It’s upsetting that there’s no communication, that the community has not been involved, and maybe that’s just the way it goes,” she said. “But it feels like it’s a pretty big undertaking that should have a little community input, even if they do it anyway,” she said.
Sarah Anderson, another Honoka‘a resident, said she would also like to see more community involvement in broader plans for the park.
“If there’s a landscaping plan being developed, it would make sense to me that the citizens who care so much, some subset, be involved,” she said.
Fellow resident Alison Higgins echoed that sentiment.
“Ultimately, we hope we can work with the county,” she said. “We’re not trying to make this ‘them against us’ or cause division, we just are really hoping that we can look at other ways of addressing the concerns of the trees and create maybe even something that would work to address more of the trees in our state — they’re a resource and they’re well-loved in the community.”
Email Grace Inez Adams at grace.adams@hawaiitribune-herald.com
