04-28-2017, 08:42 AM
August 2016 HICoP.org was born out of a Gov. Ige town hall meeting. When asked if he knew about a helicopter noise problem here on the Big Island? Gov. Ige responded, Is there a helicopter noise problem? Looked over at his staff including representatives from the state’s Transportation Dept. and the Director of Hilo Airport who then responded, Not that we know of.
Hopefully they’re not saying this anymore.
Hicop.org is encouraged by our recent strong showing at both Schatz and Gabbard’s town hall meetings;
https://youtu.be/6jPqEwQa2iM
We will continue to document, document, and document this ongoing immoral and wrong situation. Our numbers are growing.
Please join hicop.org’ s e-mail notification list. There is strength in numbers;
http://hicop.org/
HICoP.org will be at the Hilo Climate Change March tomorrow and we will give two speeches.
First one will be Tour Helicopters and Endangered Birds;
“Who will speak for the birds?” asked Civil defense administrator Harry Kim in 1993, concerned about what helicopters were doing to wildlife in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Once upon a time there was a golden eagle living on Kauai. This was the only eagle ever known to appear in Hawaii. In 1987, the eagle was killed—shredded—when she attacked a tour helicopter to protect her nest. The nest was never found and none of the young eaglets were ever seen.
The carnage continues to this day in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This park now leads the nation in the number of tour helicopter over flights. More than a million people will get into a tour helicopter this year in Hawaii.
On the Big Island, helicopters regularly carry tourists at near treetop-level over areas that are home to rare and endangered birds.
Dan Taylor, former resource manager at HVNP, was quoted in a Environment Hawaii Newsletter in 1993:
“Birds have a very tight energy budget… In this budget, there’s no room for extraneous activity. If something alarms them or causes them to depart from their routine, the birds have to rely on their energy buffer--if they have one.”
Helicopters can and do disturb the birds’ behavior, Taylor said. “The overhead noise is especially disruptive. It is something that is totally new; the birds have not evolved with it. It causes them to lose contact with other birds. It disrupts their sense of territoriality since they cannot hear other birds calling. It interrupts courtship and mating activities, and nest-building.”
“The birds’ search for food is disturbed, since they cannot hear other birds signaling to them. When low-flying helicopters cause them to abandon their nests, their young can be left vulnerable to predators or starvation.”
And should they survive all that, Taylor says, the very stress of dealing with the helicopter noise can leave birds more susceptible to avian pox and avian malaria – scourges that already have decimated Hawaii’s forest bird populations. “Birds aren’t all that different from humans in their reaction to stress,” Taylor says. “Their immune systems can be weakened by stress, just like ours.”
Please join Hicop.org’s efforts to reroute the helicopters to an offshore route today. Don’t put it off, wildlife is impacted every day. Please speak for the birds!
Here’s the complete article;
http://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=3817
And I do have permission from Environment Hawaii to use their material.
The second speech will be Tour Helicopters and Climate Change. Not finished yet. Hope to see you tomorrow.
Hopefully they’re not saying this anymore.
Hicop.org is encouraged by our recent strong showing at both Schatz and Gabbard’s town hall meetings;
https://youtu.be/6jPqEwQa2iM
We will continue to document, document, and document this ongoing immoral and wrong situation. Our numbers are growing.
Please join hicop.org’ s e-mail notification list. There is strength in numbers;
http://hicop.org/
HICoP.org will be at the Hilo Climate Change March tomorrow and we will give two speeches.
First one will be Tour Helicopters and Endangered Birds;
“Who will speak for the birds?” asked Civil defense administrator Harry Kim in 1993, concerned about what helicopters were doing to wildlife in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.
Once upon a time there was a golden eagle living on Kauai. This was the only eagle ever known to appear in Hawaii. In 1987, the eagle was killed—shredded—when she attacked a tour helicopter to protect her nest. The nest was never found and none of the young eaglets were ever seen.
The carnage continues to this day in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This park now leads the nation in the number of tour helicopter over flights. More than a million people will get into a tour helicopter this year in Hawaii.
On the Big Island, helicopters regularly carry tourists at near treetop-level over areas that are home to rare and endangered birds.
Dan Taylor, former resource manager at HVNP, was quoted in a Environment Hawaii Newsletter in 1993:
“Birds have a very tight energy budget… In this budget, there’s no room for extraneous activity. If something alarms them or causes them to depart from their routine, the birds have to rely on their energy buffer--if they have one.”
Helicopters can and do disturb the birds’ behavior, Taylor said. “The overhead noise is especially disruptive. It is something that is totally new; the birds have not evolved with it. It causes them to lose contact with other birds. It disrupts their sense of territoriality since they cannot hear other birds calling. It interrupts courtship and mating activities, and nest-building.”
“The birds’ search for food is disturbed, since they cannot hear other birds signaling to them. When low-flying helicopters cause them to abandon their nests, their young can be left vulnerable to predators or starvation.”
And should they survive all that, Taylor says, the very stress of dealing with the helicopter noise can leave birds more susceptible to avian pox and avian malaria – scourges that already have decimated Hawaii’s forest bird populations. “Birds aren’t all that different from humans in their reaction to stress,” Taylor says. “Their immune systems can be weakened by stress, just like ours.”
Please join Hicop.org’s efforts to reroute the helicopters to an offshore route today. Don’t put it off, wildlife is impacted every day. Please speak for the birds!
Here’s the complete article;
http://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=3817
And I do have permission from Environment Hawaii to use their material.
The second speech will be Tour Helicopters and Climate Change. Not finished yet. Hope to see you tomorrow.