Bulldozing

[Shekelpal]

In response to someone who posted on another thread, I thought I would start a new one., The D9 bulldozer, not a whole lost worse except a bigger one. It erases a lot of what is here that makes Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i. It erases the ‘o‘hia, the lama, the ‘akia, the hala, the hau. the kopiko, the kolea and much more. Makes a clean slate for someone who has raped the land it and made it there’s. Sad thing is that many people don’t know that they are harming the environment when they clear so much. The native environment is also important for the few endangered speces that still inhabit or use coastal environments (where we are). The ‘io (federally listed-endangered Hawaiian hawk), ‘ope‘apa‘a (federally listed endangered Hawaiian hoary bat) still find their home here. The ‘apa‘pane and the ‘amakihi, native b irds that still come down to the lowland to feed in the day, all depend on what is left of the forest here. When people come and bulldoze 20 acres here and there of what is left of the forest, everything suffers for it. It is so very sad.

The first question I always have to ask is why? Why does a person buy, say, a 20 acre parcel that is covered in native forest and clear it? Why, if a person wants cleared land, do they not buy a parcel that has already been totally cleared, like old farm land, papaya or sugar cane land? Why? Why ruin more land? Why destroy the vestiges of what is left of the native forest? I really need an answer to this. Is it just ignorance? Is it greed? Is it just having to do SOMETHING no matter what it is? Please, this has happened so much, I would really like to hear from people who have just erased acres of the native forest and understand why they want to do that.