Hawaiian Trees Bulldozed on Kauai, Despite Protests

A Battle to Conserve Old Trees in Koloa, Hawaii, Fails to Save the Trees.
For the past year, anyone driving through Old Koloa Town on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, would come across something short of a mob standing in the center of the town. Koloa, known as a historic town for its standing in Hawaii's history as the home of one of Hawaii's first sugar cane plantations, houses numerous old buildings. But it's not just the buildings that are historic: Next to the Koloa Post Office stand a grove of old monkeypod trees that have been threatened by a developer's plan to turn that same area into a shopping mall.Yesterday, the fate of those trees was partially decided as a giant bulldozer crashed its way through the property, knocking four of the monkey pod trees down with eight more, according to environmental activists I spoke to."Save the trees!" proclaims one sign left at the scene as numerous bystanders stood, watching helplessly as the trees were cut down. "I've always wondered what all these people were here for," said one tourist I spoke to as she watched the bulldozer amble through the future sight of the shopping center. For the past month, the number of protesters have swelled, with some days seeing more than a dozen people showing up to protest the developer's decision to knock down a dozen trees that have stood on the property for years.But it's more than just about old trees. I counted more than 30 trees standing on the property, which adds a nice touch to the buildings that surround it. That is one of the problems that people bring up when contesting the idea of bulldozing the land."The trees keep this place nice, it is part of this town," said one protester. "If you cut it down, there goes the greenery, there goes the shade and the beauty and we become just like any other town with its buildings and its parking lots and its shopping malls."The protesters have even taken the issue to court, but the Hawaii court system ruled last year that it was legal for the developer of the site to destroy the trees as long as the developer planted more.
The fight wasn't over with the ruling, though. According to activists I spoke to, the Koloa Community Association continued to fight, protest and build awareness of the issue, especially because many Hawaii residents who reside outside of Koloa didn't know what was happening. The Koloa Community Association even tried to bring in third party help, but with no major success.One thing that protesters did not mention was that, while it seems terrible, the act of knocking down the trees could be a lot worse. The developer could choose to knock down all of the monkeypod trees on the Koloa construction site, but according to plans that I saw, many of the trees are set to remain and be incorporated in the shopping mall's overall layout.Also, the developer will replant the same number of monkeypod trees."I really hope this stops," says one protester.