Ten Kauaians who lost seasonal farming jobs or work affected by the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have bounced back through a state project to stimulate the economy. Through the Emergency Environmental Work Force project administered by the
Ten Kauaians who lost seasonal farming jobs or work affected by the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have bounced back through a state project to stimulate the economy.
Through the Emergency Environmental Work Force project administered by the Pacific Cooperative Studies of the University of Hawai’i, eight residents have been removing invasive weeds in the 4,000-acre-plus Koke’e-Waimea State Park complex since December.
The project is in conjunction with the Koke’e Resource Conservation Program, a collaborative program of the Hui O’ Laka/Koke’e Museum.
At least one other Kaua’i resident is working with the state Department of Agriculture to eradicate the pesky coqui tree frog and kill mosquitoes connected with dengue fever.
Those connected with the Koke’e cleanup will work until April 1. The worker with the other project will stay on until June 25.
The projects offer only temporary employment during hard economic times in Hawai’i, but officials hope the job experience will help workers find other employment in the future.
Last year, the Legislature appropriated $1.5 million to hire 227 people statewide for the project.
The funding is intended to help residents who were unemployed when the program started last December and those who lost jobs after Sept. 11, and combat the spread of invasive plants and animal species, according to Ellen Coulombe of the Koke’e Resource Conservation Program.
Amos Arashiro, a 49-year-old single Kekaha resident, said he needed the job not so much because he needed money, but because he “just wanted to work.”
He was a machinist for 26 years with Lihu’e Plantation before he lost his job in November 2000, when the company closed
Arashiro landed a season job with Kaua’i Coffee last August and was let go during the Thanksgiving holiday season. That was “when we heard about the eradication program, and I went for it,” Arashiro said. “I am thankful for another job coming up. I am going to stay as long as I can.”
Arashiro said his new job is good for his health.
“I get exercise every day I go up to the mountains. Being there makes me appreciate them in a new way,” Arashiro said.
Co-worker Meghan Halabisky, an environmental studies graduate at Western Washington University and now a Kalaheo resident, said the cleanup allows her to visit a unique tropical environment that deserves protection.
She said the native plants are fragile and “if we don’t do something to help, they will die.”
“Most people don’t see these plants in the low-lying areas. But if they were up here and saw these plants, they would care as much as we do,” Halabisky said.
The other Koke’e cleanup crew members are Phillip Burchett of Kapa’a, a former construction manager and landscaper; Floyd Ellison of Kapa’a, a former coffee grower and newspaper pressman; Lance Matsumoto of Lihu’e, a canoe paddle maker and former Kaua’i Buildlers’ employee; Anthony Vea of Kekaha and Francisco Duldalao of ‘Ele’ele, both former Kaua’i Coffee workers; and Keren Gundersen of Kapa’a, a sales associate and office manager and a volunteer at the Kamalani playground in Wailua.
Katie Cassel, program director with the Koke’e Resource Conservation Program, said the workers remove previt, fire torn, which has orange berries and long torns, blackberries, guava, ginger and miconia.
The workers make $10 an hour and work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.
The help they have provided his staff has been invaluable, said Wayne Souza, who heads the state parks division of the Department Land and Natural Resources on Kaua’i.
“They chip away the invasive weed, fire trees, the Australian blackwood. Esthetics is very important to Koke’e,” Souza said.
The camaraderie of the crew is tight. The 74-year-old mother of Arashiro threw a Christmas Eve luau for his co-workers and others at his home in Kekaha.
Because the manpower is limited and the project runs only three months, the workers can cover only such much area within the 4,000-plus-acre Koke’e and Waimea State Park complex, Cassel said.
During the first 15 work days, the crew removed weeds from 65 acres in Koke’e State Park. From Jan.2 to Jan. 10, the crew swept through nearly 40 acres.
A top priority is cleaning a large area in the northwest section of the park and to contain ginger from moving into the Honopu area.
The coqui tree frog eradication program is run by Craig Kaneshige of the Department of Agriculture.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net
