Comment:
We received a note regarding an article recently run in Honolulu Civil Beat about how tourism helicopters are destroying the quiet of Kauai. The article Begins:
"Chad Blair’s recent column about noise was very timely. Especially when Civil Defense emergency sirens cannot be heard in Waikiki.
I fled Honolulu due to the impact of traffic noise, light, pollution and the constant traffic and humming of electric motors. Hammered by air conditioning, generators, pile drivers slamming concrete deeper into the heart of the island. Changing the view planes, altering the very trade winds that made Honolulu so magical.
In 1970, I went to Kauai. For a while it was heaven. Quiet. Birds. Surf on nights when the winds drop. Sanctuary.
Kokee was even better. Kalalau was paradise. I had a camping and hiking tour in 1971 and made the most of it, searching for the peace and the lessons of the forest.
Quiet, please: Kokee State Park on Kauai.
Flickr: Deb Nystrom
However, the helicopters here destroyed all that. On one Sunday recently in Kokee, I clocked 13 helicopter flights in 30 minutes. Sometimes, three in less than a minute.
When they created a master plan for Kokee, I went to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ public comment session at Kauai War Memorial Center. Unfortunately, I was only able to speak near the end of the session, when most had left. Very few heard the message.
The birds cannot be heard. They have no voices we can understand, except as song.
I pointed out that the whole plan was mostly two-dimensional. It takes into account a world only 6 feet-by-8 feet high and did nothing to address the impacts on the wildlife and birds. Their feeding patterns, nesting, mating and laying eggs. The airspace. The fourth dimension of freedom."
Quieter O'ahu Response:
Thanks for one of our regular visitors for submitting this article. The full article can be read here at Civilbeat.org.
Mahalo,
Quieter O'ahu
We received a note regarding an article recently run in Honolulu Civil Beat about how tourism helicopters are destroying the quiet of Kauai. The article Begins:
"Chad Blair’s recent column about noise was very timely. Especially when Civil Defense emergency sirens cannot be heard in Waikiki.
I fled Honolulu due to the impact of traffic noise, light, pollution and the constant traffic and humming of electric motors. Hammered by air conditioning, generators, pile drivers slamming concrete deeper into the heart of the island. Changing the view planes, altering the very trade winds that made Honolulu so magical.
In 1970, I went to Kauai. For a while it was heaven. Quiet. Birds. Surf on nights when the winds drop. Sanctuary.
Kokee was even better. Kalalau was paradise. I had a camping and hiking tour in 1971 and made the most of it, searching for the peace and the lessons of the forest.
Quiet, please: Kokee State Park on Kauai.
Flickr: Deb Nystrom
However, the helicopters here destroyed all that. On one Sunday recently in Kokee, I clocked 13 helicopter flights in 30 minutes. Sometimes, three in less than a minute.
When they created a master plan for Kokee, I went to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ public comment session at Kauai War Memorial Center. Unfortunately, I was only able to speak near the end of the session, when most had left. Very few heard the message.
The birds cannot be heard. They have no voices we can understand, except as song.
I pointed out that the whole plan was mostly two-dimensional. It takes into account a world only 6 feet-by-8 feet high and did nothing to address the impacts on the wildlife and birds. Their feeding patterns, nesting, mating and laying eggs. The airspace. The fourth dimension of freedom."
Quieter O'ahu Response:
Thanks for one of our regular visitors for submitting this article. The full article can be read here at Civilbeat.org.
Mahalo,
Quieter O'ahu