HONOLULU — Officials say four men admitted to taking lava rock from the Mauna Loa Forest Reserve on Hawaii Island.
HONOLULU — Officials say four men admitted to taking lava rock from the Mauna Loa Forest Reserve on Hawaii Island.
KHON-TV reports Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement officers gave the men cease and desist orders after they say the men were illegally cracking large chunks of pahoehoe lava and hauling tons of it by the truckload to sell to hotels and home builders for rock boundaries, decorative walls, and fireplaces.
Officers say the men were making anywhere from $800 to $1000 for a “load of rock, often selling it to commercial properties and residential homeowners in Waikoloa and other places on the Big Island.”
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Information from: KHON-TV, http://khon.com
Whats the problem. It’s LAVA. Nature makes it to the point of WAY TOO MUCH as we are finding out right now on the big isle. Doesn’t DLNR have nothing better to do? Save a seal or turtle from some tourist paparazzi.
Aloha Kakou,
Brother Izzy got it right.
Besides, a few men see an opportunity to feed their families by harvesting lava on the Big Island…”lava on the Big Island”…? Sounds only natural and non polluting and makes employment…a Win Win Win situation.
And stopping them, when they should be seling and shipping lava, with a grateful pule, to the far corners of the world for the spreading of the Aloha Spirit and for building homes and beautiful walls providing income for our local citizens.
It would be MORONIC to say the Big Island does not have enough lava to share with others. Already lava harvesters, including on Kauai too are building walls of beauty and even some homes too. Let this industry with new crops coming up recently be a source of family support, after all those same families via their taxes are supporting the DLNR Officer ordering them to cease their harvesting.
Anyone willing to do the hardest work of lava harvesting deserves a good paycheck.
They should map out suitable locations and let the harvesting begin.
Mahalo, Malo,
Charles
The problem brother izzy is that the government is not making any money off of their entrepreneurial adventure. As soon as they figure out how to charge for it and tax them for it it will no longer be a problem.