This should warm everyone's heart if they yearn for a warmer world.

>>..."Here at Wao Kele, the quiet of the forest once drowned by the drilling of a geothermal well once again echoes the whispers of the breezes," said OHA trustees Chairwoman Haunani Apoliona.

Inouye and others said the transfer last year marked the first time since the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom that ceded lands were returned to an organization representing Native Hawaiians.

The state transferred the property to the Campbell Estate in 1985 in a land swap meant to encourage geothermal energy development, a process that uses heat generated by nearby Kilauea volcano to produce electricity. Campbell Estate hired a developer, but the developer abandoned the project in 1994.

The land exchange that delivered the rainforest areas to Campbell Estate was extremely controversial, and triggered years of protests and lawsuits led by the Pele Defense Fund, including litigation financed by OHA.

In 2001 Campbell Estate announced it planned to sell the land, and the Pele Defense Fund, the Trust for Public Land, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and OHA combined efforts with the U.S. Forest Service to buy the land.

Palikapu Dedman, president of the Pele Defense Fund and a leader in the years-long effort to stop geothermal development at Wao Kele O Puna, choked back tears as he described the arrests at the site 16 years ago.

"I gotta start by thanking about 400 people that got arrested. A lot of kupunas got arrested, and about 13 children," he said, his voice breaking. "We was just being ourselves as native people. It's been an emotional journey."

"We have to stand up, I guess, for ourselves and just continue doing what we're doing. If government's going to have to catch up, they're going to have to catch up, but we still have to be there to remind them of their responsibilities ... to indigenous people," he said.<<

http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070828/NEWS0101/708280329/1003/NEWS0101

Hey, I just report what I read.

Best, Terry