Every day, I’m scouring the Internet for land use and environmental news from around the state and around the world that means something for us here in Hawaii. Noteworthy today: plans to sell or lease public land on the Big Island, a wood-powered car on Kauai and the drought’s impact on birds on Maui.

• Hawaii County is seeking public input on plans to sell, trade or lease two parcels totaling 1,040 acres, West Hawaii Today reports. The county took the land as tax payment from Hamakua Sugar Co. in 1994.

• A wood-burning car was the star of the show at the Kauai Agriculture and Environmental Awareness Day. Best of all, the wood chips can come from invasive species!

• On Maui, the dry winter and subsequent drought are discouraging nesting by endangered birds, The Maui News reports. And the coming months aren’t expected to be any wetter.

• What little water there is left is being fought over. A staff report produced in time for tomorrow’s Water Commission meeting in Paia recommends that the body return more than 10 million gallons of water per day to six more streams in the East Maui watershed.

• Hands off: Plans to seize land from a Vermont dairy farm via eminent domain to expand a little-used U.S.-Canada border station incited residents to berate Customs officials, the Associated Press reports.

• The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office announced Friday that the application process has been changed to attract more green technologies into an accelerated patent-review program.

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