The “rule of law” is the legal principle that laws should govern a nation, as opposed to arbitrary decisions of individual government officials.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources has a long history of making arbitrary decisions that fail to uphold its mission to “enhance, protect, conserve and manage Hawaii’s unique and limited natural, cultural and historic resources held in public trust …”

For example, the Hawaii Supreme Court determined that the DLNR issued an invalid permit which led to the unlawful development of the TMT project. Simultaneously the DLNR was applying other laws selectively to prevent citizens from protesting the injustice of this disregard for the rule of law by a government agency in not following contested case hearing laws.

Meanwhile, the DLNR is totally failing to do anything to protect or conserve the mainstay of the islands’ ecosystem, the mighty ohia tree.

For three years now, forestry scientists have been reporting on the rapid ohia death issue that they describe as “a house on fire,” with contaminated areas rapidly spreading across the island. This is a disaster in progress that is threatening to destroy 80 percent of all existing ohia stands.

As the apponted “protectors” of hundreds of thousands of acres of ohia trees the DLNR has done nothing to prevent this ecosystem collapse.

What the DLNR has done is to spend $57,000 on more firepower for its enforcement division, which sounds very much like it is replacing the rule of law with the rule of the gun.

If the DLNR enforcement division truly worked to “protect and conserve” and followed the rule of law, then it should have been investigating unlawful activities within its own department and not allowing big corporations to destroy our conservation lands without legal permits.

Perhaps what the DLNR needs is not more guns, but more integrity.