HLH CEO Jeff Dunster presents Four Seasons Hualalai with Four Seasons Legacy Forest in recognition of their outstanding contribution and commitment to returning Hawaii's native forests to Hawaii Island. Receiving the honor was Four Seasons Founder and CEO Isadore Sharp and Regional Vice President and General Manager of Hualalai Four Seasons Robert Whitfield.

Also in attendance was Christopher White Director of Marketing, Florian Reidel Resort Manager and Monica Balanay Marketing and Public Relations Assistant.

KONA, HAWAI'I (January 18, 2013) - Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at Historic Ka'upulehu, the first and only AAA Five-Diamond and Forbes Five-Star resort on Hawai'i Island, has been named the #1 Hotel in the World in the 2013 TripAdvisor Travelers' Choice Awards.

Acclaimed Beachfront Resort Also Named One Of The Top 10

Hotel Spas In America

Based on the reviews submitted by the website's millions of international users over the past year, the Travelers' Choice Awards are recognized as a direct reflection of guest opinion and sentiment.

The Resort was also named the #1 Luxury Hotel in the World, #1 Hotel in the United States and#1 Luxury Hotel in the United States, as well as among the Top 25 Hotels for Service in the United States and World. Additionally, the Resort was recently named to the TripAdvisor list of Top 10 Hotel Spas in America, as determined by the results of a wellness travel survey of more than 1,100 respondents.

"We are thrilled to receive these accolades from the TripAdvisor community, and the fact that these awards are based on reviews and opinions of actual guests is of the utmost importance to us," said Robert Whitfield, regional vice president and general manager of Four Seasons Resort Hualalai. "We continually strive to exceed the expectations of our guests, and provide them with the most extraordinary and highly personalized experiences."

Four Seasons Resort Hualalai is currently offering the "Experience More - $1,000 Resort Credit" package, providing guests with a $1,000 resort credit which can be applied to incidental charges during their stay, including spa, golf and food and beverage. This package is valid for stays of five nights or more in a suite through December 20, 2013. For more information, please visit www.fourseasons.com/hualalai, call (888) 340-5662 or contact your travel professional (chain code FS.)

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             From The Field          

Darrell Fox, COO        

It is hard to believe that March is coming to a close. We are in full planting mode and our crew has undergone its annual spring expansion to meet the demands of this very time consuming task. Fortunately, every year is built on the experience of previous years and we continue to improve procedures in inventory control. We have added several additional steps in the collecting of RFID data which has lead to more rapid availability of tree data for the planting year. One of the real time advantages is that every tree will now have its own GPS coordinate logged into the database. Previously this was done for Legacy trees, but the 100 tree investment blocks had GPS coordinates defining the entire block. Now we can do much of that work at the computer utilizing our mapping software and by the time the blocks are flagged in the field we can be sure that an optimal solution has been found.  

One thing that all farming or forestry has had no control over is the weather. The past couple of years have been anomalously dry, but this year seems to be right on the averages. It is impossible to know what the new normal is and whether or not we are seeing effects of long term climate change. Either way I love the weather we have been handed this year. The past couple of dry years seemed to cause me a lot more stress than it did the trees. That was a great comfort since it showed the resilience of the environment and just how hardy koa can be. The new growth in the field has been noticeable with the increased rainfall. It is almost like the trees are spring loaded and waiting for their turn. We measure soil moisture at 8", 24", 36" and 48" deep. This gives us a handle on the amount of reserve water is stored in the soil. All of these sensors are showing full saturation. The soil is storing more than a month of the water needed by the trees. We also measure other meteorological data that allow us to calculate evapotranspiration. Evapotranspiration is often looked at as how quickly water is being removed from the soil, but it is also the process that allows the trees to take up nutrients, harvest carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen.

I have placed a number of time-lapse cameras in strategic locations in this year's planting field. By the time the next newsletter comes out we should have links to some of the videos. Some of the first clips have been previewed. I hope you will find watching 30-40 seconds of Keystone Cops Forestry entertaining.

dfox@hawaiianlegacyhardwoods.com 

Doing Well While Doing Good

The general the world has been stuck in a mindset that if you want to be environmentally conscious, it's going to cost you- either in time, money or inconvenience. Unfortunately, "green" has gotten pigeon-holed as either a luxury for the wealthy or as a lifestyle choice for the tree-hugging fringe.

 

Indeed there are plenty of examples of the inherent costs associated with being green. If you want to print on recycled paper, be prepared to spend 50% more for the privilege. If you want a green car, you'll pay twice as much for your ride...and heaven forbid if anyone could figure out a way to make a profit by being green.

But the long term reality of the green economy is that it ONLY works if it's profitable - period. There are hundreds of cases where good ideas sprung up and flourished only so long as the government subsidies and/or philanthropic donations continued. Once they dried up, so did the endeavor.

 

Everyone will agree that whoever invented the first wheel in 8000 B.C. was very smart. But in my humble opinion, the person who invented the other three was a genius. Someone took a great idea and made it economically viable. The same holds true today in the green economy. Not only can being green and making profit co-exist, they are natural partners. Green investing has risen to over $3 trillion in the U.S alone.

 

There was an interesting article in this month's Journal of Environmental Management which discusses the profitability of planting native species (doing good) and how it can actually generate more profitable carbon sequestration (doing well) than planting faster growing exotic species like eucalyptus. If you have the time review the article below:

Use of native species to improve carbon sequestration and contribute towards solving the environmental problems of the timberlands

 

Mahalo to all of our Entreepreneurs with the vision and foresight to step out of the box and into the forest.

jdunster@hawaiianlegacyhardwoods.com