 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. I welcome to Out and About on Think Tech Live's streaming network series broadcast from our downtown studio at Pioneer Plaza at the core of downtown Honolulu. I'm your host Winston Welch, and I'm delighted you're joining us today, where we explore a variety of topics, organization, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. Many views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and are not connected with any organization. And that said, today I am delighted to welcome a couple of fabulous people here from the Outdoor Circle. We have Dr. Brian Bagnall, who is the greater Waikiki Outdoor Circle president, and is correct, Brian. And also we have Miles Ritchie, the program's director from the Outdoor Circle. So welcome to you both today. Thank you. So, you know, the Outdoor Circle, I think a lot of people have heard of this here in Hawaii, but they may not quite know what it is, or they might have some misperceptions about what it is, but this organization is over 100 years old already. So today I would like for you gentlemen to tell us why is the Outdoor Circle still a vibrant, relevant organization, and what types of cutting-edge technology programs you have going on? And your branch as well is a new branch with the Outdoor Circle and why that was formed. So how about if we just jump right in and if you could start, maybe Brian, by telling us about the Outdoor Circle? Well, I first came onto the island here three years ago, and I kept saying to people, why is it so beautiful? There's no billboards or ugly signs, and you've got trees everywhere, and how did this happen? Because I come from Florida, where it was really, really ugly. And then somebody said to me, Outdoor Circle. And then I did some research. And I found out that this is a, particularly for older people, a really important organization that got rid of billboards in the whole state of Hawaii and planted over 100,000 trees. So it's very historic. And it was started more importantly by a group of women in 1912. A group of women in 1912. So that's before women got the vote. Before women got the vote, they started this organization. And its purpose was to rid Hawaii of ugliness? Well, I think, particularly on this island, there was a lot of ugliness. The sidewalks were not finished. There were billboards. There was trash everywhere. So they really wanted to make the island more beautiful. And so their slogan was keeping Hawaii clean, green, and beautiful. But they really focused on making it a better place for living. And so it wasn't just about beauty. And I think they were very, very far-sighted in seeing that it wasn't just it was a place beautiful. Was it good to live in? So livability was before we even had the term probability. Yes, yes. And there's a very interesting book, which we can show a slide of in a minute. It's called High Tea at Halakalani, published in 1993 by the author. Her name was Margit Misangi. She did a study here of women's organizations. And she focused on the outdoor circle as an example of the women's movement and what they could achieve. And it's a fascinating book. And it really is the authoritative history of the beginning of the outdoor circle. And we can look at a couple of pictures from here. So it was started by women who were regarded as high society women. They were from wealthy families and things like that, which I think can be a bit of a put down today. They were really movers and shakers. And that's typically the photo that you would see of them with their white hats and sort of looking like tennis dresses. But they were not mild ladies at all. They really knew how to get things done. They were fierce organizers, weren't they? Well, their biggest achievement, I think maybe the next slide, will show how they got rid of billboards in Hawaii. There were billboards going up around Diamondhead and other places. And so these women decided that something really needed to be done. And that will come later, that slide there. So they carried out a program for 15 years or more, boycotts, publicity, really enrolling people in the fact that getting rid of billboards would be a long-term and difficult goal. Here's the newspaper thing. This is a 1930 edition of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. And it was really the flagship page of beginning the anti-billboard campaign. But it didn't really finish until the 1920s. They never gave up. They did boycotts. They did all sorts of demonstrations and things like that. And so I think it shows us that even in those days, to get something important done took a lot of time and a lot of effort to get it done. And they did it in the 1920s. And this is an entire edition of the anti-billboard edition of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, which is today, I guess, a successor to the Star Advertiser. So there it is, why the outer circle of Kila Hanna Club is opposed to billboards and billboards happening down. And as you know, we're one of only four states that really has this level of banning billboards and ugly outdoor advertising. So it's a huge achievement, what they did. And I think that's why people come to Hawaii. They say it's so beautiful. Beyond the just beautiful flowers and whatnot, they don't realize that it's an absence of ugliness that contributes to the beauty as well. They don't have a sign that says buy this or next exit that. And we don't have any offsite advertising in this state because of these ladies and the foresight that they had. And I think the residents of the state really know that this really makes a difference. And so if the city or the county or the state want to put up advertising on buses and things like that, not only does outdoor circle come out really very firmly against, but the residents are firmly behind us, I believe. I go to enough public meetings to see the residents like what these ladies did a hundred years ago and how we continue to do it. So you would say that is the outdoor circle needed now as much as it ever has been? I think more than ever. But it's not your mother's outdoor circle anymore. So it's not ladies, rich old ladies in tennis dresses and white hats. It's now people like Miles who just turned, what, 27. And so it's a whole new thing and about new technology and new methods of doing things. And we can talk a little bit about how it's different to what it used to be. But the overall mission is exactly the same. Which is keeping away clean, green and beautiful. Okay, so for people that might not be familiar with it, you're president of the Greater Waikiki Branch. So the outdoor circle has several branches? Well, I forget the number for the whole of the state. It's an organization that only exists in the state of Hawaii. So we're not affiliated with any others. We're not raising money for other states and things like it's only for the state of Hawaii. And when I came here, there was no branch for Waikiki. And people said, really, Waikiki is the economic engine of the whole state, the tourist industry. There's a lot of precious things going on there. And how about we try and form a branch? And I said, okay, I accept the challenge. And so for the last three years, we've been working to develop a branch called the Greater Waikiki Branch. And we called it Greater Waikiki because we want to include the two parks at each end. So Alamoana Park and Capilani Park. And of course, right in the middle of that is our fabulous Fort Darusi Military Reserve that we call a park. It's Waikiki Central Park. It's a big part of Waikiki. So that's what we call Waikiki. The city calls Waikiki just around the canal. Okay, so this is Greater Waikiki. Yes. Miles can address me, some of the other branches that we have, and you might want to list them all so that everybody knows where they might tap into this because it's a very local, it's very branch driven for its missions. Yes, and I think looking at this book, for example, these things don't come quickly. If it took them 15 years or more to get the billboard thing under control, forming a branch in high density urban Waikiki is a work in progress, and so we haven't finished yet. And you have your own issues. I was seeing some slides from your website for the Greater Waikiki that you have the Waikiki Whisperer. Well, let me just tell you about our website. So I think when you're forming a new organization and the Greater Waikiki branch is a new organization, we realize that we had to have a good website where people could go and get all the information that they wanted, and so if we can go back, well, we have our main page, it's slipped back there, but we have a whole lot of parts, everything you want to know about trees and signage laws and things like that is there as a reference. And then we also decide to be a little bit outrageous and put in a newsletter, which was a little bit edgy, and we called it the Waikiki Whisperer, and it's what we call the news, okay, so there's our six sections, billboards and signage laws, beautiful trees, walks and parks, we've got some great stuff, and then our newsletter, the Waikiki Whisperer and the history of Waikiki and how to contact us. So I think what we're doing is trying to be a little bit progressive, thinking about things before they've really become issues, and so one that we did, and you can see it on the screen here now, is we saw a lot of light pollution in Waikiki, all these buildings putting up a lot of bright LED lights, and so it makes the tiki torches look a little bit out of date when everything is drowning in this ultra-bright, ultra-white light, and so we've written some edgy stuff about the zoo and the Natatorium and things like that, and I think they make some good reading, so it's meant to be a little bit edgy. Okay, and as it should be, because this organization was always founded to be a little bit to say, yes, we don't like this, and we'd like to push the envelope a little bit. Push the envelope, so we don't might not have thought of light pollution as a pollution, like a noise pollution or visual pollution. Some of the other islands, they have strict laws about exterior lighting that you will not damage the migrating birds and other wildlife, and so you can see the difference when you go to some of the other islands where the lights, these new LED lights, they've got to be shielded, they've got to not dazzle your eyes. The American Medical Association in 2016 issued a warning about these lights can damage your own eyes, so, but on Oahu, nothing has happened, and so the island is drowning in ultra-bright lighting, and so if you go out into the suburbs, people are complaining, you know, my God, my neighbor's shining these search lights onto my house and because he wants to do it, he feels safer, and so what legal rights do you have to stop somebody drowning your own place or your windows in lights? It's a new issue. Well, and it's an issue that is of interest, particular interest to the high-density urban core and the Greater Waikiki branch, and so since this organization is branch-centric, so Miles, can you tell us about the structure of the organization and how, so Brian is one of the branches, but how does the rest of the organization look and how does Brian's organization fit into this greater, the entire outdoor circle? Right, so essentially there are 10 branches spread across the entire state, and pretty much each branch takes on challenges, things that are happening in their community that they want to address, things that they should be modified for the better, so while Brian's looking at light pollution and other factors like that, you can have other branches going after tree plantings or more strict sign regulations in their specific areas, so there's all these various issues that come up and it really is a driving factor for a lot of these branches, and it's just sustained projects and other things like that that us as the state organization come and assist them with any programs they need while we conduct our own as well, so which is nice because then we get to interact with all the different branches and really stay connected with them while we assist them in things they wanna have done. So you have the main office, which is the trunk of the tree, the outdoor circle, and you deal with issues of maybe policy and larger issues and supporting your branches, which are 10 branches across the state, can you quickly just name off the branches and where they are? Oh, so on Oahu you're looking at North Shore, Kailua, Koneiohe, there's an East Honolulu, the Greater Waikiki branch, and then if you go to the Big Island, you have same thing with Waimea, you have Kona, when we're actually starting back up again, that's gonna be fantastic. Then you also have East Hawaii branch, you have just all over the place, Kauai as well, so we have branches around the entire state where people are interested, they can get involved, become a member. If there's a pressing issue that they think fits in line with our mission, they can present that to us and we can potentially help them address certain issues. And you get all sorts of calls in your office about trees and signs and everything. And would you, so just for people to know, it is outdoorcircle.org, where they can go to and find information about what the statewide office is doing or find links also to, say, Brian's. Yes, our website is waikiki-outdoorcircle.org. Waikiki-outdoorcircle.org. Waikiki-outdoorcircle.org, and you'll see hundreds of pages of information there. But yes, it's essentially, you can go to the main TSE website, so it's outdoorcircle.org. There's links to all the different branches to their own specific websites, social media pages, and people can redirect from there and also see what we're doing as a statewide collective organization for these larger programs to some degree. Okay, and we'll talk about those right after the break. I am Winston Welch, so this is out and about on Think Tech Live Streaming Series. We'll be back with our guest, Dr. Brian Bagnall of the Greater Waikiki-Outdoor Circle and Miles Ritchie, Programs Director for the Outdoor Circle. 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We're back and we're live, and I'm Winston Welch, and this is out and about on Think Tech Live Streaming Network Series, and we are talking with Myles Richie, Programs Director for the Outdoor Circle, and Dr. Brian Bagnall, who is the President of the Greater Waikiki Outdoor Circle, and thank you both for being on the show today and talking about this really terrific, local organization 105 years old that is still relevant, very important, has its mission of keeping Hawaii clean, green, and beautiful, and in order to do that, we need basic things like calling up legislatures and writing laws, but also planting trees and also high-tech cutting-edge things that you have been working on, Myles, so if you can, I know that you've got some really exciting projects and programs there, so one of these is called the Citizen Forrester Program, so tell us about that. Right, so the Citizen Forrester Program actually began with Kalanoni and Smart Tree-specific two other environmental nonprofits located throughout Hawaii, and essentially, we joined in with them because we felt that we need to know how many, this is now, keep in mind, this is a map mapping initiative for street and park trees only, so we wanna know what's out there, what's in the inventory for what we're starting off as, it initially began as Kailua as a pilot project, so we went out there, we did some community outreach, and we got some volunteers, about 16 volunteers, and we decided, we'll work with them, train them with Arborists and other mapping specialists, and they got certified, and then hit the streets, and they started getting metrics for trees, about 20 metrics per tree, so it takes a little bit of time, but the basics, it's height, it's a diameter at breast height for them to start calculating the biomass components, and while they're out there putting in these 20 metrics, they're doing it all on a smartphone, so everything's real time being uploaded in the field, and the Kailua group is almost done, the initial pilot project was everything Makai of the canal, and they've already expanded out to Olamana, Manawili, Lanikai, so it's really expanding past this initial pilot project, so with the success of that, we have just begun actually last week, the Waikiki Manoa, it's a joint concurrent program, that takes what we did in Kailua, train any group of volunteers, and we've started there, so that's what we've got going on, these volunteers in Kailua are already over 4,000 trees, in less than a year, going out once a week for a couple hours with just maybe nine people per week, depending on schedules, so it's a really great program, and there's a lot that can be learned in terms of knowing what's out there, we assess if there's any trees that need to be looked at, or things like that, so we're making our urban forest a lot healthier, and we're monitoring it to see what's going on, and on top of collecting from these metrics, the environmental benefits, the monetary benefits, so carbon sequestration, store water runoff, property value increases, so you can really reach out to various demographics, maybe somebody's more environmentally minded, and that carbon sequestration number would work for them to try and support the program, where others, maybe it's looking at their bank account, how much money could you save by having these trees? But that's probably not the primary motivator for this, but these are just people from the community coming out, measuring the trees, finding out where they are, and where they aren't also, I guess, so we're giving the city an inventory of the public lands, so they can say, okay, we need more trees, here and here and here, and now this is expanding to Waikiki and to Manoa, and so we're having training programs. Is it too late to jump in and become a volunteer? No, you can go to SmartTrees, the Pacific's website, and there's a sign up right on their webpage, and you can jump in, we're doing makeup training sessions as well, and so it's not too late, if somebody's interested, they can go check that out, or contact us to get more information as well. Okay, so we'll be going down to Waikiki and mapping the streets out, and working with other local organizations as well. It's a lot more beneficial to do this really important work, rather than just saying you're a tree hugger. Yes. This means you're getting a real relationship with each tree, and they like it a lot. And the people, I think, form really deep relationships too. I think we have a few slides of that that show about the Citizen Forrester program, so there's one of... Right, this is the flyer that has been giving out just one of the quick, a lot of information packed in that one slide, but that's also up on the SmartTrees website at Kalanani as well, so... And then it looks a little bit different when you collect the information. Right, and it's a joint partnership with the Kalanani SmartTrees specific city and county of Honolulu, DL, and our UH and ourselves. So it's a huge coalition that's really pulling this off. And then after it's done, we get a map of it and we can find out exactly what trees are where. Right, this map, like I said, is updated in real time, so you can go on our website and under the programs area, there's a Citizen Forrester link that you can actually go and see this map. So every week, it actually gets updated and you can see all these new metrics. So this is the Kailua one, this is a screenshot from last week. So you can really see that it's branched out and as I said, over 4,000 trees from these volunteers. So those dots, as you zoom in, obviously, on this map, we can't see 4,000 trees. Oh, no, of course. But as you zoom in, you'll see the 4,000 trees and then each tree can be seen individually. Yes, you can see all their benefits, their metrics, everything. Really an exciting program and great that it's being brought to a wider sphere over in Waikiki and in Manoa so that we can find out where we actually need to plant some trees. So you got another one, which is a carbon neutrality initiative. Tell us what that is. Yeah, so I'll try being quick with these next three. But essentially, the Carbon Neutrality Challenge is a program that was started by a professor at UH, Camila Mora of the Geography Department and it's initially started off of going into schools, teaching kids in elementary schools, high schools and universities as well about climate change and the benefits of planting trees to try and become carbon neutral. The offset, the carbon that you produce every year through these planting the trees. Because a lot of people, you can see the your carbon footprint and it's like, okay, well, if I produce nine, I think it's 20 tons on average per year that average American produces in CO2, 20 tons. So that's kind of a disappointing thing to see because well, okay, now I know what it is, but what can I do to make a difference to reduce that? So Professor Mora and myself, we've actually implemented this planting program and it's gonna be taking place over Camp Pahlehua, over on the kind of westward side mountain area and we're gonna be re-forcing a completely eroded area. So using natives. So we're doing Lonomah and Willy-Willy to start and there's also gonna be another three species coming in as well. So they're booking volunteer for that. Yes, and this is just an image of Professor Mora when he was at Kailua. They actually had a pilot area in the Hamaquah Marsh. So fantastic area over there and now we're just expanding it outward and our first planting session is gonna be December 2nd and they're gonna be afterwards and periodic, maybe about once a month we'll go out there with a group of volunteers and same thing if people are interested they can reach out to the outdoor circle and they can join us that way and try to sequester some carbon and plant some trees. Well and I think the important thing to remember about this is that we're faced with a lot of challenges in our world today and a lot of, it's easy to complain about something and blah, blah, blah, but this gives people an actual opportunity to go out and map trees, make some friends, like-minded people, contributing back to their community instead of just complaining about it, they get a chore, not complaining, just worrying about it, they're able to do something to offset the problem and to ameliorate it and make it better. So this is a theme from the outdoor circle for the last 105 years and also like you Brian, you are an interested person that simply got involved. You're not paid for your position. I think what's interesting is that the ladies who formed this organization over 100 years ago, they were very much pro trees but they were more focused on the beauty but I think they were very ahead of their time that they knew that trees were essential for human survival and so many of the beautiful trees you see around town here, they are essential for keeping us cool as the summers are getting hotter so it's really smart and now we've got all this new technology to understand the whole thing much more. So it's more than just clean, green and beautiful, it's really to survive and important for the future. And making it very livable. It's a survivability, sustainability, livability. Now part of that I think the legislature recognized many years ago that we should exceptionalize trees and recognize really some great specimens of trees and so outdoor circle has a program for that called the exceptional tree, the mapping program. It's the exceptional tree initiative but from that we have a huge push to this mapping program that we've been doing the last three years. So essentially, so exceptional trees, they are nominated due to their age, rarity, location size, aesthetic quality or endemic status. So if a tree meets one or more of those per county you can apply as just a curious member of the public or a property owner. However, the property owner does have to sign off on the form. So if I thought you had an exceptional tree nominee on your property, I could do that, but I'd have to get your permission first to if it actually becomes on the list. So anyways, there's over a thousand of these trees across the state. Now it's kind of disproportionate in terms of where they are. So you have 855 on Oahu, 78 on Maui, 33 on the Big Island, 21 on Kauai, one on Molokai and none on Linai. So we can do a lot to facilitate more of these trees going on the registry. That's something I'm working on right now is to get these numbers up because they're out there. They just have to be nominated and put on this list. And they can find information about how to nominate trees on the website as well. There's a lot of information and sadly we have little time with that. We have also, as we run out of time, we're gonna have to have you back for another thing to talk about the Google mapping program that you've done which is really exciting going to all of the islands and mapping essentially off-road sites where Google's trekker can't go and I think that that's a really very interesting initiative. When will that be available to see at the Other Circles website? So all of the Google trekker documents and images will be up on Google Maps at the end of this year and then into January. So yeah, if everybody's interested, it's pretty much street view but we've gone to Volcanoes National Park and hiked out to the ocean entry for the lava flows, the Napoli Coast Trail, we've done Waimea Canyon Botanical Gardens. So essentially that program is just looking at culturally significant, historically significant areas as well as environmental areas of interest that people... There's you wearing the... Right, yeah, and it's a, we are creating this virtual tour that they can use in Google Maps just like Street View for people who may not otherwise be able to go on these trails or go to these places but are really curious to see what they're like. Now they can. So starting at the end of this year. Really exciting cutting edge technology and also Dr. Ragnall, you've got some beautiful walks in Waikiki on your website. And I think we're out of time to be able to talk about that today but they can visit your website and find three great walks in your fourth... You can download the maps and everything and the thing is to encourage people to get out because the public health people say the best thing you can do for your health is walk half an hour a day. Well, we've got some beautiful places to walk and you can see them there. Well, we certainly appreciate you coming in today explaining about the outdoor circle. My guests today have been Dr. Brian Ragnall from the Greater Waikiki Outdoor Circle and Miles Richie, Program Director of the Outdoor Circle and a lot more information available at outdoorcircle.org and Greater Waikiki Outdoor Circle.org, correct? So thank you so much today gentlemen and thank you for tuning in and we will see you next week. I'll have to wrap up this session of Out and About on Think Tech Streaming Network Live Series.