Charcoal destroys banyan tree at Kamehameha Field

KALIHI—A crew from the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation will remove a 50-year-old Chinese banyan tree at Kamehameha Field that was severely damaged last week by discarded charcoal.

Parks Director Lester Chang said: “This is more evidence that careless and thoughtless picnickers dumping burning charcoal at the base of our trees are doing incalculable damage to our parks and playgrounds.

“We’ve cautioned park-goers time and time again that they should discard burning charcoal in designated charcoal pits or douse it with water, not leave it at the base of trees. This time, the damage was so severe that we will lose a beautiful tree. It will take a long time to replace that loss, all because of one person’s carelessness.”