{"id":479156,"date":"2025-12-30T03:43:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T03:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/479156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T03:43:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T03:43:09","slug":"gov-green-appoints-ryan-kanakaole-interim-chair-of-dlnr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/479156\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Green appoints Ryan Kanaka\u2018ole interim chair of DLNR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                                        <img width=\"760\" height=\"481\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/web1_202529_WEB_Ryan-Kanakaole-2.jpeg\" class=\"img-fluid h-100 w-100\" alt=\"COURTESY GOVERNOR\u0092S OFFICE&#10;                                Ryan Kanaka\u0091ole has been appointed acting chair and director of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, effective immediately.\" style=\"max-height:600px;object-fit:contain;\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>1\/2<\/p>\n<p>Swipe or click to see more<\/p>\n<p>COURTESY GOVERNOR\u2019S OFFICE<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Kanaka\u2018ole has been appointed acting chair and director of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, effective immediately.<\/p>\n<p>                                                        <img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"760\" height=\"507\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/web1_CTY-DNLR-CONFIRMATION0018.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid h-100 w-100\" alt=\"STAR-ADVERTISER \/ MARCH 31, 2023&#10;                                Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang is on medical leave, state officials said today.\" style=\"max-height:600px;object-fit:contain;\" decoding=\"async\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>2\/2<\/p>\n<p>Swipe or click to see more<\/p>\n<p>STAR-ADVERTISER \/ MARCH 31, 2023<\/p>\n<p>Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang is on medical leave, state officials said today.<\/p>\n<p>                                                                    <img width=\"128\" height=\"81\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/web1_202529_WEB_Ryan-Kanakaole-2.jpeg\" class=\"img-fluid h-100 w-100\" alt=\"COURTESY GOVERNOR\u0092S OFFICE&#10;                                Ryan Kanaka\u0091ole has been appointed acting chair and director of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, effective immediately.\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>                                                                <\/p>\n<p>                                                                    <img width=\"128\" height=\"85\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/web1_CTY-DNLR-CONFIRMATION0018.jpg\" class=\"img-fluid h-100 w-100\" alt=\"STAR-ADVERTISER \/ MARCH 31, 2023&#10;                                Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang is on medical leave, state officials said today.\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>                                                                <\/p>\n<p>Gov. Josh Green today announced the appointment of Ryan Kanaka\u2018ole as acting chair and director of the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, effective immediately, while Chair Dawn Chang is on medical leave.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJaime and I send our heartfelt aloha to Dawn and her ohana as she recovers,\u201d Green said in a news release. \u201cDawn has been a dedicated steward of Hawaii\u2019s lands, waters and wildlife and we wish her strength and a full recovery. Details on Chang\u2019s medical condition were not released.<\/p>\n<p>Green said, \u201cDLNR remains in good hands as Ryan Kanaka\u2018ole steps in as acting chair and director. He brings steady leadership and a deep commitment to malama aina and community. The department\u2019s work of protecting and managing Hawaii\u2019s natural, historical and cultural resources will continue and we look forward to welcoming Dawn back when she is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>State officials said DLNR\u2019s day-to-day operations and public services continue without interruption, and that its leadership, boards and commissions remain fully staffed. Scheduled meetings and hearings for the Board of Land and Natural Resources and the Commission on Water Resource Management will continue as planned.<\/p>\n<p>BLNR meetings are held on the second and fourth Fridays of each month, except for November and December, when only one is held on the second Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Chang was present at the Dec. 12 BLNR meeting.<\/p>\n<p>                        <strong>Don&#8217;t miss out on what&#8217;s happening!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"email-form-blurb m-0\">Stay in touch with breaking news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It&#8217;s FREE!<\/p>\n<p>Kanaka\u2018ole, who was deputy director of DLNR, most recently served as a deputy attorney general with the Department of the Attorney General, where he represented the Hawaii Housing Finance &amp; Development Corp. and the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. He also served as deputy attorney general for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands from 2017 to 2023.<\/p>\n<p>He is a member of the Public Land Trust Working Group, which oversees the management and distribution of revenue from ceded lands. He also played a key role in audits for many agencies \u2014 from DLNR to the University of Hawaii, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Hawaii Department of Transportation, and Hawaii Energy Office, state officials said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"1\/2 Swipe or click to see more COURTESY GOVERNOR\u2019S OFFICE Ryan Kanaka\u2018ole has been appointed acting chair and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":479157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4582,746,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-479156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-editors","9":"tag-environment","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115806457335053386","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}