Nene killed on Kalanianaole Street renews concern in Keaukaha corridor

A monitored adult nene was killed near Leleiwi Beach Park, putting Kalanianaole Street back at the center of a Keaukaha road-safety problem that has lingered for years.

The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources said it received a call from the Hawaii Police Department at about 9:30 a.m. about an injured nene along Kalanianaole Street in the Keaukaha area. A responding officer retrieved the carcass of the banded bird, which had been monitored as an adult goose.

The location is what makes the death resonate in Hilo. Kalanianaole Street cuts through a shoreline corridor where Keaukaha wetlands remain a known roosting and crossing area for nene. County officials already lowered the speed limit on a roughly 1.7-mile stretch between Leleiwi Street and the James Kealoha Park Access Road from 30 mph to 25 mph in an effort to reduce collisions with the state bird. A 2025 report noted there had been a stretch with no nene killed after the change, making this latest death a reminder that the risk has not disappeared.

The bird’s vulnerability carries a long conservation history. DLNR says nene were once on the brink of extinction in the 1940s, with fewer than 30 geese left in the wild statewide. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted the nene from endangered to threatened in December 2019, but the species remains federally listed as threatened and state listed as endangered in Hawaii. The federal service cited an estimated 3,252 nene statewide in 2019 and 3,862 in a 2022 count, numbers that show recovery has been real but fragile.

That fragility is part of why single road deaths matter. DLNR has warned that when one nene is killed on a road, surviving family members may stay near the body, increasing the chance of more vehicle strikes. In a place like Keaukaha, where habitat, shoreline traffic and daily life overlap, that can turn one collision into a wider loss for a local flock.

The county’s speed reduction, pushed forward after Hilo Councilwoman Sue Lee Loy introduced legislation, remains the clearest immediate safeguard on the corridor. But the death near Leleiwi Beach Park shows that signs and lower speed limits only work when drivers honor them. On Kalanianaole Street, one fast trip can still cost a protected bird its life.