Glenn Teves, the longtime University of Hawaii agriculture extension agent on Molokai, is tired of everyone being so nice.

“If you’re the bad guy, everybody needs to know,” he said. “The nursery industry is the bad guy.”

Teves is part of the Hawaii Environmental Council, a 15-member group (minus four vacancies) that was holding its annual strategic planning meeting Thursday at the Capitol.

A stream runs through a forest on Kauai. The Hawaii Environmental Council held their annual planning meeting Thursday, discussing ways to protect native ecosystems.

The council spent the morning hearing from experts about the ecological and economical problems caused by invasive species and climate change that Hawaii must confront. The afternoon session was slated to focus on goals for the coming year and strategies to achieve them.

Teves and others blame the nursery industry for bringing in bugs and plants that damage Hawaii’s natural ecosystems and cause other problems.

The nursery industry was hardly the only one to be singled out during the discussion. The Department of Agriculture was noted for its lack of enforcement teeth, the Attorney General’s Office was mentioned for sitting on proposed rules that could make a difference and the military and all its airfields were blamed for not being more responsive to the problem.

The council falls under the purview of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, led by its new director, Jessica Wooley, who was confirmed last legislative session.

Check out the meeting’s agenda here and look to Civil Beat later for a full report.