If you have seen sci-fi epic film Avatar, you may have recognized the Häpu'u Tree ferns and botanical scenery from Kauai's Keahua Arboretum and the nature preserve surrounding the Wailua River when cast and crew visited the rain forests of Hawaii to rehearse and shoot reference footage for visual effects.Avatar broke all box office records this month, sharing images of Hawaii and a people connected to nature across the world.

Is it time for a hike or a visit to a botanical garden again to remind us what we have right here? Lucky we live Hawaii!

What you might now know is that while filming on Kauai, the cast witnessed the clear-cutting of trees that echoed a key scene in the movie. Avatar in part has an environmental theme that was underscored during the movie's production,

"When we went to Hawaii to rehearse with the cast, we actually saw clear-cutting, and it stopped us and had a profound effect on everybody, just watching the clear-cutting going on," producer Jon Landan

The scene echoed one in the movie on the alien planet of Pandora during which humans from Earth use giant industrial machines to cut down a sacred glade of glowing willow-like trees while Jake Sully -in the form of a blue Na'vi "avatar"-and his Na'vi companion, Neytiri , watch in horror. The scene brings home the movie's environmental message in an emotional, not intellectual, way, director Cameron said in a news conference.

"I think when the willow glade is destroyed after you've just seen what it means to Neytiri and to her people and the way that she explains it so reverently to Jake, and you've already just gone through this kind of experience of this beautiful, kind of magical place, and then when the bulldozers start to knock the trees down, I think that's an emotional response," Cameron said about the scene. "It's not an intellectual response, it's an emotional response. That's what I wanted. I wanted people to feel the environmental message, not think about it.

We are inspired to send Cameron a "Keep the Country Country" bumper sticker and continue to protect Hawaii's native plants, habitat, water and reef through action, legislation and education.

Good movie review:http://www.naturalnews.com/027810_Avatar_James_Cameron.html