State officials here might actually care about the preservation of historic Hawai'i. But nobody would ever draw that conclusion on the basis of their recent actions — and inaction.

The State Historic Preservation Division, an office of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, deals with contentious issues, and the nature of that work has positioned the agency in the crosshairs of public critics for years. Mistakes are nothing new and are inevitable.

But the news that came to light last week was especially wretched.

A five-acre site in North Kona was damaged a decade ago or more when it was bulldozed for coffee planting, and apparently the historic preservation office signed off on it.

In addition to ancient agricultural terraces and other archaeological features, the remnants of a suspected heiau were razed. The fact that the site had a place on both the national and state historic registers makes this revelation a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

The state has an elaborate mechanism in place to help supervise projects that could affect these links to Hawai'i's past. It's never provided a perfect shield, but over the past several years, the state has allowed this protective system to fall into alarming disrepair. The risk of further failures has grown even greater today, due in large part to critical shortage of staff that provides oversight.

During the state Senate hearings on the renomination of Peter Young as DLNR chief, former division staffers testified about the unfilled openings, which then numbered eight. Archaeologists tracking the situation say there may be even more vacancies since then, and they point to a revolving door of staffers who've come and gone in the division.

The problem predates the Lingle administration to some extent, but it's up to the governor to fix it now. The new DLNR leadership, backed by the governor, needs to remove the persistent obstacles to filling these positions, whatever the cause. Otherwise, it's inviting more legislative pressure for action at next year's session, if not in the interim.

Many veteran staffers have left historic preservation, taking institutional memory with them, so it's important that the office consult with professionals in the private sector and with Office of Hawaiian Affairs staff when necessary, while openings are being filled.

Hawai'i is, by law and tradition, a place that treasures its cultural heritage. This encompasses Native Hawaiian historic sites, as well as artifacts of the diverse population that arrived later. It would be tragic to allow that tradition to crumble, all because of a failure to put the right people on the job of watching over the legacy of the Islands.