Board Talk

Pu`uwa`awa`a Management Questions Are Put On Hold For Six More Months

Selecting a steward for 21,000 acres of ranch land at Pu`uwa`awa`a and portions of Pu`uanahulu proved to be a thorny issue at the April 12 meeting of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, where public testimony consumed hours and two factions jockeyed for position as caretaker.
In the end, in a move supported by representatives of both groups, the Land Board gave interested parties six months to produce plans for managing the ranch, which despite a decades of overgrazing, supports remnants of the island’s last dry forest, nearly two-dozen rare plant species, and critical habitats for two endangered plant species.

Ka `Ahahui `O Pu`uwa`awa`a, a group of ranchers, Hawaiian families, scientists, and others, submitted a plan to the Department of Land and Natural Resources in January. Cattle would still be used to control fire fuel in many areas, but the group’s focus is on restoring and protecting the area’s natural and cultural resources. The plan calls for increased public access, continued hunting in many areas, and educational programs. It also includes an eco-tourism component to generate funds for managing the land.

The Wildlife Conservation Association of Hawai`i, a group made up mostly of hunters, came up with its own plan, which was submitted to the DLNR in April. It, too, proposes to protect rare plants, animals and archaeological sites, and to conduct eco-tourism, educational programs and research. Unlike Ka `Ahahui, WCA intends to maintain the current level of ranching and hunting and proposes to develop water and a shooting range.

Robert Garcia, attorney for the land’s current tenants Ernest and Stephen DeLuz and Mikio Kato, downplayed ranching’s role in the forest’s degradation and warned that reducing the area open to cattle grazing, without giving the ranchers a rent break, would make ranching economically unfeasible. As long as the DeLuzes and Kato could run a profitable operation, which would require a break in rent, they would be willing to work with whoever took over, he said.

WCA members John Carroll and Ka`imiloa Chrisman tried to paint Ka `Ahahui as The Nature Conservancy in disguise and vilified the organization for its efforts to eradicate game mammals.

Members of Ka `Ahahui refuted the insinuation that TNC drove their proposal. One member, Ku`ulei Keakealani, whose has family ranched and hunted in Pu`uwa`awa`a for generations, said, “I don’t want to be addressed as The Nature Conservancy,” adding that, contrary to comments made by another pig hunter, “This is not ‘Hannah and Chris’s plan,” referring to former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Hannah Springer and Big Island Planning Director Chris Yuen. Both are officers of Ka `Ahahui. “This is my plan,” Keakealani said.

“Unless something is done, this will be lost forever,” Yuen said of the remnants of dryland forest in Hawai`i. Ka `Ahahui has documented the degradation of the dryland forest over the last 40 years under cattle grazing.

While Yuen agrees with WCA that ranching and hunting should continue, it needs to be done in a sustainable fashion. “You cannot maximize all things in all places at the same time. I don’t want to deceive anyone one that point,” he said, adding that bird hunting could be enhanced. In calling for balance of competing interests in managing state lands, Yuen noted that more than 60,000 acres had been set aside as a game management area on the adjoining ahupua`a of Pu`uanahulu, while in the ahupua`a of Pu`uwa`awa`a, just eight acres have been fenced to protect native plants.

Yuen added that cattle grazing is not the answer to controlling fires. “The area has burned and burned under ranching,” he said.

Management preferences and control issues aside, a major concern of DLNR staff and Kaua`i Land Board member Lynn McCrory remained largely unresolved: the economic viability of the proposals. With limited state resources, McCrory wondered how the non-revenue generating programs would be paid for.

Lloyd Case, president of WCA, told McCrory that his group would get help from nonprofit groups and foundations. Yuen noted that the Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i has pledged $300,000, while other large foundations have given Ka `Ahahui letters of support.

With McCrory stressing the need for a business plan, the board authorized Big Island Land Board member Fred Holschuh to work with the parties over the next six months in an effort to work out a resolution.

In the meantime, ranching will continue. The board gave Pu`uwa`awa`a Cattle Co. (the DeLuzes and Kato) a revocable permit, allowing them continued use of the property. The board also referred to the attorney general several outstanding issues remaining on the now-expired Pu`uwa`awa`a lease held by F. Newell Bohnett. Issues include unauthorized rent collections, damages for unauthorized removal of redwood tanks, cleanup costs, and “any other supportable liability claims,” a staff report stated.

For More Information
Environment Hawai`i has covered this area and its developments extensively. Either search for this subject, or go to the September 2000 issue, which has articles such as
State Land Board Extends Grazing Lease at Pu’uwa’awa’a
Cattle, Sheep Goats Trample Pu’uwa’awa’a Treasures
Introduced Silk Oak Runs Rampant
Cattle as Bane and Salvation of Rare Plants at Pu’uwa’awa’a
At Ka’upulehu, A Dryland Forest is Lovingly Restored
Editorial: It’s Payback Time at Pu’uwa’awa’a .

 

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Tradewinds Deferred

What’s more valuable: Leaving a forest planted by the state forty years ago intact, or harvesting it, as was originally intended?

Several dozen people attended the April 12 Land Board meeting in Hilo to debate that question, raised by a proposal to allow Tradewinds Forest Products, LLC to harvest thousands of acres of trees in the Waiakea Timber Management Area and to process them in a $40 to $50 million veneer processing/co-generation power plant the company plans to build. Most left frustrated when the meeting adjourned at 4:30 with the board having heard testimony from only a handful of them.

The DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife recommended the Land Board grant a timber license to Tradewinds, which has promised to generate 300 local jobs, provide job training, and contribute $25,000 to a local scholarship fund.

Supporters, including the Hawai`i Forest Industry Association, the Big Island Business Council, and County Council member Dominic Yagong, said harvesting the timber is the best use of the resource.

If the board denied the license, Yagong said, no value-added forestry industry will ever come to Hawai`i. Instead, Oji Paper – whose late-1990s proposal to farm eucalyptus for wood chips horrified Yagong and many Big Islanders – would return. “We will be right back where we started,” he said.

Opponents worried that the harvest might harm endangered Hawaiian hawk and bat populations and could worsen flooding in Hilo. Activist Jim Anthony complained that “crucial documents” were not submitted to the Land Board or made available to the public, adding that records about the company should also be available. “Who is Tradewinds? What is their track record?” he asked.

Disappointing many who had waited all day to speak, testimony was cut short because an early departure by Kaua`i Land Board member Lynn McCrory left the board without a quorum. The board deferred action until its next Big Island meeting after hearing just over an hour of testimony on the Tradewinds license.

— Teresa Dawson

Volume 11, Number 11 May 2001