Koa in some of the best `alala habitat in South Kona may soon be harvested, but, according to an agent of the landowners, far from the project harming `alala, it is being done actually to improve the birds’ habitat.
The area proposed for logging consists of about 5,300 acres of land owned by three sisters who, through their father, have inherited about a third of what used to constitute the large McCandless Ranch. For several years, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had hoped to purchase the area, known now as Kaimalino Ranch. Last year, acquisition of the land was the service’s top priority, and $7.4 million for this was included in President Clinton’s proposed 1996 budget. Because of ongoing problems in Congress, however, the money has yet to be appropriated.
Now, however, Bill Rosehill, a forester and spokesman for the ranch owners, says the owners want to keep it in the family now. By restoring the `alala habitat, he told Environment Hawai`i, “everyone’s needs will be met, and taxpayers will save millions of dollars.”
Eventually, the owners hope to establish an eco-tourism and bird-watching program much like that now being offered by their aunt, Cynthia Salley, on the southernmost third of the former ranch spread that is under her control. Tourists pay hundreds of dollars for a guided tour into `alala habitat (including at times Kaimalino Ranch), in hopes of spotting it or other species of rare and endangered Hawaiian forest birds thought to live in the area (including the `akepa, or Loxops coccineus, the akia pola`au, or Hemingnathus munroi, and the Hawai`i creeper, Oreomystis mana).
Rosehill took exception to recent published reports that Kaimalino Ranch was going to log the area. “The ranch has a forest restoration plan that encompasses everything — eradication of pigs and cattle, predator control, mosquito control, removal of noxious weeds, and replanting of culturally and ecologically important Hawaiian plants,” he said. The purpose, he added, was not so much to take koa as to restore it. Any koa removed would be more on the order of “housecleaning” than logging, he said. “We would pick up the deadfall, then scarify the ground to encourage new growth.”
When asked whether this might impact some of the birds that use the dead and dying trees as food sources (akia pola`au and `alala eat insects that bore under the bark) and habitat (the creeper nests in cavities and hollows of decaying trees), Rosehill responded by saying, “There’s no way anybody can take away all the deadfall. Plenty will remain as food sources and habitat for the birds.”
Financing
Rosehill went on to describe the koa extraction as a means of financing the expensive forest restoration plan. Money for fencing, ungulate eradication, predator control and removal of the noxious plants — Christmasberry, rose apple, and albizzia among the worst — had to come from someplace, he said.
When asked how much koa would have to be removed and sold to finance the plan, Rosehill acknowledged that no projections had been made as to potential cost and revenue. He also said that the owners were “hopeful to get cost-sharing from the federal government and from other existing incentive programs, such as the state’s forest stewardship program. There’s no plan to have the koa pay for everything.”
Also, the owners planned to allow `alala research now being conducted by the Fish and Wildlife Service to continue. When asked whether the Fish and Wildlife Service would have an opportunity to review the owners’ plans, Rosehill said he had already informed the `Alala Recovery Team, which advises the FWS, of the plans at the team’s February meeting. In addition, he said, he would be sharing the owners’ plans with the local head of the U.S. Forest Service.
History
The very name of Bill Rosehill inspires fear in conservation circles. In the 1980s, Rosehill worked for Bishop Estate and oversaw logging portions of its Keauhou Ranch in Ka`u. He is remembered for clear-cutting the area in the name of restoring a “decadent” koa forest. “Everything was bulldozed to a muddy plain,” says one biologist familiar with the history at Keauhou. “They got seeds from everywhere they could, including Kona,” where koa has adjusted to heavy summer rains, rather than winter rains, the biologist continued, “and ended up converting a mixed koa forest into a monocultural stand. It never did work too well, and over the years, people have abandoned that approach.”
Rosehill acknowledged that the Keauhou experience “was done when no one knew anything about forest restoration.” He said he had relied on the untested ideas of a state forester who did not have any scientific basis for his approach. “As I got criticisms, I made adjustments each year… We will use the knowledge gained at Keauhou at Kaimalino,” he said. Advising him with be “other retired foresters,” he said — although he did not name them.
Rosehill stated that “scarifying” would be one technique used to encourage koa regeneration. This involves scraping the forest floor (usually with a bulldozer) and is done with the idea that it spurs the germination of buried koa seeds. This technique was used at Keauhou. Elsewhere, however, more recent experience has demonstrated that similar results can be obtained — without the drawback of clearing the land — simply by removing ungulates from the forest.
Clouds
Lands making up the Kaimalino Ranch constitute about a third of what used to be the McCandless Ranch. Three offspring of McCandless Marks inherited the property: Cynthia Marks Salley, Elizabeth Marks Stack, and Lester Marks. Following Lester Marks’ death, his undivided share in the ranch passed on to his three daughters: Nohea Santimer, Moani Zablan, and Noenoe Lindsey.
The larger McCandless Ranch was then divided into three management units: Kealia Ranch on the northern end (managed by Stack); Kaimalino Ranch in the center (managed by the three Marks sisters); and McCandless Ranch on the south (managed by Salley).
In 1992, the five descendants of McCandless brought a quiet title action in state court, seeking to give them clear title to the land. Named as defendants were more than 300 parties, most of whom were descendants of Hawaiians who held undivided ownership interests in many of the kuleana holdings inside the McCandless Ranch boundaries. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs joined the lawsuit as a defendant, claiming title to the kuleana parcels otherwise unclaimed.
According to an attorney for several of the defendants, the McCandless heirs would have to give notice of any koa harvesting plan to parties claiming an ownership interest. Such notice had not been received by late February.
Volume 6, Number 9 March 1996
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