Island Watch

Onomea Botanical Garden Gets Land Board OK for Expansion

The Board of Land and Natural Resources has granted the Hawai`i Tropical Botanical Garden of Onomea, on the Big Island, a Conservation District Use Permit for several of improvements it has planned in conjunction with its relocated headquarters. But the board specifically disallowed other improvements for which the garden had sought permission. The approval was granted at the Land Board’s meeting of September 27, 1996, in Hilo.

The centerpiece of the improvements sought is a new garden entry and walkway, leading from the Old Mamalahoa Highway, opposite the planned garden headquarters, down to sea level. Part of the walkway is to be elevated above the channel of Kahali`i Stream.

But whether the garden will be able to build the walkway without further Land Board approval is in doubt. One of the issues raised by critics of the garden over the last few years is the suspicion that the garden was occupying lands belonging to the state. In September, the board was given the preliminary results of the state abstractor’s review, which confirmed that government remnants were scattered among lands owned by the garden. Included among the remnant lands were the bed and a portion of the banks of Kahali`i Stream, extending from the Old Mamalahoa Highway to the sea.

In amending the garden’s existing Conservation District Use Permit to allow for the new walkway, entry, greenhouses, signage, and landscaping, the Land Board also required the garden to come back to the board for approval of the “land disposition” required for building on state-owned land. The disposition could take the form of a right-of-entry, an easement, or a lease. Until that disposition is granted, however, no garden use can be made of the land. Nor can the disposition be made until further survey work determines the precise boundaries of state land.

This was specifically mentioned in the letter from the DLNR to the garden that set forth the terms and conditions under which the CDUP was granted. “It is important to identify that the board’s approval at this time is limited to requested land use elements and does not in any way grant approval for the disposition of any state owned land,” the undated letter reads. “As such, no construction on potential state lands can occur until the land disposition request is brought back for board review and decision-making in compliance with all applicable laws.”

Sandra Schutte, attorney for the garden, wrote the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Land Management on October 2, requesting an easement over the state land, “together with an immediate construction right of entry.” “We presently estimate that the walkway will cross over the state remnant in three locations with the actual walkway construction to be outside of the state land. A portion of the walkway may also extend along the remnant for approximately 75 feet.”

Permission Denied

The garden had wanted to place several parking stalls, for garden employee use, on the makai side of the Old Mamalahoa Highway. The board specifically denied this use.

The garden had also sought to line the so-called Donkey Trail with fencing, so that any member of the public using the trail could not trespass on garden land. This, too, was denied, as was the request to build a bridge across Onomea Stream. In addition, the board clarified that the path now used to gain access from the Donkey Trail to the portion of Onomea Bay to the north of the existing garden grounds is to remain open to the public.

Originally, the garden’s request for amendments to its Conservation District use Permit had sought after-the-fact approval for dams it had placed in Alakahi and Onomea streams. In advance of the board’s decision-making on this issue, however, the garden had worked out an agreement with the DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resources. Terms of that agreement call for removing the dams within nine months and replacing them with a siphon or other water collection system having less impact on stream biota.

Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation has prepared a draft environmental impact statement for its proposed golf course at Queen’s Beach, in East Honolulu. The document is one element of what it describes as a two-track process growing out of an out-of-court settlement last year of claims brought by Bishop Estate, the landowner, and Kaiser, which has a lease to use the land, against the City and County of Honolulu. (For more on this issue, please consult the February 1996 article of Environment Hawai`i.)

According to the DEIS, the “pretrial settlement order approved this ‘two track’ procedure without prejudice to either track. The first track involves Queen’s Beach being part of the overall settlement… The second track involves a separate application for land use entitlements to obtain approval for a golf course at Queen’s Beach pursuant to the court’s findings.”

The golf course is proposed to be built on about 166 acres of land that stretch along Kalaniana`ole Highway from an area opposite the existing Hawai`i Kai Golf Course, on the town side, to the mountain pass that leads into Waimanalo. As proposed, the golf course would straddle the state-owned road leading to the Makapu`u lighthouse.

The introduction to the document provides an overview of some aspects of litigation surrounding this area. “In arguments before the court,” the DEIS states, “the City and County of Honolulu successfully pleaded that the land was not without economically viable use, because under existing zoning regulations, a golf course could still be built…. Should the City Council deny necessary entitlements for a golf course at Queen’s Beach, it is the intent of the applicants to resume litigation on the issue of the taking of private property without just compensation.”

The DEIS states that 29 acres west of the golf course, at Kaloko Point, are to be set aside for possible development of a park by the City and County of Honolulu (although the nature of the use rights to be granted to the city remain unresolved). “In addition,” it states, “a shoreline trail running from Kaloko to Kaho`ohaihai Inlet and a spur trail from the lighthouse access road to the shoreline trail will be provided. Therefore, pedestrian access for fishermen and hikers will remain guaranteed.”

One of the concerns raised often in comments made during scoping for this document was how the golf course would impact the lighthouse road. The draft EIS states that this roadway is intended to “provide access between the northern two holes of the course and the holes below the access road. Access could either be over the roadway or by means of a tunnel beneath the road.” Kaiser’s ability to use the road is said to have been established in 1916, when the road was originally granted to the U.S. government by Bishop Estate. “A condition of the grant reserved ‘unto the grantors, their successors in trust and assigns, and their lessees and tenants, the right to use the land hereby conveyed for all purposes as a roadway.”

The Department of Land and Natural Resources has released a draft of its management policies for the Natural Area Reserves System. According to the document, the policies “recommend required controls and permitted uses of areas which are part of the Reserves System. The policies will serve as an institutional memory for staff and commission members, and a guide for rule-making and management plans.”

The document also sets forth a list of priorities to be used in determining the type and extent of activities to be allowed within the state’s 19 natural area reserves:

“The Department of Land and Natural Resources’ highest priority is conservation of natural resources. Only if an activity can be carried out in a way that it does not unduly damage the resources, will it be allowed. If use or activity by the general public can be done without undue damage to the resource, it will have higher priority than commercial use or activity. Commercial activity … should be considered only if its impacts do not impinge on the natural resources and use by the general public. If restrictions or controls need to be imposed, these will first be levied on commercial operators. If limits on commercial operations are insufficient to conserve the resource, general public use will also be curtailed.”

Commercial activity is so defined as to include any activity, whether by a non-profit or for-profit entity, for which a fee or other compensation is charged.

Among other things, the draft policies would prohibit all flights by aircraft over natural areas, except “essential management, research, and educational activities and emergency operations.”

The policies provide for control, regulation, or prohibition of public access “in order to manage the impacts of public use of sensitive resources,” although Native Hawaiian gathering and visitation rights are allowed to the extent permitted by law.

On the matter of “terrestrial non-native animals,” the policies say that “strategies to reduce populations of non-native animals to the lowest possible level will be employed.” On the highly charged issue of pig hunting, the draft policy is: “Sustained yield management of animals for hunting is contrary to the intent of the NARS.” Public hunting is to be used to control pigs and other non-native animal populations, the policies say, but “other control methods (including fencing, trapping, snaring and aerial shooting) may be used if public hunting does not afford adequate control to achieve” levels called for in management plans for each specific Natural Area Reserve.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has added 75 Hawaiian plants to the federal list of endangered species. The plants include two that have disappeared completely in the wild and another, Delissa undulata, that, until 1992, was thought to be extinct. Only one plant remains in its natural setting, at Pu`uwa`awa`a Ranch.

According to Barbara Maxfield, spokeswoman for the Pacific Region of the FWS, the single D. undulata plant produced abundant seeds over the last two years. “The Lyon Arboretum of the University of Hawai`i is propagating these seeds and has more than 400 seedlings growing,” Maxfield wrote in a news release. “Approximately 50 plants were provided to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources for experimental outplanting in the Pu`uwa`awa`a area. The plants are doing well, and such replanting efforts could play a major role in recovering this endangered species.”

Altogether, the ranges of the newly listed species span the Hawaiian archipelago. Included among them are plants found on Kure Atoll, Midway, Laysan, as well as all the populated main Hawaiian islands.

In addition, the Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it has prepared a draft recovery plan for 12 species of endangered Hawaiian plants. Public comment on the plan will be received until December 30, 1996. For information on reviewing or receiving a copy of the plan, call the service at 808 541-3441.

Volume 7, Number 5 November 1996