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Adding ranch to
Volcanoes Park land
unrealistic, critics say

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By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

HILO -- A proposal to add the huge Kahuku Ranch at the southern end of the Big Island to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park would be a management headache, says critic Bill Eger.

Eger made public this week that preliminary discussions are under way for the 229,117-acre park to acquire the 117,393-acre ranch from the Damon Estate. The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the park are discussing ways to make the acquisition.

Eger is not involved in the discussions. He is a candidate for the state House 4th District but says his concerns about Kahuku are not part of his candidacy.

Only the lowland areas of the ranch, near the Hawaii Belt Road, are used for cattle pasture. The upland 90,000 acres are designated by the state for conservation. In the upland areas are large flocks of non-native mouflon sheep.

If the ranch came under park control, both cattle and sheep would be gradually "removed," said park Superintendent Jim Martin.

In the past, in the park and on Mauna Kea, that meant killing tens of thousands of sheep and goats.

With no animals to eat non-native grasses and weeds, fire danger increases greatly, Eger said. Park officials agree.

Fires can create greater hazards for native plants than the animals, Eger said. On that, park officials disagree.

Eger is meeting with hunting groups, circulating a petition among them for a congressional hearing on the proposed acquisition of Kahuku.

The hunters are the people with experience in the field, he said.

But Damon Estate chief operating officer Jim Whitman said hunting on the ranch is permitted only on a very limited pay-per-trophy basis, through a concessionaire.

Other hunters on the ranch are poachers, Whitman said.

The Damon Estate is considering the sale of the ranch because the life of the estate is nearing its end as the three grandchildren of founder S. M. Damon age. After they are gone, the assets will be divided among 22 great-grandchildren, Whitman said.

If the park doesn't acquire the ranch, it could be sold to a developer, Superintendent Martin said.

Gordon Cran, operator of Kapapala Ranch between the park and Kahuku, thinks that would be a good idea.

"We don't need any more national parks, not here," he said.

"They're trying to set the ecological clock back," he said. "They're trying to re-establish, as much as possible, that area as it was in 1778. It's not possible. You're going to pour millions of dollars into it. They will have another great economic burden to carry," he said.