Big Isle land might
get new caretaker

The proposal pledges conservation
for 21,000 acres of land

By Rod Thompson
Big Island correspondent

KAILUA-KONA >> A non-profit corporation is proposing to take over the lease of 21,000 acres of state land at Puuwaawaa, North Kona, and to use the area for hunting, fishing, cattle grazing, conservation of endangered plants and animals, and ecotourism.

The proposal is one of the few cases since the days of the Hawaiian Kingdom that an entire ahupuaa, or Hawaiian land division, would be managed in a unified way for multiple uses.

While the proposal has a strong conservation emphasis, it includes proposals usually avoided by conservationists, such as allowing hunting to control non-native animals rather than to eliminate them, and allowing continued cattle ranching to control the fire hazard from non-native grasses.

The current one-year lease of the area to three individuals expires August 14. Ka Ahahui o Puu Waawaa is asking the state Board of Land and Natural Resources for the lease after that.

The land extends from Kiholo Bay to the 6,000-foot elevation of Hualalai.

From 1893, the year of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the area was operated as Puu Waawaa ranch.

Chris Yuen, Hawaii County planning director and vice-president of Ka Ahahui, said as early as 1905 the Territorial forester was urging that the dryland forest of Puuwaawaa be protected.

In the mid-1980s, reports surfaced of a series of unauthorized actions by leaseholder F. Newell Bohnett, including koa logging and building of guest facilities without permits.

In 1991, the Legislature ordered the creation of an "action plan" for the land, but once written, the plan was never implemented for lack of money, Yuen said.

The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii made a multiple-use proposal for the land in 1998 and Ka Ahahui carried it forward in 1999.

The Conservancy is still committed to contributing $100,000 per year for three years for an upper-elevation wildlife sanctuary, provided another $200,000 is provided by the U.S. Forest Service, Stanford University and Ka Ahahui.

A plan prepared by Ka Ahahui estimates a minimum of $42,000 per year can be generated by fees from ecotour operators.

"There are real limits on private fundraising and public dollars to pay for conservation work at a site like Puuwaawaa," the plan says.

"Our goal is to manage Puuwaawaa as an economically and environmentally self-sustaining ahupuaa and a model for others searching for similar alternatives."

Yuen said sustained hunting and ranching may not be appropriate in other places, but they fit at Puuwaawaa because only patches of native vegetation remain.

"Getting rid of cattle will not solve all your problems," he said.

Game animals can be fenced out of critical areas.

"There will be hunting long-term on the property," he said.