Big Island landowner
faces fine for koa logging

State land officials call for the
Damon Estate to pay $348,215
for the illegal harvesting

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By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

HILO >> State land officials have recommended fining landowner Damon Estate $348,215 for nearly a decade of illegal logging of koa trees on conservation land at its 117,000-acre Kahuku Ranch on the Big Island.

Fines of $1,426,000 could be assessed against Damon, the staff said in a report to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, which will hear the matter at 9 a.m. Friday at the Kalanimoku Building in Honolulu. The staff recommends about a quarter of the maximum fine allowed because there is no evidence that the violations were "willful," the report says.

The report says Damon and contract logger Steven Baczkiewicz each assumed the other was operating correctly, working only on the 20 percent of Kahuku Ranch designated for agriculture.

Because the ranch is so large, it is hard to tell what is conservation and what is agriculturally designated, said Tim Johns, Damon's chief operating officer.

Even after investigation began in 2001, the state had a hard time telling where its land was and where Damon land was, he said. "It's plausible (Damon officials at the time) didn't know where the conservation district was," he said.

Johns, a former head of the state Land Department, took over running Damon Estate in January 2001, just months before the controversy became public. Because of the conflicting positions, he will not participate in Friday's meeting.

Damon paid Baczkiewicz $372,095 over nine years, but the current report estimates only $144,000 of that went for 543 koa trees harvested at Kahuku. Another 169 trees were knocked down but not harvested.

The remaining $228,095 paid by Damon apparently went for koa from adjoining state land. That matter is still under investigation.

Johns said Baczkiewicz never got any of the permits that his contract required him to get. But standard procedure is for fines to be levied against the landowner. Baczkiewicz could not be reached for comment.

Bill Eger, the former treasurer of the Hawaii Forest Industry Association, made a formal complaint about the logging in March 2001 after several state employees told him it was happening with state knowledge for more than a decade. "The staff was ashamed it was going on," he said.

The 117,000-acre ranch is being sold to the federal government for $22 million for addition to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

The illegal logging is not expected to affect completion of that deal by June 30.