In the years since he purchased Kuka`iau Ranch, owner David S. DeLuz Sr. has received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds to support his cattle operation. According to the Environmental Working Group, which tracks subsidies made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to farms and ranches, DeLuz received between 1995 and 2009 $585,470 in conservation and disaster subsidies. According to the USDA response to a request for information from Environment Hawai`i, in 2010 and 2011, he was paid an additional $78,634, bringing the total to $664,104.

Throughout that time, the ranch has supported logging operations that continue to this day. Although the company logging Kuka`iau Ranch land claims it is taking only dead or wind-felled trees, on a recent day, its mill at the ranch was in full operation processing what appeared to be recently cut logs.