A New Agreement for Wainiha Valley
To make way for Hawai`i’s third-largest private nature preserve, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources last month terminated an agreement under which McBryde Sugar Company, Ltd., had surrendered to the state control of some 10,120 acres in Wainiha, Kaua`i.
In 1905, the lands – which include parts of the Alaka`i wilderness and the summit region of Mount Wai`ale`ale – were made part of the Halalea Forest Reserve. Then in 1948, MSC entered into a 20-year surrender agreement with the Department of Land and Natural Resources to manage the lands, receiving tax benefits in return. MSC and the DLNR renewed the agreement in 1969 and again in 1989. The most recent agreement was set to expire in June 2009.
In his November 16 report to the Land Board, DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife administrator Paul Conry explained that his division spends few resources managing these lands. The Nature Conservancy of Hawai`i, however, determined that the area has “high hydrologic and biological values and low ungulate and weed threats,” Conry stated, and so it entered into a 10-year conservation management agreement with current landowner Alexander & Baldwin. The agreement takes effect once the surrender agreement expired or was terminated.
The area under agreement covers the upper 7,050 acres of the 10,000-acre parcel, including approximately 5,750 acres of Wainiha Valley and almost 1,300 acres of the Alaka‘i plateau and the Wai‘ale‘ale summit region above it, according to an A&B-TNC press release. (TNC entered into a similar arrangement with A&B in 2003 to protect the 80-acre Kanaele Bog in east Kaua‘i.)
With this new agreement, and with the protections offered by the state’s Conservation District rules, Conry recommended canceling the surrender agreement to allow TNC to proceed with more aggressive management.
In addition, Conry recommended that the land be withdrawn from the forest reserve system. “In relation to private lands, forest reserve status and rules are intended to apply to those private lands that have been surrendered to the government. Surrender agreements allow the state to exercise control and management over private lands as if they were forest reserves. The deputy of the Attorney General has recommended to DLNR that private lands that are not surrendered to the government and which are within proclaimed Forest Reserve System boundaries should be excluded from the Forest Reserve System,” he wrote.
At the Land Board’s meeting, Charley Loomis, representing A&B and McBryde, said he hopes the management agreement will be continued beyond the initial ten years.
Kaua`i TNC director Trae Menard said that the conservancy has been working for the past few years with the Kaua`i Watershed Alliance, the state’s newest watershed partnership. About two years ago, TNC identified the Wainiha parcel as a very high priority area because of its intact biological systems and its hydrologic values.
“It’s in a very intact state right now; it’s a very short-lived state. There is a very narrow window of opportunity to get in and take control of the weeds, particularly the Australian tree fern… That is the reason why we want to move forward with this very quickly,” he said.
The board unanimously approved DOFAW’s recommendation. Board member Sam Gon, TNCH’s senior scientist and cultural advisor, recused himself from the decision.
Gon said later in a press release, “Wainiha is one of the largest valleys on Kaua‘i, extending far into the island’s undeveloped heart, the Alaka‘i plateau. Because of its remoteness from human development, the upper region of Wainiha is as close to pristine as any valley system can get in the Hawaiian Islands.”
On July 14, 2006, the Land Board voted to acquire 693.155 acres of Kawai Nui marsh from the city under several conditions, one of which required the city to conduct an environmental site assessment. If the assessment identified any hazardous materials or sources of potential release of hazardous materials, the city would have to conduct environmental sampling and analysis, and would need to plan and undertake remediation, if warranted.
After more than a year, on August 13, 2007, the city objected to the environmental assessment condition and asked that the state accept the marsh before the assessment was complete.
In a briefing report to the board, Gavin Chun, project development specialist for the Land Division, stated that if the Land Board went along with the city’s request, it would make the state ineligible for liability protections under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act and would prevent the city or the state from receiving brownfields funding for further assessment or remediation.
To help move the project along, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the city have decided to work together to complete the assessment. A draft is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
At the Land Board’s November meeting, DOFAW administrator Paul Conry assured the Land Board that the delay had not endangered about $5 million of Army Corps money for a wetland bird habitat project.
“One of the concerns for the Army corps is it is interested in seeing this process move quickly so that it can inform their Washington folks that the land transfer has occurred,” he said.
So far, the money is still in the federal budget, he said, adding that the state has shown progress. Conry noted that DOFAW will seek matching funds for the project from the state Legislature.
Chun’s report adds that DOFAW has received a $240,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a $40,000 grant from the Harold K.L. Castle Foundation, and $50,000 in state funds to restore native waterbird habitat in Kawai Nui.
In addition to the assessment issue, the city had also objected to the state’s decision to have the land transferred by a warranty deed rather than a quitclaim deed. At the board’s meeting, however, city representative Lorraine Higa said that “at this point it is not an issue.”
Most years, the Land Board renews the hundreds of month-to-month revocable permits administered by its Land Division without much discussion. But this year, television broadcaster Chris Raycene objected to the renewal of Mauna Kea Broadcasting Co., Inc.’s permit for a telecommunication tower atop Wiliwilinui Ridge on O`ahu.
For the past several years, Raycene said, he has appeared before the Land Board arguing that Mauna Kea’s permit should be revoked and auctioned. He complained that every time he has tried to work with the DLNR on an auction for this permit, it somehow gets buried.
“Every time it gets brought forward and it’s referred down to staff, I’ve been working with somebody for the past five months on the belief that this would be on the agenda for September, October or November for you to approve this to be out to bid. And then, boom, lo and behold, here it is going through,” he said.
He told the board he was willing to pay $40,000 a month for the site, not $9,000 a year, which is what Mauna Kea is currently paying.
“If you need more money, this is a valuable site. It’s the only tower site that can see the windward side and Honolulu at the same time other than some obscure microwave [sites] owned by the state… The state ought to be making a quarter of a million dollars a year off this site, at a minimum,” he said.
Based on Raycene’s testimony, the board voted to remove the Mauna Kea permit from the list of RPs to be approved, agreeing to defer discussion of the appropriate status of that permit to a future meeting.
The small, remote village of Miloli`i on the island of Hawai`i has long been known as model of subsistence fishing. And at the its November meeting, the Land Board approved a request by its Division of Aquatic Resources to hold a public hearing on the addition of a new chapter to the DLNR’s administrative rules for a Miloli`i Subsistence Fishing Area.
According to a DAR report to the board, the chapter would designate the nearshore waters of Miloli`i for subsistence fishing only and identify management (ko`a) and refuge (pu`uhonua) subzones. It would also prohibit the following:
Night spearing;
An exemption has been proposed to allow a non-profit organization associated with stewardship of the area to have a limited harvest of aquatic life, consistent with traditional Hawaiian practices, with Land Board permission.
The new chapter was prepared in accordance with legislation passed in 2005 directing the DLNR to establish subsistence fishing areas, including one at Miloli`i.
“We’ve worked with the community for the past two years in developing a bottom-up community based management scheme for marine resources in this area. I think it sets a potential precedent for places…such as Ha`ena, where we have a similar legislative mandate,” DAR administer Dan Polhemus told the board.
— Teresa Dawson
Volume 18, Number 6 — December 2007