“We’re very excited… This is a big deal,” Peter Young told members of the public at last month’s Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting. The board, which Young chairs, had just approved a 35-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service for the establishment of the Hawai`i Experimental Tropical Forest on 12,343 acres at Laupahoehoe on the Big Island’s windward Hamakua coast, and on 38,885 acres at Pu`u Wa`awa`a on the dry Kona side.
The intent of an experimental forest is to serve as a landscape-scale laboratory for various kinds of research. Supporters say the forest will likely bring millions of research dollars to Hawai`i and will provide researchers with both wet and dry forests to study.
“Benefits … would include research on pressing Hawai`i natural resource management issues, research on long-term questions such as impacts of global warming, providing a learning opportunity for schoolchildren … and demonstration and educational opportunities for present and future generations of landowners, land managers, and local scientists,” a report to the board by Division of Forestry and Wildlife administrator Paul Conry states.
One concern, however, has been the possible effect a large influx of research might have on the Laupahoehoe Natural Area Reserve, which accounts for a third of the land area included under this agreement. The Hawai`i NAR system was established to provide the highest level of protection possible to intact, rare native ecosystems and geological sites. All research must be approved by the Natural Area Reserve System Commission before a permit request can be brought to the Land Board.
At its December 8 meeting, the Land Board approved partial delegation of its authority to issue research permits to DOFAW’s Hawai`i island branch manager, which means that once a permit is recommended for Land Board approval by the NARS Commission, it doesn’t have to go to the full board. Under the cooperative agreement, NARS-approved permits would be compiled and reviewed by a review committee, which at the time of the Land Board’s decision consisted of the director of the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hilo and DOFAW’s Hawai`i island branch manger. The possibility of adding a University of Hawai`i member has been discussed.
Currently, the NARS Commission must still approve all research proposed for the Laupahoehoe NAR. Unlike the Land Board, the commission’s rules have not allowed it to delegate its permit approval authority. At the December 8 meeting, the Land Board approved several amendments to the NARS rules, including one that allows the commission to delegate its authority. Those rules must still be reviewed and approved by the attorney general’s and governor’s offices.
Once those rules go through, if the commission chooses to, it may delegate its authority to approve special use permits to a designee. In fact, the cooperative agreement encourages this.
At the NARS Commission’s meeting last November, however, commissioner Sheila Conant, who is also head of the University of Hawai`i’s Zoology Department, expressed concern that increased research might foster the spread of invasive species. In the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, the terrestrial ecosystems suffered from science in this fashion, she said.
Boone Kaufman, director of the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, replied that invasive species are a huge concern and that all vehicles and clothing will be washed clean before entering the NAR.
Addressing concerns expressed about the enforcement needs of such a large project, Kaufman said that the field station to be built in Laupahoehoe will provide an office for a state Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement office and for a federally funded site manager to watch the day-to-day activities and serve as a community liaison.
Bottomfish Closed Areas
Reduced From 19 to 12
State and federal agencies have been under pressure to reduce catches of bottomfish in the Main Hawaiian Islands ever since, in 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service determined that overfishing was occurring. NMFS is requiring that fishing mortality be reduced by 15 percent.
On December 8, the Land Board approved adjustments to the state’s bottomfish restricted fishing areas (BRFAs) intended to do just that. Using information on bottomfish habitat collected by the University of Hawai`i, from interviews with fishermen, and from commercial catch data, the DLNR’s Division of Aquatic Resource reduced the number of BRFAs from 19 to 12 and made them larger. This revision, DAR believes, meets the 15 percent reduction goal set by NMFS.
In its report to the Land Board, DAR notes that seasonal closures “do not offer the quality of protection that BRFAs can over a long period of time, which is needed to ensure that as many bottomfish as possible can reach sexual maturity and reproduce before they are caught.” The report also notes “there is no month of the year in which at least one species [of the state’s seven bottomfish species] is not spawning.”
Although no one testified at the Land Board meeting against the closures, the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council, as well as Leimana DaMate of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, argued against area closures and in favor of a seasonal closure at a council meeting last March.
William Robinson, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Islands Regional Office, supported the state’s revision in a December 7 letter.
“[The council] has recommended that the NOAA Fisheries Service close almost all of Penguin Bank and all of Middle Bank in federal waters. However, the ability of the closures in Federal waters to accomplish the necessary reduction in fishing mortality relies on the State of Hawai`i adopting and implementing complementary closures,” he wrote, urging the DLNR to allocate sufficient resources for enforcement, monitoring, and evaluation.
–Teresa Dawson
Volume 17, Number 7 January 2007
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