Army, DLNR Thrash Out Terms Of Mitigation Work on State Lands

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“We weren’t trying to do as much stuff in the NARS as we are now,” says Army biologist Kapua Kawelo of the early days when the Army undertook work in the state’s Natural Area Reserves System (NARS) areas as part of a mitigation plan allowing ongoing use of Makua Military Reservation on O‘ahu.

“It was done pretty informally,” she continues.

But that informal relationship has broken under the strain of the Army’s increasing work on state-controlled lands. For more than a year, the state and the Army have been trying to figure out formal terms under which the Army’s environmental program crew, led by Kawelo, can use state lands to carry out significant parts of its Makua Implementa tion Plan. Under that plan, developed in consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Army must stabilize 29 endan gered species (28 plants, and one snail) that are in harm’s way from live-fire training at Makua Valley, on the leeward coast of O‘ahu.

In the early days of the Army’s work, Talbert Takahama, a biologist with theNARS Program on O‘ahu, worked out of the Army’s baseyard, an arrangement that lasted from 1997 to 2002. If the Army crew wanted access to a certain population of an endangered species, “we’d ask him to come with us,” Kawelo says. And for the most part, Takahama did just that, accompanying Army crews as they carried out mitigation activities in three O‘ahu Natural Area Reserves: Pahole, Ka‘ala, and Ka‘ena.

As Army demands on NARS staff time increased, so, too did the staffers’ frustration, as the Army’s activities became more difficult to monitor and control. So in the summer of 2004, the NARS staff, following instruction from their deputy attorney general, informed the Army that it needed to get a NARS permit, if it wanted to continue its mitigative mea sures.

Since then, both sides have been trying to pin down terms for such a permit, which may be voted on by the Natural Area Reserves Commission as early as this month.

A Chronology
“Maybe the state should have been involved earlier,” says Randy Kennedy, NARS Pro gram Manager with the Department of Land and Natural Resources. “But with only one or two people working on the O‘ahu Natural Area Reserves, it was just too difficult to attend all of the (50+) meetings,” that the Army has had on its plans for Makua.

In the 1990s, the Army entered into con sultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service to determine whether its training activities at Makua were threatening the more than 30 endangered species living in the valley’s upper reaches. By then, the Army’s use of live ammunition had set off several catastrophic wildfires that burned hundreds of acres.

In 1999, the FWS issued a “no jeopardy” opinion for the Army, contingent upon the stabilization of most of the endangered spe cies living within the potential burn area, which includes Pahole NAR. The Army then assembled a Makua Implementation team of scientists and resource managers to develop a plan to stabilize the endangered plant and tree snail species.

In October of that year, the Army invited DLNR staff to join the team, but the state, overburdened with its own management needs, was not an active participant in plan team meet ings. In May 2002, Kawelo was in vited to brief the NARS Commission on the Army’s proposed work, since the state’s Natural Area Reserves in the Wai‘anae area figure prominently in mitigation plans. Although the Makua Implementation Plan at that point was still a draft, Kawelo says, “We probably should have presented it to the NARS [Commission] sooner. They would have said we need a permit.”

Instead, the Army continued working in formally with NARS staff, while attempting to draft a Memorandum of Understanding with then-Division of Forestry and Wildlife administrator Mike Buck.

In August 2002, the Army met with Buck and DNLR staff to discuss the draft Makua Implementation Plan. Kawelo says the state asked that some changes be made to remove hunting areas and address conflicts with the state’s own rare plant management activities.

In October 2002, the Army sent a draft MOU to Buck, but received no formal re sponse, Kawelo says. The Army has since signed an MOU with The Nature Conser vancy, owner of other lands in the Wai‘anae area where Army mitigation activities are planned. A year ago, the Army hired full-time liaison to work with TNC and provide over sight to “make sure Makua action happens,” Kawelo says.

“We were thinking an MOU would for malize our relationship with the state,” Kawelo says. NARS rules call for Special Use Permits to be issued for all activities within the re serves, but, Kawelo adds, the SUP process is designed for research and isn’t really suited for management activities (Although the per­mit application is geared toward researchers, it has been used to cover non-research activi ties in the past, for example, Native Hawaiian subsistence fishing at ‘Ahihi-Kina‘u.)

Without a final implementation plan, however, the state was concerned any MOU would be premature.

While the Army negotiated with the DLNR on ways to formalize their relationship, its environmental crew continued its fieldwork on state lands. As time passed, Army efforts grew. Under the tentative working arrange ment that had evolved over the years, Army crews were allowed access to Natural Area Reserves but were required to let staff know in advance of any fieldwork.

But that eventually proved too difficult. In August 2004, when Army crews did not or could not reach Takahama in advance of working in a NAR. “That’s when they told us to apply for a NARS permit,” Kawelo says.

At a recent NARS Commission meeting, O‘ahu NARS manager Brent Liesemeyer and Takahama explained that the Army’s de mands were simply overwhelming. They were spending as much as a third of their time tracking the Army’s work, they said.

Kawelo insists that the Army has a good working relationship with the state. But, she adds, “What he [Takahama] said at the meet ing was true. There’s more [Army] staff now. It’s not possible” for Takahama to accom pany them all the time.

What’s an ‘Activity?’
DLNR rules require a permit for most activi ties in state forest reserves or natural area reserves. Last August, when Kawelo was told she’d need to apply for a NARS permit, an application for a collection permit from the DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife had been pending for more than a year. Under the division’s guidelines for research, collec tion, and access, permit-holders need only notify DOFAW in advance of fieldwork and carry with them a copy of the permit when ever they are engaged in the permitted activ ity.

Kennedy says that the NARS permit appli cation had gone up and down the Army chain of command without action and had landed “in a black hole.”

In response to the call for a NARS permit, Kawelo says she completed the application last October, but was waiting for a revised version of the Makua Implementation Plan to be finished before she submitted the applica tion. Last December, the Army concluded work on an addendum to the plan. The permit application was brought before the NARS Commission in March 2005.

But is a permit really even needed?

According to deputy attorney general Linda Chow, who works with the NARS Commis sion, that’s not an easy question to answer.

“I don’t know the details of the activities the Army is doing in the NARS, but some are in conjunction with the NARS staff. I’m not sure at what point a permit would be required, but if it’s being done in cooperation with NARS staff, arguably it may not require a permit. If it were an independent activity, a permit would be required. It’s kind of a gray area….In this situation, there is a question of what is a ‘NARS’ activity,” she says.

Since 1995, the Army has helped the state maintain roads and trails and has conducted surveys of rare species, including Achatinella (tree snails) and ‘elepaio ( a native forest bird listed as an endangered species by the state for O‘ahu, where it is extremely rare) in the NARS. Its rare plant management activities in the NARS have included rat control, weed control, ungulate hunting, fencing, and selection, propagation and outplanting of endangered species. Its rare snail management activities have included assisting NARS staff with rat baiting and monitoring, and building a snail exclosure at the Pahole NAR. The Army has also provided seed storage and horticultural assistance there.

These are just some of the things the Army environmental program crew have been doing in Pahole, Ka‘ena, and Ka‘ala NARs, the Wai‘anae Kai, Mokuleia, Keaau, and Kealia forest reserves, and at Pu‘u Poamoho.

Kawelo says the crew works year-round, outplanting in the winter when survivorship is best. Crews, averaging four people, work in the NARS an average of three times a month, she says, adding, “I imagine that would go up if the MOU and permit are established and we had a clearer direction.”

Kennedy agrees.

“There are different levels of formality,” he says. Landowners participating in the state’s watershed partnerships “have right-of-entry permits. And we have MOUs on how we access each other’s lands.”

With regard to the Army, “What they’re doing is what we would be doing. They’ve been volunteering with us. They’ve just been assisting us. That’s been the rationale for no permit up to this point,” he says.

Now that the Army has finalized its Makua mitigative measures, “The level of activity is greatly increasing and forecast to continue up to 30 years,” Kennedy says.

The Army’s actions now are taking on the look of mitigative measures, which are tied to Army training at Makua, Kennedy says. “That’s another element above and beyond a partnership,” he says. “The Army has the potential to contribute a lot of manpower and funding.”

While he says most of the Army’s pro posed actions are things that the NARS wants done on its lands, “It’s moved to another level. The actions are occurring to meet Section 7 requirements,” referring to a part of the Endangered Species Act relating to activi ties undertaken by federal agencies.

Marjorie Ziegler, Executive Director of the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, says a permit should also be required to ensure the Army’s good behavior in the long term, and to make sure there is equity in enforcement of rules protecting the NARS.

“We’re lucky now because we have Kapua and her crew who are doing good work. But without a permit, there is the potential for that to change if or when someone new steps in. A permit is a good safeguard,” she says.

Crossing the Line
The Makua Implementation Plan is a species-management plan. The intent of the NARS is to protect intact ecosystems rather than individual species. “We want to make sure we’re not crossing that line. It’s really hard,” says Kennedy.

“For example, there is a gulch in Pahole where there are six endangered plants, an endangered snail, and it’s ‘elepaio habitat as well,” he says. He goes on to describe the complications Army work in sensitive areas could entail and which any MOU or permit would need to address:

“The Army is required to have three popu lations of some particular plant, 60 to 80 individuals per population. If they determine this one gulch is appropriate for a population; that would mean there’s no room for other things. Also, in steep areas, it’s hard to plant. And their mere presence may drive the ‘elepaio away.”

“Outplanting is a good thing,” he adds, “but when you have relatively intact mircroeco systems, you want to leave it alone.”

Kennedy, NARS and Army staff have been working recently on permit conditions that they hope will satisfy both the Army’s endan gered species goals, as well as the NARS’ ecosystem management goals.

As the Army establishes these popula tions, the Army accumulates credits that are applied to the stabilization goals. How the credits are assigned depends on where the Army chooses to plant. For example, the Army doesn’t get as many credits for popula tions established in the potential burn area, compared to those outside the action area.

To get an idea of what Army actions are appropriate in the NARS, NARS staff is com paring the Makua Implementation Plan with O‘ahu NARS Management Plans and goals and seeing where they overlap. Kennedy says the MIP is much more advanced than the Management Plans, and adds, “The Army is pretty much state-of-the art [when it comes to outplanting]. They follow the protocols of the Hawai‘i Rare Plant Recovery Group.”

Still, NARS staff needs to keep track of who is doing what in all their reserves. And with outplanting, Kennedy says, it’s allowed, “only as long as it’s replacing plants that have historically been in that area.”

You have to be careful to avoid areas that are so degraded as to imperil plant survival, on the one hand, while on the other, you have to avoid pristine areas, where “you may dis turb the last healthy populations of a certain species…or introduce disease,” he warns.

Having so many individuals of the same species in close proximity to one another has also been a state concern.

Given the NARS staff’s concerns, could the Army’s MIP change once the state decides where the Army should and shouldn’t carry out its implementation activities?

“That’s a probability,” Kennedy says, “and one of the reasons the state never aggressively pursued this. There are a lot of unknowns.”

In the Meantime
As of mid-May, Gagné was planning to put discussion of the Army’s permit application on the NARS Commission’s June 13 agenda. “Whether we have the permit finalized is uncertain,” Kennedy says.

Terms are still being worked on, with input from Liesemeyer, Takahama, and Army staff. They’ve discussed the possibility of the Army hiring additional staff to help the state manage the Makua actions, says Kennedy, who adds, “Everything is in initial discussion phases.”

If and when a NARS permit and/or and MOU with the DLNR is complete, Army Resource Manager Michelle Mansker says, the environmental crew will be doing more of the same work they’ve been doing.

Until then, they’ll keep working as they have been, being limited by the number of days that “Talbert can keep track of us. Sometimes we can’t get in touch with him,” Kawelo says.

The Army has already spent roughly $1 million on its mitigation, Kawelo says, with most being used for survey work. She adds that in the last two years, an increasing amount has gone to active management.

The Army’s rare species surveys have iden tified at least 11 different taxa of native plants and snails, Kawelo says. She adds that the Army has also controlled feral goats and other ungulates in the lower parts of Ka‘ala NARS and the Mokule‘ia Forest Reserve; has suc cessfully reintroduced eight endangered plant species in Pahole NARS; fenced parts of Mount Ka‘ala; controlled a sprawling weed at Ka‘ena (per Takahama’s specific request); and helped establish living collections of Makua plants, among other things.

–Teresa Dawson

Volume 15, Number 12 June 2005

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