The state Department of Health’s Office of Environmental Quality Control published the project’s final environmental assessment Wednesday in the latest issue of its The Environmental Notice. The document may be viewed online at: hawaii.gov/health/environmental/oeqc/index.html.
BY JASON ARMSTRONG | STEPHENS MEDIA
HILO — Massive reforestation, home sites for Native Hawaiians and commercial development comprise the state’s new long-range management plan for 56,200 acres located along Mauna Kea’s windward slope.
The mission of the Aina Mauna Legacy Program is to protect the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands’ Humuula/Piihonua area, according to a final environmental assessment released Wednesday.
Located on both sides of Saddle, Mauna Kea Access and Keanakolu-Mana roads, the area extends 19 miles along the Hamakua Coast and six miles in a mauka-makai direction.
The lands are generally located between the 4,500- and 9,000-foot elevation levels, DHHL spokeswoman Crystal Kua said in an email statement.
“The Aina Mauna Legacy Program goes to the heart of Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole’s vision, through the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, of the rehabilitating and reviving the Native Hawaiian people by returning them to and caring for their ancestral lands,” she said.
Once the site of a “healthy, dense native forest,” 88 percent of the area will be restored with native mamane, koa and ohia forests, according to the final EA.
That effort will cost about $2,000 an acre, Kua said.
The program is expected to pay for itself by incorporating money-making ventures.
“Without the funding from activities such as eco-tourism, remote accommodations, sheep station adaptive reuse etc., full funding of nonincome generating efforts cannot occur,” the final EA states.
The DHHL has budgeted about $250,000 annually to implement the program tasked with restoring a native forest that is “ecologically, culturally and economically self-sustaining,” the document adds.
The goal is to create a bountiful area, said Mike Robinson, property development agent for the department’s Land Management Division.
“We’re trying to fulfill our mission, which is to put Hawaiians on the land … and also give them a landscape that can support them,” he said via cellphone during a brief interview Thursday.
The plan calls for between 100 and 200 homesteads located on the Hamakua side of Saddle Road, just makai of the intersection with Mauna Kea Access Road. Access will be over gravel or cinder roads, according to the final EA.
“The bulk of the homestead opportunities are anticipated to be phased in once the land has been restored to productive use,” the document adds.
“In addition, a commercial area is included in the Legacy Program that will serve the homesteaders in the vicinity, as well as travelers coming through this area.”
Revenue-generating activities will include campgrounds, eco-tourism endeavors, and up to 20 cabins and other redevelopment of the former Humuula Sheep Station.
Land on either side of Mauna Kea Access Road and surrounding the old station will be used for a 500-acre commercial development complete with up to a 20-unit lodge, restaurant, visitor center, office space and various stores, according to the final EA.
The ongoing reconstruction of a new Saddle Road, along with the island’s rapid population growth, means more motorists than ever are using the cross-island route. However, there’s no housing, stores or other development along the 46-mile stretch between Kaumana City and the road’s western terminus with Mamalahoa Highway.
Research activities, pasture uses, an administrative base facility and the eradication of invasive gorse are other key components of the plan.
Eradication efforts will include pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, dogs and cats, according to the final EA.
“Control and/or removal of these animals will be done across the entire property” by implementing a combination of fencing, trapping and aerial hunting, it states.
“The intention is not to develop a game management program, but rather an eradication of feral animals.”
Although construction could start this year, the project’s time frame for some components is “relatively unknown,” while funding, administrative priorities and the regulatory process will influence which parts get implemented first, according to the final EA.
“The time commitment for the Legacy Program and restoration of the land is long-term, essentially for the next 100 years and beyond,” it states. “However, it is expected that each of the actions will be implemented immediately and well under way in five to 10 years.”
The DHHL is currently “assessing budget and other logistics in order to decide how best to move forward,” Kua said.
The project received unanimous approval from the state Hawaiian Homes Commission in December 2009.
DHHL Chairman Alapaki Nahale-a was busy attending a series of meetings Thursday and unavailable for comment, Kua said.
The state Department of Health’s Office of Environmental Quality Control published the project’s final environmental assessment Wednesday in the latest issue of its The Environmental Notice. The document may be viewed online at: hawaii.gov/health/environmental/oeqc/index.html.