HILO — A Big Isle beekeeper known for his top-quality organic honey fears that public opposition to the state’s new Public Land Development Corporation could complicate or derail his plans for a long-term lease of more than 500 acress of state land in South Kohala.
HILO — A Big Isle beekeeper known for his top-quality organic honey fears that public opposition to the state’s new Public Land Development Corporation could complicate or derail his plans for a long-term lease of more than 500 acress of state land in South Kohala.
The proposal by Richard Spiegel, owner and operator of Honokaa-based Volcano Island Honey Co., to obtain a 20-year, exclusive lease on 545 acres in the Puako Forest is among some of the requests that the PLDC placed on its agenda for discussion this summer.
Shortly thereafter, the newly created state agency came under fire at a series of public hearings on a draft of its administrative rules. In response to complaints that it was jumping the gun by discussing projects before its administrative rules were in place, the PLDC put all discussion on future projects on hold.
The PLDC was approved by the state Legislature on May 3, 2011, to form public-private partnerships between the state and private companies in order to generate funds for the Department of Land and Natural Resources while developing public lands.
Continuing criticism has prompted at least one County of Hawaii council member to call this week for the PLDC’s abolishment.
Spiegel explains that since the public hearings started to elicit such a large public outcry, he’d begun to feel like an innocent bystander trapped in the crossfire.
“I’m trying to accomplish something positive for the environment of this island, and now people are trying to hook me up with the PLDC, and that’s causing me a real frustration,” he said.
Spiegel maintains that his request has more to do with preserving a vital part of the island’s ecosystem than it does with profiting his premium honey business, which has garnered multiple awards and helped build strong brand recognition for Hawaii-produced honey in general, similar to the reputation of Kona coffee.
The 70-year-old former attorney argues that his company’s mission of 35 years has always been to show that businesses can be successful by putting ethical behavior and good stewardship of the environment at the top of their priority list, with profits coming a distant second.
“I chose beekeeping partly because it has no negative footprint,” he said. “It makes the trees and the Earth healthier.”
Spiegel says that he hopes people won’t oppose his request as a result of the furor over the PLDC without first regarding his plans merits.
In his proposal, Spiegel explained that his request came in part due to the threats currently facing honey producers on the island, including the varroa mite, which was discovered on the Big Isle in 2008, and the small hive beetle, which was found here in 2010.
“These pathogens have already decimated the feral bees on the Big Island,” he wrote, leaving only managed populations of bees available to pollinate crops here.
The Puako Forest provides a unique location for bees to establish hives on dry land near plenty of hardwood kiawe trees, the flowers of which provide the pollen to produce his highly-regarded product, Rare Hawaiian Organic White Honey.
“(Volcano Island Honey Co.) is the only company producing kiawe honey of this superior quality — the result of years of experience, experimentation and meticulous care for the bees and the environment,” Spiegel wrote.
His honey has been featured on a number of television programs, magazine articles, and in this newspaper.
All told, he’s been managing hives within the forest for 35 years, Spiegel said, making him the most experienced and qualified person to continue to maintain stewardship of the area.
He argues that if he is given exclusive rights to use the forest, such a move would go a long way toward protecting the entire island’s honeybee pollinator population by keeping out bees maintained by beekeepers with lower standards. The introduction of bees carrying disease or pests could have an adverse impact on the area’s food chain, he said. An exclusive deal would also help prevent a large-scale disruption of the forest, such as the building of a hotel or golf course, on the property, he said.
Spiegel’s plan also calls for a clean-up effort in the forest to remove dead wood that presents a major fire hazard, and the building of nature trails and other educational opportunities to share with the public information about the ecology of the area.
Members of the Big Island Beekeepers Association say they support Spiegel’s request and hope to emulate his efforts, said Cary Dizon, a group member and editor of its website, www.bibahawaiibees.org. Dizon said that Spiegel has built a successful organic honey business by adhering to strict quality controls, and his success has shown the way for a great many other beekeepers on the island.
Using large tracts of public land is just about the only way for producers of organic honey to ensure that their bees are collecting pollen from flowers that have not been treated with chemicals, she explained.
“The standards are particularly stringent for organic honey production. It’s much different from (farmers) producing an organic crop, where you just need to maintain the space within a couple of yards of your crops. You need a very large area that can be demonstrated to be free of chemicals (for honey).
“Most of the honey producers I talk to, we’d love to have the same deal,” she said of Spiegel’s 545-acre request.
Dizon said that Spiegel’s request could even act as a model for how other private partners could work with the state and the new PLDC. She added, however, that she would rather not have to deal with the PLDC at all.
“Everybody who has a lease with the Department of Land and Natural Resources will have to go through the PLDC,” she said. “Presumably, this land development corporation is supposed to raise money for the land … and then the next thing you know all they’ll be interested in is money, money, money. I think that’s just nuts. I don’t like the land development corporation for a lot of reasons.”
While BIBA supports Volcano Island Honey’s request, not everyone is in support of such a plan. Len Skyles, who admittedly refers to himself as the “black sheep” of the isle beekeeping community, said in a phone interview last week that he felt Spiegel shouldn’t be allowed an advantage that is not offered to other business owners.
“If he were to get a 500-acre grant, or usage of 500 acres from the state, then the state should be willing to give 500 acres to any other beekeeper that makes the request,” he said. “It should be made available to all beekeepers in the state, not just one person.”
Skyles, a Kurtistown resident, says he is a retired educator who took up beekeeping as a hobby. He operates a number of beehives sprinkled around Puna.
He added that many beekeepers have to strike up deals with various landowners spread out in many locations to allow them to maintain their hives on their property in a mutually beneficial relationship.
“A lot of my friends want the hives in their yards to help with pollinating the fruit. But they can be spread everywhere,” he said. “And if you have 200 hives spread out over a big area, the price of gasoline, which has skyrocketed, can really have an effect on you.”
Skyles argued that by the state granting exclusive use of public land to one beekeeper and not others, it is in effect granting an unfair advantage to him or her.
“It’s much cheaper for operating to have a big plot of land in one area,” he said.
The executive director of the PLDC, Lloyd Haraguchi, said earlier this month that Spiegel’s request and others would not be taken up until the corporation’s board had finalized its administrative rules. Several requests had been included for discussion in an agenda publicized this summer, but they were put on hold after public complaints that the PLDC was jumping the gun without rules in place.
“We listened, and we heard,” he said of the complaints.