Long-stalled plans for commercial eucalyptus logging on the Hamakua Coast and a sawmill operation in Ookala are still in the works, according to the CEO of Tradewinds Hawaiian Woods.
Long-stalled plans for commercial eucalyptus logging on the Hamakua Coast and a sawmill operation in Ookala are still in the works, according to the CEO of Tradewinds Hawaiian Woods.
Don Bryan told the Rotary Club of South Hilo on Sept. 17 that his company is hoping to start harvesting and milling operations in 2014.
“We’re just starting to go through a series of permit applications,” Bryan said. He said the company hopes to have “local plantation woods for international and local sales” within a year. He said the timber would be “primarily eucalyptus but other exotic woods as well.”
A recent check found no grading or grubbing permit applications filed at the County of Hawaii’s Department of Public Works Engineering Division.
Bryan said there are about 40,000 acres of potential timberland, but that his company plans on harvesting “about 150 acres to start” and work up to 300 acres a year. The operation would employ 35 workers at what he called “family wages.”
“I’m not ready to quote wage rates here, but they’re competitive with other jobs on the island, such as construction jobs,” he said. “We’re looking forward to finally having a chance to employ local people on the Hamakua Coast and work with our neighbors who are tree growers and be an active economic part of this community — sooner better than later.”
Bryan previously served as the pointman for a company he has since parted ways with, Tradewinds Forest Products, and was involved in a decade-long effort to start eucalyptus harvesting operations on the Big Island that included a sawmill at the former Ookala sugar mill site.
“This is a completely different company and has nothing to do with Tradewinds Forest Products,” he said.
The Hamakua lands are habitat for the Hawaiian hoary bat or opeapea, a federally protected endangered species, Bryan said. He believes Hawaii’s only endemic land mammal won’t be impacted by logging.
He added the company would not need to do an environmental impact statement or assessment to log on private Hamakua Coast land.
“When we harvest on state land, and we do have one license on state land, we always have to do an EA prior to selling any wood,” he said. “To the extent we are working on state lands, there would be an EA or an EIS, whatever the state deems appropriate, involved. But on private lands, there’s no EA or EIS called for, and we would work on both state and private lands.”
David Johnston, a wildlife ecologist for H.T. Harvey & Associates, who studies the Hawaiian hoary bat, disputed Bryan’s assertion that an EIS or EA wouldn’t be necessary to cut on private property if the bats are present.
“Whether or not the bat would be impacted is not a question I can answer, but if there is a potential for the loss of individuals in species that are protected by the federal Endangered Species Act laws, or any federal law, it doesn’t matter if it is private land or public land,” he said. “Environmental laws are not restricted to public lands.”
The state timber license Bryan referred to is to harvest trees from 1,000 acres of the Waiakea Timber Management Area off Stainback Highway. State Division of Forestry and Wildlife Cooperative Resource Management Forester Sheri Mann said the license, which has five years remaining, was part of Tradewinds’ purchase of Hawaii Island Hardwoods.
The state is working on an environmental assessment for the entire 12,000-acre WTMA. A draft should be complete in six months, Mann said.
The proposed sawmill at the old Ookala sugar mill became a rallying point in community opposition in the last decade to Tradewinds Forest Products’ plans to harvest eucalyptus from the WTMA and process it into veneer wood. Though the project would have created jobs, the plans were met by an outcry from organized neighbors who had moved in, not expecting the mill to be fired up again.
Beginning in 2004, the state Land Board had modified Tradewinds Forest Products’ license six times, giving the company multiple chances to secure financing for the veneer mill. TFP insisted a deal to finance the mill had been sunk by the collapse of the housing market and subsequent recession; others said it couldn’t attract capital because of a bad business model. The company had paid the state $758,500 in fees by the time that timber license was terminated in August 2011.
“That was a completely difference license agreement,” Mann said. “It was for a lot more acreage and it was a completely different company, even though it’s got Tradewinds in the name.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.