By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai‘i — A proposal to expand Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park by more than 50 percent received a mixed response last night from more than 100 people who gathered in the Hilo Medical Center’s conference rooms.
Most favored the proposed acquisition of the 117,000-acre Kahuku Ranch in Ka‘u to expand the park, which now spans 217,000 acres. But there was an underlying concern that the National Park Service might be unable to maintain a bigger park.
Some who spoke, such as former Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce President Jeffrey Melrose, asked whether purchasing the 100-year-old ranch at a cost of more than $30 million would be the best use of federal money to protect the native environment. The Damon Estate owns the ranch.
Tom Lodge of Puna, an active hunter and pilot, challenged the national park’s "bias" against hunting and aviation. Declaring "there is no balance by the National Park Service," Lodge said he fears hunters would lose more than 100,000 acres of recreational lands. "You will not maintain the local lifestyle," Lodge said.
However, a number of speakers urged acquisition, saying it would forestall residential development in Ka‘u and keep homes from being built in a path of a possible lava flow.
Bill Eger, who sounded the alarm over the purchase last fall when he made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the state House, renewed his concern about the national park’s ability to manage land it already owns. He cited massive fires on the Mainland last summer and a major blaze in Hawai‘i Volcanoes Park in July that required help from Mainland firefighting crews.
Many urged the national park to allow hunting on ranch lands and not attempt to eradicate feral animals, as it has done in the existing park. Large herds of mouflon sheep live at Kahuku Ranch, along with other introduced species.
The park service has congressional authority to seek the ranch purchase but no money has been authorized. "We don’t have the money to buy this ‘house,’" warned Gary Barbano, the service’s senior planner in Honolulu.
Hawai‘i Volcanoes superintendent Jim Martin said the park might have to buy a lesser part of the ranch. Plans now are to acquire only the mauka sections from the Hawai‘i Belt Highway to near the Mauna Loa southwest rift zone.
A 1,900-acre site near Pahala also has been considered for purchase in recent years, but negotiations were described yesterday as being at a standstill.
Two other meetings are planned on the proposed Kahuku Ranch purchase, tonight at 6 at the Na‘alehu Community Center in Ka‘u and 6 p.m. tomorrow at Yano Memorial Hall in Captain Cook, South Kona. Written testimony may be sent to: P.O. Box 52, Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, HI 96718.
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