Trust fights habitat plans

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau Chief

In what is shaping up as a clash between a major Native Hawaiian institution and conservationists, the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust is fighting new plans by the federal government to declare trust lands in North Kona as "critical habitat" for two endangered plant species.

Trust officials said that planned development is essential to increasing the future cash flow for the trust, which was created by the will of Queen Lili'uokalani to benefit orphans and destitute children, with a preference for youngsters who are Hawaiian.

Trust administrator Robert Ozaki said the critical habitat designation would affect 344 acres mauka of the Kona Kmart and the Makalapua shopping center, property he called the "crown jewel" of the trust's assets.

"It's our financial future, it really is," he said. "What we're trying to do is show the impact on us, because this devastates the financial future of the trust."

On the other side of the issue is Earthjustice staff attorney David Henkin, who has repeatedly sued on behalf of environmental and other groups to pressure the federal government to designate critical habitat for more of Hawai'i's threatened and endangered species.

Henkin said designating the Kona land as critical habitat won't stop all development there because the trust's plans can be configured to preserve the plants' habitat. But he acknowledged the designation likely will cause the state and county to scrutinize any development plans there more carefully.

"To build another mall are we going to wipe another couple of species off of the earth?" Henkin asked. "I think that's something legitimate for state and county agencies to think about."

Henkin sued the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in 1997 on behalf of the Sierra Club of Hawai'i, the Conservation Council for Hawai'i and the Hawaiian Botanical Society to pressure the service to designate "critical habitat" areas for 245 species of plants statewide.

In 1998 federal Judge Alan Kay ruled the service's previous decisions not to create the habitats were illegal, and ordered the agency to reconsider.

As part of the effort to comply with that order, U.S. Fish & Wildlife is now planning to designate 437,300 acres on the Big Island as critical habitat for 47 threatened and endangered species of plants.

Most of the lands are not planned for significant development, with 80 percent of the acreage in the restrictive state conservation district, according to a Fish & Wildlife economic analysis that was released last week on the Big Island critical habitat plan.

But two major projects would be affected, including the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust's 456-acre Keahuolu project mauka of the Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway on North Kona, and the state's long-stalled 1,000-acre Villages at La'i'opua project.

The Fish & Wildlife report notes the Queen Lili'uokalani trust expects "a significant percentage" of its future money will come from the Keahuolu project, which is slated for a regional shopping center, several smaller commercial areas, a professional plaza, several office areas, a business hotel and a "civic and cultural center."

All of those plans are for 344 acres the federal government plans to designate as critical habitat for two endangered species of plants. They are the Isodendrion pyrifolium, also known by the Hawaiian name of wahine noho kula, which is a member of the violet family; and the Neraudia ovata, a member of the nettle family.

According to federal reports, the wahine noho kula is found in only one population in the wild, with only nine individual plants there. The Neraudia are found in just three populations in the wild with a total of 17 individual plants.

Ozaki protested that none of the endangered plants are actually on trust land, which has been planned for development for 40 years and is zoned for general commercial uses. The plants are on state land nearby, with urban development surrounding the entire area, he said.

If the land is designated as a critical habitat, trust officials worry it would be more difficult to develop, or could even be downzoned to state conservation land, making the planned development impossible.

Ozaki contends the critical habitat designation would leave the trust with only 85 developable acres out of 500 that it owns in the area, and said trust assets are already "under attack" by proponents of condominium leasehold conversion on O'ahu.

Last week the trust announced it would eliminate about 45 of its 182 jobs statewide because of budget problems triggered by investment losses, a step that will force the trust to shed educational, leadership and health programs.

Ozaki said he and trust Chairman Thomas Kaulukukui Jr. plan to take their case to Fish and Wildlife officials this week. "Once they've considered all the relevant factors, they will realize that land sanctified to serve orphans and poor children should not be designated as critical habitat for plants," Ozaki said.

He said the trust's botanical consultants don't believe the plant will survive in any event because of the "encroaching urbanization and the existing ground cover."

Although there may be no plants on the trust land now, Henkin said the Fish & Wildlife Service normally designates land as critical habitat when that species has previously lived on the property.

With only nine wahine noho kula still living in the wild, that is "a good illustration of why we need to be mindful of destroying unoccupied habitat," he said. As for development surrounding the area, "The fact that the habitat may be degraded does not make it improper or unreasonable to try to save it.

"Clearly the status quo is unacceptable. This plant is going to go extinct in the wild if we leave it to one population with nine individuals. That's really the issue — is this land important to the recovery of these species? — and it has been identified as being important to the species."

Eric Enos, a member of an advisory council to the executive director of the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center, said he wants both sides to take a step back, and wants the trust to rethink its plan to incorporate the concerns about the endangered plants.

"It does not have to be them or us," said Enos, who is also program director with the Cultural Learning Center at Ka'ala in Wai'anae. "The intent of the endangered species act is part of the Hawaiian tradition, that we cannot separate the species from the people. The endangered species act is actually a very cultural approach to those issues.

"We do need to pay attention to bringing back some of those endangered species because they are part of our cultural legacy."

Jeff Mikulina, director of the Sierra Club's Hawai'i Chapter, said he finds the trust's opposition to the critical habitat designation to be peculiar because "the Hawaiian connection to the land has always been so strong."

"We really should be singing from the same hymnal and working together to protect Hawai'i and the essence of Hawaiian culture, Mikulina said. "In that sense, it's frustrating.

"I would find it curious if the trust would put a shopping center ahead of protecting Hawai'i's culture."

Reach Kevin Dayton at (808) 935-3916 or kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.