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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, November 13, 2003

Conservancy buys South Kona land

Advertiser Staff

HILO, Hawai'i — The Nature Conservancy has purchased 2,240 acres of native forest lands at Papa in South Kona to expand its Kona Hema Preserve.

The land was bought from businessman Kent Untermann for $1.7 million, the Conservancy announced.

"We look forward to managing and restoring this unique forest parcel and to working with other public and private landowners in the region to ensure the long-term protection of Kona's native forests," said Suzanne Case, the Conservancy's executive director in Hawai'i.

With the additional land, the Kona Hema Preserve now totals 8,061 acres. The sale marks the Conservancy's third acquisition of neighboring forest lands in South Kona in the past five years.

In 1999, the Conservancy purchased 4,021 acres at Honomalino. Two years later the organization acquired another 1,800 acres at Kapu'a, adjacent to the south of Honomalino.

The Honomalino and Kapu'a properties were purchased for $1 million each after significant donations by the respective landowners, First Hawaiian Bank and Leighton Mau.

The Papa parcel runs from 3,200 to 5,600 feet elevation, and contains koa, tree fern, and 'ohi'a forest stands on lava flows of various ages.

It provides habitat for the endangered Hawaiian hawk ('io) and the endangered Hawaiian hoary bat ('ope'ape'a).

It also provides habitat for four different native forest birds: the 'i'iwi, 'apapane, 'elepaio and 'amakihi. It also offers a potential habitat for the restoration of other endangered birds that occupied the area until the 1970s, including the 'alala, or Hawaiian crow, and the Hawai'i creeper.

The koa and 'ohi'a forests there have been affected by grazing, harvesting and fire, but the land offers "great potential" for recovery, said Rob Shallenberger, the Conservancy's Hawai'i Island program director.

Honomalino and Kapu'a parcels have been fenced to lock out grazing by goats, pigs and mouflon sheep, and a cooperative fencing project with neighboring landowners at Papa is expected to begin soon, Shallenberger said.

The Kona Hema Preserve is just downslope of the 116,000 acre Kahuku Ranch, which the Conservancy purchased in partnership with the National Park Service as an addition to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

The Hema Preserve is adjacent to the north boundary of the state's 25,000-acre Manuka Natural Area Reserve.

"The Kona region is the only place in the state where large tracts of native forest still exist on lands zoned for agriculture," said Kim Hum, the Conservancy's Director of Land Protection.

The Conservancy is working with the Forest Service's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry to conduct research on the potential for sustainable forestry in the region. Those efforts so far have been focused on the 4,021 acre Honomalino parcel, but will now include the Papa parcel.