Big Island park merger to bring major changes

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

KA'U, Hawai'i — Exotic mouflon sheep roam freely on the former Kahuku Ranch grounds, scattering as vehicles approach on rough, dirt roads on thousands of acres of land that represent a historic opportunity to re-establish native forests.

Sam Gon, director of science for The Nature Conservancy, smells the aromatic dubautia, a native plant that grows on the former Kahuku Ranch that has become part of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

The park expansion plan calls for the gradual elimination of the mouflon sheep. Tim Wright photos

The National Park Service took control of 116,000 acres of Kahuku Ranch this year to expand Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in what was described as the largest land conservation transaction in the state's history.

The property purchased from Damon Estate offers vast new opportunities not only for preservation, but for hiking and other recreational activities.

Park officials are asking the public for suggestions on ways the land can be used, though some question whether federal budget constraints will make it difficult to establish the infrastructure to allow access to much of the land.

But some basic outlines of how the new park land will be managed are clear: The illegal off-road vehicles that trespass on southern portions of the property will go. And, eventually, the cattle-grazing at the lower elevations must end.

And the mouflon will be hunted, with fences erected to keep any remnants of the herd from wandering back on the property, park officials said.

Hunting by authorized staff and hired professionals has begun on the southern and western portions of the former ranch lands, with efforts under way to fence 10 miles on the western edge of the property.

The National Park Service and The Nature Conservancy paid $22 million for the ranch property, which extends along the slopes of Mauna Loa from 2,000 feet to about 13,000 feet in elevation. The purchase increased the size of the national park by about 50 percent.

"That ahupua'a of Kahuku is such a wonderful slice of the island of Hawai'i, so we can see all of the habitats and all of the environments except for the coastal one, they are captured right there on that property," Martin said.

The property's striking features include a 400-foot deep crater with sheer walls that is thick with native plant life at the bottom.

Martin said the crater will offer clues to what the forest looked like before non-native grazing animals cleared many of the native species.

The property is home to the endangered nene goose as well as three species of endangered forest birds, the endangered Hawaiian hawk and the endangered Hawaiian bat.

The rare endangered Ka'u silversword also survives there in fenced areas, out of reach of the sheep.

Native plants such as the silversword, the shrub 'ohelo and native grasses are a premium treat to the sheep.

Mouflon were imported and turned loose on the ranch in the 1960s, and recently the ranch allowed only limited guided hunting trips at the higher elevations. That meant there was little pressure on the sheep population in the area, and rough estimates by park officials put the mouflon population on the Kahuku lands at about 2,000.

The Ka'u silversword is native to the lands of the former Kahuku Ranch. Tim Wright photo

"The areas we're going to be working for (native forest) restoration, nothing can happen until we get ungulate grazing off," Martin said. "The seed bank for the forest is there. When the mouflon are gone, the forest will start restoring itself. We don't have to do a whole lot except fence and keep the mouflon out."

Park officials are considering a lottery system to select people for guided hunts later to further reduce the sheep population.

At some point the numbers of sheep will drop so low that private hunters will lose interest in guided hunts. The park then will use professional hunters to eliminate the remaining sheep, park officials said.

Big Island hunting organizations are unhappy about the plan to eradicate the sheep, but seem mostly resigned to it.

Jim Martin, superintendent of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, says the park addition contains "all of the ecosystems, from dryland to wet forest, to raw primordial lava." Tim Wright photo

State officials have been under court order for years to eradicate mouflon on Mauna Kea to allow native plants to regenerate there, a step that is intended to protect the endangered palila bird.

"This is all a done deal, and I guess I feel like most hunters there's not a lot of sense in whining and crying over spilled milk," Hoeflinger said.

But he questioned whether the park will have the resources to properly manage the Kahuku lands.

"The way they always operate is they jump on any opportunity to get more land, get the fence on that land and hope that somewhere down the line they get the money to manage it," Hoeflinger said.

Park officials acknowledged that so far they have not received any new operating money to manage the lands, but Martin said the park will make do while it seeks a budget increase.

"It's going to be hard, it's going to be a real challenge for the staff, but almost all parks come on this way," he said.

"I think we can still do a very good job."

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