Rep. Ed Case has introduced legislation to authorize the purchase of an additional 656 acres of Kahuku Ranch for the expansion of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

The park grew in 2003 when it acquired 116,000 acres of ranch land through a $22 million purchase by the Nature Conservancy for the National Park Service.

The new additional area is between the 1,000- and 2,000-foot elevation mark along the southwest rift zone of Mauna Loa, said Case, D-Hawai'i.

"The geological features of the proposed acquisition — three large pit craters — provide vestiges of native forest and other unique attributes," Case said.

The property also includes ranch buildings, pasture lands and "remnant ranch lands that are not currently represented to the public by any national park in Hawai'i," he said.