Posted on: Friday, May 23, 2008
LAND PRESERVATION
$4.7M approved to purchase resource lands for protection
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state land board has approved $4.7 million for county and nonprofit land acquisition projects to protect Hawai'i's "valuable resource lands" through the Legacy Land Conservation Program.
The money from the State Land Conservation Fund will go to one county and four nonprofit organizations for the acquisition of lands recognized for their cultural, archeological and natural resource value.
Under Legacy Lands, nonprofit and county applicants must secure matching funds from elsewhere for the purchases. The state gets back a share proportional to its grant if land bought under the program is ever resold.
Funding recipients:
Wai'anae Community Redevelopment Corporation received $737,300 to buy an 11-acre former Lualualei Valley chicken farm to expand the nonprofit's primary educational and business enterprise, MA'O Organic Farms. The nonprofit would contribute $250,000 to the purchase that would protect the parcel from urban growth.
Hawai'i County received $1.5 million to buy 551 acres around Kawa Bay in Ka'u from the Edmund C. Olson Trust No. 2. The county expects to contribute $4 million of its own plus a $1 million federal grant and $1.2 million land value donation from the seller to acquire the property, which is threatened by residential development and contains heiau, burial sites, petroglyphs and endangered-species habitat.
Kaua'i Public Land Trust received $700,000 to buy 20.5 acres next to Kaua'i's Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge. The nonprofit has received a $2.7 million federal grant to help make the purchase.
Maui Coastal Land Trust received $994,724 for the acquisition of 128 acres in Nu'u Makai, southeast shore, for the protection of coastal, wetland, habitat, historical and cultural values.
Ke 'Aupuni Lokahi Inc. (Moloka'i Enterprise Community) received $767,976 for the acquisition of 196.4 acres to be held by Moloka'i Land Trust, in Kawaikapu, Mana'e, for the protection of watershed, cultural and scenic values.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
