President Obama yesterday signed into law a massive public lands bill that includes a provision for a memorial to Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa Peninsula on Moloka'i.

The law, a collection of nearly 170 separate measures, sets aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness.

U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, and U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, who sponsored bills calling for the Kalaupapa memorial, were scheduled to attend the signing.

Beginning in 1866, people who suffered from, or were suspected of having, Hansen's disease — also known as leprosy — were forcibly relocated from throughout the Hawaiian Islands to Kalaupapa. This policy of exile continued until 1969, even though the disease was treatable by the late 1940s.

About 8,000 people who were sent to Kalaupapa, and more than 75 percent of the exiles were buried in unmarked graves.

Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa, a nonprofit organization consisting of patient residents at Kalaupapa National Historical Park and their family members and friends, will be responsible for paying for the construction of the memorial. The monument's location, size, design and inscriptions must be approved by the U.S. secretary of the interior.

The bill signed by Obama today also reauthorizes an advisory commission for the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park on the western coast of the Big Island through 2018 and authorizes $5 million over the next 10 years to help with the maintenance of the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on Maui, Kaua'i and the Big Island.

The law represents one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in 25 years. It confers the government's highest level of protection on land in nine states.