Kaʻū News Briefs, Sunday, August 27, 2023

Kaʻū Community Health Fair offered eye testing of the retina from Project Vision. Photo by Julia Neal

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see facebook.com/kaucalendar. See latest print edition at kaucalendar.com, in the mail and on stands.

Lani Cran Petrie's Kapāpala Ranch, leased  from the state, will be managed under the Department of Agriculture. A member  of the Paniolo Hall of Fame, she is shown here with a certificate from  the County Council.

SOME 24,800 ACRES OF KAPĀPALA RANCH LANDS WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. It has been the goal of lessees Lani Cran Petrie and Bill Petrie for decades.
    The Kapāpala ranchers, who run cattle, goats and horses, have been operating under the state Department of Land & Natural Resources and feared that the agency could halt the ranching operation. Kapāpala is one of the oldest continuously operating ranches with perhaps the oldest working ranch house in the state, built in the mid 1800s. It is located mauka of Hwy 11 between Pāhala and Volcano. 

    On Friday, the Board of Land & Resources voted unanimously to allow the transfer, under the leadership of BLNR Chair Dawn Chang. Lani Cran Petrie said, "Chair Chang and the Board of Land & Natural Resources started taking down the wall between conservation and agriculture. There is a place for cooperation in achieving landscape goals that will benefit all of society. What most advocates of the DLNR donʻt realize is that itʻs the Administrative Rules governing the agency that cripples lessees from doing long-term meaningful practices.
    "Generating highest lease rents with short-termed land tenure is not an environment that lends itself to important things like invasive weed management and reforestation. The Department of Ag has different rules which have long term tenure. Also, the DLNRʻs mandate for public auction removes any long-term investment potential that the land

Nearly 25,000 acres of Kapāpala Ranch land will be transferred to  the state Department of Agriculture. Photo from Kapāpala Ranch

can support. Who is going to plant a koa forest with a 35-year term on a piece of land? At the expiration of a lease all assets belong to the State and you aren't going to grow a marketable tree in that window of time."
    Cran Petrie said she was "pretty confident going into the meeting that it would pass. What I wasn't expecting was the landslide of support. The Nature Conservancy and Office of Hawaiian Affairs raised their concerns but had to concur that it was a good decision." 

    State Department of Forestry & Wildlife Administrator Dave Smith said, "We at DOFAW will get more done quicker and better with Bill and Lani Petrie than we could ever do on our own".
    The BLNR Chair said, "Our decision today is pono. It is right for the land."

Kapāpala Ranch is famed for raising goats and cattle. Photo from Kapāpala Ranch

    Chang said she expects the growth of "a collaborative relationship to support what you guys are doing in the ranching industry and how you can work with us to ensure that our interests as DLNR are met. I’m very optimistic.” 

     Board of Agriculture Chair Sharon Hurd told the BLNR that conservation would remain important for the land transferred to the Department of Agriculture. "Please don’t worry about conservation being ignored. It’s not a zero-sum game. It’s very much a complementary game.”
    As part of the transfer, Kapāpala Ranch is releasing 7,000 acres of its leased land that have “high natural resource value” to Department of Land & Natural Resources. It may be annexed to Kapāpala Forest Reserve. It is also ensuring that native Hawaiian hunting and gathering rights as well as access to trails will not be impeded on lands transferred to Department of Agriculture.