Deal ensures farm use of Kipahulu site

The Maui News,
Friday, March 04, 2005
By EDWIN TANJI, City Editor

KIPAHULU - A Kipahulu landowner has granted a conservation easement to the Maui Coastal Land Trust to assure that a 75-acre property will remain in agricultural use for perpetuity, trust President Tom Blackburn-Rodriguez has announced.

"This agreement is a big step toward ensuring that this part of Kipahulu will look the same to our children and grandchildren," Blackburn-Rodriguez said.

The property formerly was in sugar cane and used for grazing, but the owner, a family trust, has begun restoring the land as an organic agricultural operation. The farming operation will include orchard trees as well as construction-grade bamboo and varieties of trees that can be harvested as timber, including koa, kou, kamani, mahogany and teak. The area has been named Ola Honua, for life-giving earth.

Trust Executive Director Dale Bonar said the land preservation agreement provided by the Margaret Winkler Hecht Trust assures that the land will be maintained as an organic agricultural operation even if the family trust changes or the land is sold.

"Our part of the deal is that we ensure that any future landowner will abide by the agreement. Just as the deal will also be there, we will always be around to be sure that any future landowner will adhere to this agreement," he said.

He said the conservation easement for the Kipahulu land is similar to one granted in 2002 by the Hana Ranch for a 41-acre parcel at Makaalae. Maui Coastal Land Trust is working on additional conservation easement agreements as well, he said.

The agreement was applauded by other Kipahulu residents for protecting the open space and rural atmosphere.

"Ola Honua is the result of the family's conviction that a productive, economically viable farm doesn't have to mean a loss of biodiversity or ecological health," said Tom Pierce, an attorney representing the family who also is an MCLT board member.

"The main thing is it means a large section of land will be left alone. They won't be building on it, there will be no development, no subdivisions," said Farley Jacobs, president of the Kipahulu Community Association.

Jacobs, who is a caretaker on an adjoining property, said he also benefits since the assurance that the Hecht property will be maintained as an organic operation means there will be no pesticides or chemical fertilizers running downhill to the properties for which he is responsible.

"The exact wording of the conservation agreement states that they will be using organic processes. I live right down the hill and downstream from the property," he said.

"The organic land-use practices at Ola Honua protect the watershed from erosion and from pollution by agricultural chemicals, while creating a band of native vegetation from the highest to the lowest elevations," Bonar said. "Such continuity is extremely important for a healthy ecosystem of native plants and animals."

Rich von Wellsheim, general manager of the Ola Honua property, said the restoration of the land in agriculture will involve planting native species, followed by commercially sustainable agriculture. The construction-grade bamboo is a noninvasive species that will be available for immediate harvesting, while the other varieties of timber trees are long-term forestry products, suitable for harvesting in 30 to 40 years.

"The owner's desire was to have it permanently protected so it will always be available for organic agriculture," Bonar said. "They want to minimize development out there, and to have a place where organic agriculture will be maintained."

He said the conservation agreement would have the effect of reducing the potential value of the land, that could have been subdivided into as many as 11 smaller agricultural lots. There is a tax benefit to the trust, but it would be relatively small compared to the potential returns from a subdivision and sale of lots.

Accepting the conservation easement means the Maui Coastal Land Trust, based in Wailuku, needs to assure the public that it will always be around to enforce the terms of the agreements, he said.

"We need to build a sustainable organization so that long after the current owners of the land are gone, there will still be a permanent organization as well," he said.