Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 12, 1 December 2005 — Charting new ground [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Charting new ground

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Above: Longtime Wūo Kele activist Palikapu Dedman shares his love for the forest with OHA Native Rights Advocate Jonathan Scheuer. Photo: Derek Ferrar lnset: Kumu Hula Pualani Kanahele leads marchers at the 1 990 anti-geothermal protest at the forest's gate. Photo: Franco Salmoiraghi Below: The now abandoned geothermal well. Photo: Jonathan Likeke Scheuer

By Derek Ferrar Public lnformation Specialist Under a damp, grey Puna sky, the Wao Kele o Puna rainforest lives and breathes. Ferns unfurl, dripping rainwater. Insects flitter. An 'io circles high above the 'ōhi'a tops. At the gate into the forest, Pele Defense Fund President Palikapu Dedman stands beneath a glaring "NO TRESPASSING" sign. Ifs the same spot where, in 1990, Dedman and others led about 2,500 people in a march on the gate to protest geothermal energy development in the forest, and he and many others were arrested in a passionate act of civil disobedienee. The poignant scene underscores

the reason why Dedman and the knot of other people talking on the cinder road that leads to the former geothermal site have eome to Wao Kele - to hash out some of the complex issues involved in the process that will put stewardship of these precious fonner kingdom lands back into Hawaiian hands. The occasion is the first group site visit to Wao Kele since the announcement of the landmark conservation deal that will give the Office of Hawaiian Affairs title to the forest, to be held in the interest of the Hawaiian people and eventually transferred to a future Native Hawaiian government. "This deal is so unprecedented that we're really learning how to go about it as we go along," says -| OHANativeRightsLeadAdvocate Ionathan Likeke Scheuer. "But what's great is that we're all learning from eaeh other." Scheuer says he is hopeful that OHA ean obtain title to the j land in the first half of 2006. First, I however, a number of tricky issues I need to be settled. I Foronething,OHAandthestate

must reach a joint Memorandum of Agreement outlining who would be responsible for such things as access, monitoring and liability. And, under the tenns of the $3.4-million federal Forest Legacy Program grant that will pay for nearly all of the purchase price of the land (with OHA's share being just $250,000), OHA must also have some kind of management plan in plaee before the transaction ean close. Since the formation of a long-term plan is likely to take a eouple of years, Scheuer says, that means coming up with an interim plan in the meantime. One of the iimnediate goals of the plan, Scheuer says, would be to secure funding from the state Legislature for plugging and abandoning the two geothermal wells at the site, at an estimated cost of around $2 million. Another would be to seek removal of the special zoning that allowed the geothermal drilling in the forest-in the first plaee. The management plan will also have to take into account such issues as: • Control of invasive species;

" iV | • Rare and endangered species propagation; • Identification and protection of cultural sites; and • Conservation of the forest as an important seed bank for natural reforestation of lava flows. Among the most difficult issues that will need to dealt with are: 1) How mueh puhlie access should be allowed into Wao Kele, and what kinds of uses should be allowed. State Department of Land and Natural Resources officials, who have responsibility for managing the Forest Legacy Program in Hawai'i, want to ensure that access to the area is open to anyone, as long as they follow hunting and other rules. Others believe that perhaps the forest should be closed except for traditional cultural uses. The Pele Defense Fund's Dedman, on the other hand, is not concerned about people visiting the forest, as long as they treat the land with the same respect as traditional Hawaiian users. "The problem is not use by the general puhlie,"

Dedman says. "The problem is the coimnercial mentality. The general puhlie will have to learn how to use the forest, instead of raping it." 2) Who will ultimately be responsible for such enforcement tasks as preventing poaching or illegal harvesting of hāpu'u fern and other native plants. While the state's existing forestry enforcement force, DOCARE, might seem like a natural ehoiee, DLNR officials say the force is already stretched thin without taking on an additional 25,000 acres. And Dedman, who has been fighting the state for more than 20 years over native access, geothennal development and other issues in the forest, says that the surrounding subdivision associations, traditional users and other community groups ean handle the task. "We ean take responsibility enough to manage our lands withSee WAO KELE on pagE II

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CūntinuEd fram page 8 out having to have a state agency to baby-sit us," he says. "And the state ean learn from Hawaiians how to manage the land culturally. It's not all about science; it's about the native people too. We're part of the forest." While they might disagree on some issues, the people involved in negotiating the deal all say that the

important lessons being learned could eventually be applied to other ceded lands areas. "My idea is to prove something in this forest that ean be used on ceded lands across the state," Dedman says. "I envision all ceded lands eventually being put to physical use, such as hula hālau having areas set aside to propagate their native lei plants. It's the greatest classroom there is to show mālama and responsibility, and I think it will spread - that the state will say, if it works here, why not elsewhere?" □