RES 120 Draft 01 2024-2026 - Laserfiche WebLink

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representing the ancient pathway is recognized by the U,S. National Parks Service as the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail. The AKNHT corridor via a memorandum of agreement with the State of Hawai'i's Na Ala Hele trails Division and the Hawaii County Planning Department, has multi -level and multi -agency support related to perpetuating public access and cultural use, balanced with historic preservation. One of the highest community values for public access to this location is for fishing and other traditional subsitence gathering practices , This was emphasized repeatedly by community voice in written and oral testimony, as well as during the site -visit attended by Commissioners Crivello, Lee, and Plunkett. It was expressed often, that over time the fishermen and subsistence gathers from Kohala exprienced increased restrictions to coastline access as former sugar plantation lands became sub -divided and gated; and that the'Upolu stretch of coastline was particularly valuable to them for performing their traditional and custonmary subsistence practices, The viewplane from this property is another attribute of public access value due to its northernmost point location. The low grass lands of the property opens up imerssively to the expanse of the Pacific Ocean and exposes the observer to the forceful northeast winds that churn the Alenuihaha channel between Kohala and East Maui. Because the natural forces of the north ocean and winds are so obvious from this location, it is easy to forget that this imersive viewplane is actually a recreational and cultural reource, dependant upon the witnessing of natural phenomena from a unique geography; this is another non -obvious attribute of the property, that once experienced becomes a significant rationale for why this location is worthy of Public Access preservation. Currently the vegetation of the area is perdominatly that of low grass, and the cliffs adjacent to the sea experience accelerated erossion due in part to the lack of native vegetation. Past sugar plantation agriculture followed by livestock grazing, historically played a role In denuding the area of native vegetation. However, Kohala Lihikai, a community -based non-profit organization has previously worked on revegetating the adjacent parcel known as 'Upolu Airport with sucessful results and is wanting to continue this revegetation work on this suggested PONC parcel. This property meets many PONC preservation criteria, The compounded significance of the area is that the location links unique geography, to unique natural phenomena, and cultural -historic sites that represents pre -modern social and political forces that shaped the history of Hawai'i Island, and eventually the Hawaiian Archipelago. 2