RES 513 Draft 01 2024-2026 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ANTICIPATED USE • The Kealoha family is seeking a Conservation Easement (CE) between themselves and the County of Hawai'i, which would help to ensure that the property remains in the Kealoha family and in its long-standing traditional use of growing kalo. This would fulfill the desires of the matriarch of the family who did not want the family's property sold. • It is a concern that a number of newer landowners have destroyed the historic lo'i on their properties in the process of converting their properties to other uses. Keeping the Kealoha's land in lo'i kalo and productive agriculture is a major goal of the CE. Educating and employing the youth of Kohala in agricultural pursuits are among the planned activities for the property. It is the landowner's intention to provide limited rights for housing of a site stewardship worker to support the ongoing maintenance and to conduct educational programs on the property. SIGNIFICANCE AND MANAGEMENT • The Kealoha Family Lo'i are unusual in that the property has remained in the family's ownership and management for more than a century, during a time when sugar plantations were successfully acquiring land in North Kohala for sugar cultivation. • The Kealoha lo'i are in an ideal location for kalo cultivation, bordered by two streams. • Water that is diverted from the streams to flood the lo'i kalo, is returned to the streams. The kalo must not be kept in stagnant water. This means that wetland kalo cultivation maintains the stream flow. By returning the water to the stream, the stream's ecosystem continues to provide habitat for aquatic life both in the streams and at the stream outlet, thus sustaining life in the near -shore coastal zone at Keokea Bay. The lo'i also provide surface to groundwater recharge to the Kohala aquifer. Protection of this property provides a unique opportunity to reestablish connectivity of the traditional agricultural practices of Kohala, revitalize the health of the watershed, and uplift the long -held relationships of people -of -place to the cultural landscapes that they have lived in for generations. SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACQUISITION AND/OR MANAGEMENT • With the CE, the Kealoha family intends to perpetuate centuries -old Hawaiian practices of food production and 'aina stewardship, ceremony, mele, and hula. The legacy of cultural education can continue, and the family intends to demonstrate, restore, and encourage expanded kalo production within Kohala. • The opportunity to restore and steward this extensive, traditional lo'i system, in conjunction with