Sugg 26-03 redacted - Laserfiche WebLink

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native forest and food-forest restoration. Again, Hui Mau and Kohala Center and the State Division of Forestry & Wildlife have offered their operational guidance, however, they are unavailable for administrative Stewardship responsibilities. It would be an organization such as Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative that could lead a project of that much larger scale. HLRI's experience has been with expansive mauka lands. It could be perhaps desirable in their eyes to begin with a small property such as this to confirm their techniques at coastal management. Again, access to County water is a great advantage of this property. Perhaps the 40 acres under consideration could be seen as an `experimental' forestation prelude capable of near limitless expansion westward. The preservation of the natural beauty and preservation of coastal areas is self- evident in this proposal. The residential properties to the east are truly architecturally and situationally beautiful, each on their 20 or so acres. But gazing west from this property is the incomparable exhilaration of almost uninhabited coastline. This particular site on the coastal cliffs and an access to it, should belong to the fishermen, and to the public, as it has for generations. 5. Protection of watershed lands to preserve water quality and water supply From the forest comes the rain. And, it is the forest that holds the water after the rains. Reforestation is the fundamental proposal here. If the reforestation of this nominated property should lead to, or be accompanied by, the reforestation of the much greater expanse of institutional properties to the west, perhaps achieved by the next generation, then the 50 years of progressive drying along this coastline which I have been witness to, might possibly be reversed, or at least slowed. In the biggest picture, water and food is what this proposal is about. Again, 40 acres is of little consequence in this big picture, but it could be a testing ground, perhaps a beginning. It is notable that my contact with leaders of the several indicated organizations, the Youth Center, the Heritage Center, the Honokaa High School, Hui Mau, etc. has quickly led to identification of other individuals in the community expressing enthusiastic interest in the imaged project. It has been suggested by the director of the Heritage Center, and I completely concur, that a hui of interested individuals could be quickly organized and incorporated which would then be in a position to accept assignment as Stewards of this property should acquisition by the County occur in a timeframe perhaps a year from now. Such a group, guided by unified interest, could focus on identifying and directing potential resources toward the shared vision. Of course, it would be overly presumptuous for such a group to assume that the County would acquire this property. However, in the interim such a group could focus on courting interest from other agencies and organizations such as Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative, Trust for Public Lands, Legacy Lands and Hawaii Land Trust. With the expression of support or involvement from those multiple resources, confidence could be increased that the proposed vision would materialize. However, it is also the case that, should Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative have interest, which would require an expanse far greater, reaching on down the Coastline, their experience and expertise would present credentials worthy of assuming Stewardship of the expanse in tandem with the image presented above on the 40 acres we have called `Haina Makai'. Sugg.26-03