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Post Ofliee Box 2781 Ka»tueia Hewett 86743 <br /> August 28, 1998 <br /> TESTIMONY Lynn Boerner Nakkim <br /> Good Evening. My Name is Lynn Boerner Nakkim and I own and operate a Paint Horse <br /> Breeding Farm in Hamakua at Waikoekoe~. I own 57 acres, and lease an additional 123 <br /> acres. <br /> Because my lease proposals to the Bishop Estate, Hawaii County, and the State of Hawaii <br /> were turned down, <br /> I was forced to lease 4 pastures in Pahala, 100 miles away, for the period from 1993 through <br /> 1996, <br /> In the summer of 1997 I wrote up a business expansion proposal for an equestian <br /> educational program and made a formal request to lease the 660 acre paracel along my makai <br /> border. Mayor Yamashiro wrote back that, the land belonged to the State. I requested a lease <br /> from the state, and the State BLNR responded that the land belonged to the County. <br /> I did not get the lease. Oone reason 1 am testifying today is because I still want to lease that <br /> land, and I could easily share it with a catl:le operation and a koa reforestation project so long <br /> as they were done without chemical poisons. This parcel is part of the lands under <br /> consideration for a swap to Bishop Estate. <br /> Please, please, do not put any more of Hamakua's land in the hands of Bishop Estate. They <br /> will only lease it to Prudential Timber, which has proved itself to be a very bad neighbor indeed, <br /> repeatedly inundating their fields with garlon and round-up sprayed from airplanes and <br /> helicopters. <br /> Eucalyptus Monocrops are generally plzinted in Third World Countries around the globe, on <br /> dry otherwise worthless wastelands. How many times must we point out to government officials <br /> that Hamakua is not an avid wasteland, and that our land would be put to much better use <br /> growing sweet corn, taro, sweet potatoe:~, bananas, papayas, cattle, horses, koa, vanilla, <br /> cocoa, and hundreds of crops that are more valuable than pulp timber crops. And the good <br /> part is with these other uses you can change your mind, and the land will still be productive. <br /> After four or five eucaly ptus crops this landscape will be a useless wasteland of stumps-- <br /> hardy, almost indestructible eucalyptus stumps. Once committed, you really can't go back. <br /> And then there is the fire hazard. Oakland California exploded in flames a few years ago, <br /> and the property damage and loss of life were shocking. What fueled that fire? Eucalypptus. <br /> Just decorative stands, not closely planted stands. Imagine the conflagration when thousands <br /> of acres of Eucalyptus suffer the kind of four month drought we had at Waikoekce in 1997. <br /> Prudential Tlmber has not set ouot 120 foot wide fire lanes around their plantings. One stray <br /> cigarette from a passing car and homes and power lines will burn, exit roads will be closed by <br /> fire. Hilo fire stations coudn't contain the low brush fires that fumed for days near Pahoa <br /> this year, imagine what it will be like with .a forest of tall inflamable trees. <br /> Hawaii should be turning toward production of food, ecucational activities, and recreational <br /> areas for ourselves and our tourist guests. We are not a Third World Country. Hamakua is not <br /> a wasteland. <br /> Please lease this land to Hawaii ranchers and farmers to make out future bright and <br /> prcuctive, and don't put us in the shade of the pulp timber industry and its biggest promoter, <br /> Bishop Estate. <br /> <br /> Thank you. <br /> Com+n. Nw l~{,Zy • ~ <br /> F11e No. <br /> Presented . F <br /> lief. Tu: <br /> ear. n„t,~ SEP 0 1 1998 <br /> <br />