HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0604.021 1996-1998 Post Ofliee Box 2781 Ka»tueia Hewett 86743
August 28, 1998
TESTIMONY Lynn Boerner Nakkim
Good Evening. My Name is Lynn Boerner Nakkim and I own and operate a Paint Horse
Breeding Farm in Hamakua at Waikoekoe~. I own 57 acres, and lease an additional 123
acres.
Because my lease proposals to the Bishop Estate, Hawaii County, and the State of Hawaii
were turned down,
I was forced to lease 4 pastures in Pahala, 100 miles away, for the period from 1993 through
1996,
In the summer of 1997 I wrote up a business expansion proposal for an equestian
educational program and made a formal request to lease the 660 acre paracel along my makai
border. Mayor Yamashiro wrote back that, the land belonged to the State. I requested a lease
from the state, and the State BLNR responded that the land belonged to the County.
I did not get the lease. Oone reason 1 am testifying today is because I still want to lease that
land, and I could easily share it with a catl:le operation and a koa reforestation project so long
as they were done without chemical poisons. This parcel is part of the lands under
consideration for a swap to Bishop Estate.
Please, please, do not put any more of Hamakua's land in the hands of Bishop Estate. They
will only lease it to Prudential Timber, which has proved itself to be a very bad neighbor indeed,
repeatedly inundating their fields with garlon and round-up sprayed from airplanes and
helicopters.
Eucalyptus Monocrops are generally plzinted in Third World Countries around the globe, on
dry otherwise worthless wastelands. How many times must we point out to government officials
that Hamakua is not an avid wasteland, and that our land would be put to much better use
growing sweet corn, taro, sweet potatoe:~, bananas, papayas, cattle, horses, koa, vanilla,
cocoa, and hundreds of crops that are more valuable than pulp timber crops. And the good
part is with these other uses you can change your mind, and the land will still be productive.
After four or five eucaly ptus crops this landscape will be a useless wasteland of stumps--
hardy, almost indestructible eucalyptus stumps. Once committed, you really can't go back.
And then there is the fire hazard. Oakland California exploded in flames a few years ago,
and the property damage and loss of life were shocking. What fueled that fire? Eucalypptus.
Just decorative stands, not closely planted stands. Imagine the conflagration when thousands
of acres of Eucalyptus suffer the kind of four month drought we had at Waikoekce in 1997.
Prudential Tlmber has not set ouot 120 foot wide fire lanes around their plantings. One stray
cigarette from a passing car and homes and power lines will burn, exit roads will be closed by
fire. Hilo fire stations coudn't contain the low brush fires that fumed for days near Pahoa
this year, imagine what it will be like with .a forest of tall inflamable trees.
Hawaii should be turning toward production of food, ecucational activities, and recreational
areas for ourselves and our tourist guests. We are not a Third World Country. Hamakua is not
a wasteland.
Please lease this land to Hawaii ranchers and farmers to make out future bright and
prcuctive, and don't put us in the shade of the pulp timber industry and its biggest promoter,
Bishop Estate.
Thank you.
Com+n. Nw l~{,Zy • ~
F11e No.
Presented . F
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ear. n„t,~ SEP 0 1 1998