Hunting, camping, watershed protection in plan for Maui’s new Kamehamenui State Forest Reserve in Upper Kula

KULA — A vast forest reserve of 3,434 acres on the slopes of Haleakalā in Upper Kula holds plenty of promise for the community.

Hunting to manage invasive axis deer, sites to camp, trails for biking, hiking and horse riding, and firebreaks to help slow blazes on open land are just some of the ways the public could benefit from the Kamehamenui State Forest Reserve someday.

The State of Hawaiʻi acquired the land five years ago and is now in the process of creating a plan to manage the area for the next 10 years. The latest version of the plan for recreational use, hunting and natural resource management was unveiled at a community meeting on Wednesday in Kula.

More than 400 public comments collected over the past few years, beginning with three scoping meetings in 2022, were incorporated into the 72-page draft environmental assessment, which will be subject to more public comment for the final plan.

“We’ve gone through many drafts internally to make sure that all the different programs got their voices heard: trails, natural resource management, fire, hunting, all that type of components,” said Lance De Silva, the Maui Branch Forestry program manager for the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife that is overseeing the plan.

All proposed ideas were welcome.

“Do you guys want commercial, no commercial-type permits? You guys want trails, no trails? Camping, no camping? … At the end of the day, we went through painstakingly all 400-plus comments,” De Silva said.

The new plan tried to address most of the comments, concerns and wants, De Silva said.

The goals of the latest draft environmental assessment plan include:

• Enhancing watershed functions and protecting natural and cultural resources. The state proposes a balanced and phased approach to systematically remove feral ungulates (hoofed animals) and minimize soil erosion and compaction. 
• Revegetation efforts to restore the native forest and provide suitable habitat for native plants and animal species. Unique subalpine habitats would be preserved through the mitigation of ongoing threats from invading non-native plants, predators and feral ungulates. 
• Proposed public use and limited recreational activities of hiking, biking, horseback riding, archery and permit-based camping that would be consistent with the natural and cultural resource values and remote backcountry character of the reserve. 
• Access to the reserve is proposed at multiple locations. The reserve will be closed at night and state staff will enforce compliance. Public safety measures to protect the community involve managing fire risk by managing fuel loads and strategically installing fuel breaks/firebreaks.

Octogenarians Dick Mayer and Carole Lum Ching were among the residents that had some questions on Wednesday night at the crowded public meeting of about 100 people at the Kula Community Center.

“As a property owner, which spans over 72 years, I am extremely concerned that my beneficiaries, including my grandchildren, will still enjoy the open space adjacent to our front yard without having to worry that the proposed parking lot and traffic caused by equestrian use will create safety as well as security issues,” said Lum Ching, who lives with her husband near the lower portion of the Kamehamenui parcel on Kekaulike Highway. 

Mayer, who has lived in his Upper Kula home for 54 years, added: “I still would like to know more about what, let’s say 10 years from now when the plan is in effect, what actually will be going on?”

The Trust for Public Land purchased the 3,434 acres of upland Kula property on the southwestern slopes of Haleakalā from the Shizuka Asakawa Revocable Trust in July 2020 for $9.83 million and conveyed the property to the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife on Aug. 31, 2020. 

The State of Hawai’i contributed $4 million toward the purchase, with $3.83 million funded by the U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy Program and the final $2 million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Habitat Conservation Plan Acquisition Program.

State Rep. Kyle Yamashita, who represents much of Upcountry Maui, described it as a “spectacular property” in 2020 when the land was acquired, and said it would be “preserved in perpetuity for the benefit of the public.”  

Now, the long process is at the stage of the draft environmental assessment, which details trails, camping spots, grazing around the perimeter to set up a 300-foot firebreak, hunting proposals to eliminate unwanted feral animals, and several other ideas.

De Silva said the public comment period for the draft environmental assessment was lengthened by 30 days to Nov. 23. After comments received during this time are considered, the draft report will be approved or amended as needed by Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

At the meeting, community members got a chance to learn about the different parts of the plan.

Perhaps the most popular area was the trails and recreation table coordinated by Stephanie Franklin, the state’s Na Ala Hele trail and access specialist for Maui. She spoke to several people about the 25 miles of surveyed trails for hiking, biking and horseback riding in the upper portion of the parcel.

Franklin said the trails are extremely important to provide access to the property for people to enjoy recreational activities, including hiking, biking and riding horses. But she added: “It goes so much broader than that — hunters, wildlife viewers, cultural practitioners.”

The hunting table also drew a throng of interested people wanting to know the plan about mitigating invasive ungulates.

“Game mammal hunting, which is our axis deer, feral pigs, and feral goats, is the first part of the plan,” said Shane De Mattos, a state wildlife biologist for the past 20 years. “The negative impacts that ungulates may have, we’re going to remove all the ungulates from the area.”

He said the plan provides the hunting community with opportunities to remove these animals. “After that … we go ahead and do staff control.”

Game bird hunting will likely be added at a later date, to be incorporated with the statewide game bird hunting season that runs from November through Janauary, De Mattos said.

“The hunting community has a say in what goes on,” he added.

Jeff Bagshaw, the outreach and education specialist for the state’s Maui Nui Division of Forestry and Wildlife, manned the access and parking table at the meeting.

“State forest reserves require that we give access to the public,” Bagshaw said. “That’s number one because it’s state land. It’s owned by the citizens of the state, so they have the right to access it.”

Bagshaw noted that an original parking lot plan was changed after the public comments from the 2022 meetings.

“The initial plan, for security reasons, had the parking lot next to the road,” Bagshaw said. “We heard the public say, ‘no, no, no.’ Initially, it was one large (parking lot). And now it’s been broken up into three lots. And the parking lot has been moved away from the road so it’s not visible from the road.” 

Bagshaw added that the parking lots will not be paved, but instead will be gravel and the gates will be remotely locked at closing times that will determined in the near future.

At the natural resource management table, protection forester Abraham Puz spoke to concerned attendees about the fire dangers. He noted that the draft environmental assessment plan calls for 300 feet of cattle grazing firebreak around nearly all of the Kamehamenui parcel.

“I think it’ll be effective,” Puz said. “It will not stop everything, but in a lot of cases, it’ll slow things down more than it will extinguish things like dumping water on it.”

Puz added: “In a game where we’re fighting a fire that might have a flaming front 3,000, 4,000 feet wide coming across the mountain, to have it slow down and give it a chance for us to get trucks there, for us to get helicopters there, for the day to get later and the night to come and for fire activity to die down, is huge.”