The county is poised to lease 440 acres of improved grazing land for $1 a year to the Hamakua County Farm Bureau.
The county is poised to lease 440 acres of improved grazing land for $1 a year to the Hamakua County Farm Bureau.
The farm bureau plans to develop a joint cattle grazing entity that will benefit ranchers around the island, especially those beset by drought. The Kapulena area between Honokaa and Waipio Valley, where the property is located, gets about 80 inches of rainfall annually.
“We can help people in Ka‘u, we can help people in Kona. We can relocate cattle where it needs to go,” said Jill Andrade Mattos, a local rancher with Hawaii Beef Producers and treasurer of the farm bureau. “This community project is for everyone.”
In fact, cattle threatened by the 2014 lava flow in Puna were relocated to the property to keep them out of harm’s way, she said.
“I think it’s a good thing for the industry,” said county Deputy Research and Development Director Don Mende.
The county received more than 4,400 acres of former sugarcane lands in 1994 in lieu of back taxes from the bankrupt Hamakua Sugar Co. Most of the land has lain fallow since.
Resolution 533 would allow the nonprofit farm bureau a 10-year lease at $1 a year, with an option to renew another 10 years “without notice or appraisal.” It is scheduled to be voted on today, when the County Council meets at 9 a.m. at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
In 2011, the Council resisted a move by Mayor Billy Kenoi to sell some of the county’s extensive holdings as a way to balance the budget. Hamakua farmers came out in force against selling the property, saying the land should be opened to small farmers and others in the community instead.
Some of the land was leased to the highest bidders, but interest was lackluster, with a surplus of farm land in Hamakua, a lack of water to the property and an aging farming demographic all offered as factors.
Kenoi set aside 1,700 acres to create an agricultural park at Kapulena. The administration first involved local farmers and ranchers in an effort to clear acreage first with so-called “cull” cattle, and since progressed to putting more valuable animals on the parcel.
The county formed a partnership with the farm bureau, University of Hawaii at Hilo and U.S. Department of Agriculture to make it happen.
Preparations began in 2010 with new fencing constructed, a 500,000-gallon reservoir dug, piping installed and old roads reconstructed. That effort was paid for with $100,000 from the county Research and Development Department. County and inmate labor were used.
About 250 acres are fenced.
The park was promoted as a way to conserve land, help local farmers, and increase food sustainability.
Most, about 1,300 acres of the 1,700-acre ag park, is overrun with old-growth ironwood, a particularly difficult timber to log. The ranching project is using just the down-slope acreage, Mende said.
“The ironwood trees are a real issue,” he said.
North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff praised county R&D for its work on the project.
“It seems like you have really brought together the community and the county,” Eoff told Mende at a Finance Committee hearing earlier this month. “These public-private partnerships are going to be very successful.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.