Seventeen shoreline acres on the Big Island’s North Kohala coast have been added to Lapakahi State Historical Park, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced today.

The $2.35 million purchase was made by a public-private partnership of Kohala community organizations, the Trust for Public Land, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, the State Office of Planning’s Coastal Zone Management Program (OP-CZMP), the state Legislature and the State Legacy Land Conservation Program.

The purchase protects dozens of significant precontact Hawaiian cultural sites, the land department said. It also protects and provides access to the adjacent Lapakahi Marine Life Conservation District, which serves as habitat for more than 116 marine species.

The land had been threatened by residential development before The Trust for Public Land was able to negotiate an agreement with a private landowner to add it to the Park, the department said.

“The Kohala community is truly blessed that this land, this treasure, has been protected from development, and saved for our children and grandchildren,” said Fred Cachola, member of Maika‘i Kamakani ‘O Kohala.