Waikane: A new vision for the valley

The valleys of Waiahole and Waikane hold an iconic place in the history of community resistance to development in Hawaii, with residents rising up and even blockading a highway to stop threats to their rural way of life.

So when landowner Paul Zweng, an exploration geologist who made his living prospecting for copper and gold, formed a company to buy 1,444 acres of Waikane Valley, he was advised not to expect a welcome mat, no matter what his intentions were for the property.

"I was warned ahead of time that, particularly with respect to the Waiahole-Waikane Community Association, especially for an outsider like me, I’m pretty haole-looking, these guys are just going to hate you," said the lanky, blue-eyed Californian, who moved to Oahu in 2008 with his family.

Previous plans for the two Windward valleys on the northern stretch of Kaneohe Bay included blanketing their fertile slopes with thousands of houses, and creating golf courses geared toward wealthy vacationers. A more recent suggestion was to cut down Waikane’s forests to feed a power plant.

Zweng, 55, has something entirely different in mind for the property, which encompasses roughly the mauka half of Waikane Valley. He wants to work with the community to restore its native forest and protect its endangered birds, reactivate its historic taro loi, and start a small cacao farm.

And he’s getting a much better reception. The Waiahole-Waikane Community Association and the Kahaluu Neighborhood Board both have endorsed plans developed by his company, Ohulehule Forest Conservancy LLC, for the property, which is in the state conservation district.

"Some folks have sort of an umbrella-drink fantasy about Hawaii and want to have their little slice of paradise," said David Henkin, chairman of the Kahaluu Neighborhood Board. "They see it as a place, but it’s a community and a people."

He added, "Paul is very different. He wants to engage with the community. His sharing spirit and openness is a vivid contrast with a lot of folks who have the ability to buy such large areas of land and come in from other places. Paul had a real sensitivity to the deep-seated concerns the community had about what the ultimate state of that land was going to be."

The property changed hands for as much as $9.5 million in 1989, when a Japanese company envisioned selling pricey golf club memberships on a financial exchange in Tokyo, but those plans were stymied by widespread opposition. Zweng’s company bought it for $2.2 million at a foreclosure auction in December 2010.

Since then, the low-key geologist has been "talking story" with area residents, building friendships and pitching in with local community groups. He and his family live in Kailua, but he spends most of his time in Waikane and hopes to get permission to build a house on the land.

"He’s a breath of fresh air," said John Reppun, executive director of the KEY Project, a community outreach center. "His leaping into Waiahole-Waikane is not dissimilar to Indiana Jones leaping into a cave full of snakes or spiders. But he’s very quickly engaging. He has a great sense of humor, which helps."

"He’s a very, very good study," Reppun added. "He has hiked every inch, he has studied every inch, in books and on the ground."

Zweng’s days clambering down ravines and scaling mountains in search of copper and gold in far-flung places like Peru, Zambia and Mongolia are over. Today, he sees treasure in the living species filling the rain forest that climbs to the peak of Puu Ohulehule at the back of Waikane Valley.

"I got into geology because I consider myself a naturalist," said Zweng, who was born in Palo Alto, Calif., and earned his doctorate at Stanford. "When everyone else was going out to the bars, I’d go out and get out into the forest. I like the outdoors, the scientific aspects of it, and it’s just beautiful."

His company’s primary mission is to restore this native forest, home to a diverse array of plants found only in Hawaii, as well as endangered birds, including the only nesting pairs of elepaio on the Windward side of the Koolau range. Ohulehule Forest Conservancy, the newest member of the Koolau Mountain Watershed Partnership, is pursuing federal and state grants, and recently received approval of its plans from the Forest Stewardship Advisory Committee of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

Removing invasive trees and nurturing native species will require painstaking effort on remote terrain, and it will depend on volunteers.

"My greatest challenge is, can we attract enough volunteers for all this labor-intensive effort?" he said. "If I can get volunteers, we can go far."

As Zweng hikes up and down gulches deep in the valley, his hands move constantly, identifying indigenous plants and the invasive species that threaten them. He crouches down to point out native koa seedlings, yanking out an albizia seedling that looks similar, but would quickly outgrow and crowd out the native trees.

"I’m hoping that in 10 years, this will all be a koa forest," said Zweng, who took a graduate course in Hawaiian botany in 2011 and memorized the scientific and Hawaiian names of hundreds of plants — no easy task because he’s dyslexic and new to the Hawaiian language.

A PRIME TARGET for removal is the "octopus tree" or Schefflera actinophylla, which piggybacks onto koa and ohia trees, eventually overwhelming and killing them. He pulls out a hatchet from his backpack to cut notches in the beige trunk of the invasive tree, injecting a dollop of herbicide to poison it and give the native plants a chance to thrive.

Ohulehule Forest Conservancy is a for-profit corporation, but most of its activities are expected to lose money. Zweng hopes the cacao farm will eventually turn a profit that could help subsidize conservation efforts. The company plans to spend $600,000 in the first year of forest restoration and another $620,000 on the cacao farm in its first year, according to a management plan recently completed by Townscape Inc.

The company intends to plant a 5-acre test plot of cacao under a canopy of native koa. If successful, it will gradually expand to 40 or 50 acres, and Zweng will encourage his neighbors to also try growing cacao. The intent is to build a common processing facility to ferment and dry the beans, which are used to make chocolate.

"As far as our continuing efforts to ‘keep the country country,’ his proposals are well in line with that," said Byron Ho, president of the Waiahole-Waikane Community Association, saying that the land will remain undeveloped and cacao could provide new jobs. "We are firm believers in grow local."

Cacao is such a new crop in Hawaii that the state doesn’t track statistics. But H.C. "Skip" Bittenbender, special adviser to the newly formed Hawaii Chocolate and Cacao Association, estimated that more than 100 acres are planted in cacao at 23 farms scattered across the islands at last count.

If approvals are given by the state, Zweng’s company will also invite community groups to help restore and grow taro at the long-neglected Waikane Taro Flats, which are on the National Register of Historic Places.

Zweng was chief executive officer of QGX, a Canadian mineral exploration company, before it was sold and he left the firm. After moving here with his wife and three children, he began volunteering with the Army’s forest restoration program in the Waianae Mountains, and was entranced by the Native Hawaiian forest. That work plugged him into the island’s close-knit network of conservationists, and set him on his path to Waikane.

"I think it’s the deal of the century," said Zweng, his trousers muddy after crossing a stream and scaling a ridgeline. "I got this for the cost of a house in Kahala. What would you rather have? This or a house in Kahala?"

His new neighbors seem pleased he chose Waikane.

"I’m excited by what Paul is proposing," said the Rev. Bob Nakata, pastor of Kaha­luu United Methodist Church and a veteran of the long fight to preserve Waiahole-Waikane. "I think it will be a big plus for the community. Through all that struggle, it’s amazing that this kind of proposal is emerging."