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Gov. David Ige nominated a Kamehameha Schools manager, former Big Island planning director and a waterman and surf shop owner to the Board of Land and Natural Resources.
Two of the nominees — Ulalia Woodside and Christopher Yuen — are serving on the board on an interim basis.
The third nominee, Keith “Keone” Downing, a waterman and big-wave rider, is the son of surfing pioneer George Downing, who runs the Downing Hawaii surf shop with his sister.
Downing is also involved with the non-profit Surfing Education Association.
Woodside is the regional asset manager for natural and cultural resources at Kamehameha Schools’ Land Assets Division and formerly worked for the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
She is a steering committee member for Hawaii Green Growth and is the indigenous representative for the Landscape Conservation Cooperative National Council. She is a former commissioner for the Natural Area Reserves System Commission and a former executive council chair for the Pacific Islands Climate Change Cooperative.
Yuen held the board’s Hawaii County seat from 1990 to 1998. He is on the advisory councils for the Laupahoehoe and Puuwaawaa Experimental Tropical Forest. He is the owner and manager of The Family Farm, Inc., a 20-acre certified organic farm supplying local markets with bananas, lychees and rambutans. From 2000 to 2008, he was Hawaii County’s planning director and also served as the County’s deputy corporation counsel.
The seven members of the board oversee the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is responsible for managing Hawaii’s public lands, waver resources and coastal areas, except for harbors.
The nominees are subject to Senate confirmation.
