‘Ambitious’ proposal would transfer 94K acres of agricultural land this year

After a 20-year standstill over more than 110,000 acres of Hawaii agricultural land, two state departments have revealed an “ambitious” plan to distribute that land by the end of the year.

In 2003, via the passing of Act 90 during that year’s Legislative session, the state Department of Agriculture and the Department of Land and Natural Resources were tasked with transferring certain agricultural lands in the DLNR to the DOA in an attempt to promote agriculture in Hawaii. But in the two decades that followed, the departments managed to transfer just about 19,000 acres, as both struggled over the parcels to promote their respective departmental goals in agriculture or conservation.

Now the departments are planning to process another 94,000 acres — primarily pasture lands — by Dec. 31.

The transfers to the DOA would come in three batches, with the last concluding at the end of the year.

The Board of Agriculture in a Tuesday meeting discussed the proposed plan, in which the DLNR would offer to move about 40,000 acres to the DOA while keeping 54,000 acres for itself.

“The departments have an ambitious schedule to process all the transfers through the two boards that are mutually agreeable before the end of the calendar year,” said Brandi Ah Yo, property manager for the DOA’s Agricultural Resource Management Division, at the meeting.

Ah Yo was reading from an ARM Division report submitted to the board detailing the progress of Act 90 and the schedule of the transfers for the remainder of the year.

DOA Chair Sharon Hurd said the proposed distribution of the pasture lands is the DLNR’s initial offer and that the two departments are still negotiating which parcels to move and which to leave alone.

“It’s great that we’re making progress and that we’re finally moving lands over, but it’s still a work in progress, and the 54,000 acres is still on the table,” Hurd told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The proposed schedule includes those negotiations between the departments, surveys of the parcels that will be moved, legal reviews and approvals from the governor, but Hurd said it’s important for her and DLNR Chair Dawn Chang to finish the transfers quickly.

“It’s aggressive, it’s gonna be tough, but we can do it,” she said, later adding, “This was our No. 1, absolute most important task to get done. … It’s been 20 years. We wanted to collaborate, we wanted to move land — it was time.”

The proposed plan, while a compromise for both departments, was welcome news for ranching advocates.

Nicole Galase, managing director for the Hawaii Cattlemen’s Council, has advocated for the transfer of all the DLNR’s pasture lands, but was relieved that there’s finally activity under Act 90.

“There was just not a lot of activity happening, and that’s what we were worried about,” Galase told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “Right now, we’re at a point where we’re happy that there’s positive talks.”

The sudden collaboration between the DOA and DLNR was spurred by new leadership in both departments and recent proposed legislation that would have forced the land transfers.

Hurd and Chang, both new and recently confirmed heads for their respective departments, took a collaborative approach to the land transfers, which Galase said was in part because of a request by Gov. Josh Green, who appoints state department chairs.

But the chairs also wanted to avoid mandates from state lawmakers, who in recent years have aggressively pushed legislation to force the transfer of pasture lands.

This year, the now-dead Senate Bill 77 would have transferred all remaining Act 90 lands to the agriculture department without the approval of the Board of Land and Natural Resources. The original law from 2003 required the approval of both boards to transfer DLNR pasture land, but proponents of SB 77 believed that “mutual agreement” provision stalled the process.

The departments both believed they would have been worse off from a wholesale transfer of Act 90 land: the DLNR would have lost access to valuable land that could be used for conservation purposes, and Hurd said the DOA would have been overwhelmed with an influx of land that it wouldn’t be able to manage simultaneously.

Still, SB 77 was primed to become law this year if the departments couldn’t fast-track the transfer of land.

“The legislature didn’t want to hear anything less than ‘(We’ll) finish it by the end of the year,’” Hurd said.

Since 2003, the DOA and DLNR have been vying over Act 90 lands because of their value in promoting the departments’ respective missions. While the agriculture department’s focus is farming, the DLNR has a broad mission to promote farming, conservation, culture, hunting and recreational activities.

The proposed 54,000 acres of pasture land the DLNR wants to keep are what it deems “multi-use” lands that have important uses other than agriculture, including conservation, cultural preservation or public use.

Ranchers leasing pasture land from the DLNR for years have complained about the department’s management of the land, saying that the department withdraws leased pasture land for conservation purposes but doesn’t maintain that land.

They have also complained about the priority conservation takes over agriculture within the department and the laws governing its leasing abilities, which don’t give ranchers long-term stability on the land they’re farming.

The agriculture department, with better lease structuring and a focused dedication to agriculture, would be better suited to manage active pasture lands, they said.