OHA updates trustees on Waikele O Puna forest reserve: restoration, access and a pending 1,900-acre grant application

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs on March 9 presented an informational briefing on Waikele O Puna, a 25,856-acre lowland rainforest in Puna on Hawai‘i Island that OHA acquired in February 2006 and manages for conservation, cultural access and stewardship.

"Waikele is the designation of this 25,856 acre low lying wet forest considered to be the largest intact tropical lowland rainforest in the context of The United States," said Lori Walker, interim director of land assets for OHA. Walker said the reserve is zoned as a state forest reserve, conservation protective subzone, and serves as a watershed recharge area for the Pahoa aquifer and as habitat and a seed bank for rare and endangered species.

OHA recounted management history and partnerships. The land was acquired in 2006 with the Trust for Public Land and the Department of Land and Natural Resources through the federal Forest Legacy Program; OHA later entered into a 10-year memorandum of agreement with DLNR to manage the reserve and has used a culturally informed comprehensive management plan approved by the Board of Trustees in 2017. The plan emphasizes community engagement, native-species protection, invasive-species control and ungulate management, and OHA staff described a co-stewardship model with partners including the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

Staff described recent work and funding. In 2023 a $230,000 grant from Fish and Wildlife funded ungulate fencing and allowed OHA to add 17 acres to managed, fenced units; field teams recovered cuttings from rare plants for propagation at the Volcano Rare Plant Facility, with the intent to outplant seedlings back into protected areas. OHA also has submitted a Forest Legacy grant application that would, if awarded, add about 1,900 adjacent acres to the protected footprint and increase access points; staff said grant results would be known in August 2025 and that the political climate makes grant success uncertain.

Community engagement was a central theme. OHA staff said school programs bring students from Kau, Keaau and Pahoa school districts to practice observation (kilo), seed collection and hands-on restoration work in managed units. Public testimony from Germaine Myers, an OHA beneficiary and Nanakuli Homestead lessee, urged OHA to consider K'—12 school field trips from Oahu; Myers provided enrollment figures to illustrate potential impact: 1,900 students across three Nanakuli schools plus 700 at a Hawaiian immersion school for a combined 2,600 students and, she said, an impact on families of 5,200 (one parent per student) to 7,800 (two parents per student).

Trustees asked technical questions about species surveys and adjacent land use. Trustees expressed particular interest in due diligence for the 1,900-acre opportunity, including botanical surveys to identify rare or endemic species and assessment of nearby quarry activity. Staff said surveys would be part of diligence if OHA proceeds with acquisition and described the neighboring quarry as privately owned.

OHA noted the board previously approved FY25 funding to construct small visitor-support facilities at Waikele (an environmental toilet, a covered gathering space and a cultivation area) that staff expect to complete later this calendar year; the restrictive zoning and remoteness limit group size and programming there, though OHA offers related engagement at Wahiawa on O'ahu.

Ending: Staff said they will return with diligence results if the Forest Legacy award is made and will continue small-scale community programming while maintaining protective zoning and restoration work.