News

Land trusts seek strength in unity

The Maui News
January 21, 2011

- By LEE IMADA, News Editor

WAILUKU - Land trusts on Maui, Oahu, Kauai and the Big Island merged at the beginning of the year to form the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust, a move that will further the mission of all of the land trusts to protect conservation lands "into perpetuity," said the new statewide organization's executive director.

"What we do . . . is audacious because we are going to protect your land in perpetuity," said Dale Bonar, who moved up from executive director of the Maui Coastal Land Trust to the same post in the new statewide organization.

"Perpetuity is a long time," he said in an interview this week.

The land trusts bolstered themselves to withstand the test of time by combining forces to streamline operations by eliminating duplicative efforts, integrating the organizations' skills and expertise and creating a larger organization that is more attractive to Mainland funders - and building "a stronger and more professional organization capable of sustaining that commitment of perpetuity," Bonar said.

The first board meeting of the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust will be held today in Honolulu. The president of the board is Helen Nielsen, one of the founders of the Maui Coastal Land Trust. Other board members include chef and restauranteur Peter Merriman, former Kauai Mayor and Council Member Joann Yukimura and Bishop Museum Vice President of Development Donna Howard.

Maui will be the home base of the land trust that manages and oversees nearly 15,000 acres on Maui and Molokai and nearly 17,500 acres statewide. Bonar emphasized that the land trust will not be run by "the state of Oahu or the state of Maui, but the entire state." Kauai, Oahu and the Big Isle will have island directors and advisory councils.

Still, Maui seemed the obvious location for a home base given that the Maui Coastal Land Trust was the only one of the trusts to be accredited by the national Land Trust Alliance, that the Maui office had six staffers compared to one each for the Kauai Public Land Trust, Oahu Land Trust and Hawaii Land Trust, and that the Maui Coastal Land Trust was the largest, managing and overseeing 14,957 acres on Maui and Molokai, compared to 1,275 acres on Oahu, 1,095 acres on the Big Island and 174 acres on Kauai.

The accreditation that the Maui Coastal Land Trust garnered in 2009 carries over to the new organization, a major benefit when trying to secure funding, Bonar said. It's a "stamp of professionalism" earned by just 100 of the more than 1,700 land trusts in the United States.

All the state land trusts had been working on this merger for the last two years. While funding may have been tighter in recent years due to the recession, he said it wasn't "like we were going bankrupt."

"Our money can be much better spent collectively if we focus our expertise," Bonar said.

The combined organization brings together the former Maui Coastal Land Trust's six staff members with an attorney who has a real estate background, a former nonprofit director with expertise in fundraising and a staff member with a public policy background who can work in the political arena, he said.

The statewide land trust also brought operational cogs such as human resources, accounting and legal services under one roof, he said.

All of this change and increasing statewide breadth of work for the staff of the former Maui Coastal Land Trust will not affect offerings here on Maui, Bonar said.

"People here will see very little difference, but we will be able to bring more resources to conserving land," he said.

The nonprofit Hawaiian Islands Land Trust is funded by private donations, foundation and agency grants, fundraising events and fees for services.

In Maui County, the trust owns two parcels outright: The 277-acre Waihee Refuge and the 82-acre Nuu wetlands in Kaupo. For the remaining acreage in Maui County, the trust manages and oversees conservation easements. They include:

Ulupalakua Ranch, 11,038 acres, wildlife habitat and agricultural preservation.

Puu O Hoku Ranch, Molokai, two parcels totaling 2,889 acres, protection of coastal land near Pohakupili Bay, open space and agriculture.

Makila Nui, Launiupoko, 281 acres, open space and native plant protection.

Kainalu Ranch, Molokai, 168 acres, open space and agriculture protection.

Ola Honua, Kipahulu, 75 acres, native plant and habitat restoration.

Nahiku, 48 acres, native plant and habitat restoration.

Makaalae, Hana, 41 acres, oceanfront protection.

May's Landing, Kipahulu, 35 acres, cultural and shoreline access preservation.

Camp 1, Spreckelsville, 21 acres, protection of shoreline access.

Hawea Point, Kapalua, 2 acres, protection of shoreline access and shore bird nesting.

Announcements of more conservation easements on Maui are in the offing in the next few months, said Bonar, who could not disclose the details. He did say all will be conservation easements.

"I would much rather have the landowner own it," he said. "If you own it, you have to take care of it. That costs."

For conservation easements, the job of the land trust is to make sure landowners, both current and future, manage the land according to the agreements, he said.

"The more generations you get away from the original donor, the more likely you may have people who don't share that original conservation ethic," Bonar said.

It will be land trust's job "to monitor and ensure the landowners are utilizing the land in the ways specified in the conversation easement," he said. "The easements are perpetual."

Lee Imada can be reached at leeimada@mauinews.com.

Original article: http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/545278/Land-trusts-seek-strength-in-unity.html