Honuaʻula Project Still Alive, Public Hearing for Habitat Conservation Plan

The Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife will hold a public hearing to receive testimony on the Revised Draft Honuaʻula Habitat Conservation Plan. The hearing will be held Wednesday, July 27, 2016 starting at 5:30 p.m. at the J. Walter Cameron Center in Wailuku.

Honuaʻula Partners LLC proposes to complete a HCP and obtain an associated 30-year incidental take license from the Board of Land and Natural Resources for a 670-acre master-planned community in the Kīhei-Mākena region on the island of Maui.

The license application is due to the project’s potential to result in the incidental take (a legal term including, but not limited to, any type of harm or harassment) of endangered species. The Habitat Conservation Plan has been prepared in consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the DLNR DOFAW staff.

The project includes construction and operation of a master-planned community including residential units, commercial spaces, and a golf amenity and has the potential to result in incidental take of species listed under the federal Endangered Species Act and state endangered species statutes. Species potentially affected are the endangered Nēnē, the Blackburn’s sphinx moth and ʻāwikiwiki plant.

For Blackburn’s sphinx moth a habitat‐based approach was employed to quantify take. Mitigation for these species and ʻāwikiwiki includes establishing a native plant preservation area with conservation easement and associated habitat enhancement and management and plantings of ʻāwikiwiki. Mitigation also includes establishment of host plants for Blackburn’s sphinx moth offsite at the Kanaio Natural Area Reserve and the Auwahi restoration area, and contribution of funding to DLNR DOFAW for Nēnē recovery.

The revised draft Habitat Conservation Plan notice was published in the June 8, 2016 Office of Environmental Quality and Control’s Environmental Notice and is currently available for a 60-day public review and comment period.

Copies will be available at the public hearing.  If you are unable to attend the hearing and wish to provide testimony, comments can be sent to the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, 1151 Punchbowl Street, Room 325, Honolulu, HI 96813, attention Kate Cullison or to [email protected]. Comments should be received by Aug. 8, 2016.

Photo courtesy: DLNR Hawaiʻi.

Photo courtesy: DLNR Hawaiʻi.

Photo courtesy: DLNR Hawaiʻi.

Photo courtesy: DLNR Hawaiʻi.