The Maui News
November 29, 2009
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
Ulupalakua Ranch owner Pardee Erdman has seen a lot of changes in and around his family’s 18,000-acre operation on Hale-akala’s rolling green leeward slopes.
Some of the development he’s been a part of, such as large parcel sales to Makena Resort and Maui Meadows. Or he and his son Sumner have transformed the 165-year-old, 5,000-head cattle ranch with new – yet relatively unobtrusive ideas – such as elk, lamb and goat herds, a winery, a country store and grill, horseback rides and clay shooting. They’ve also joined in on a groundbreaking, successful collaborative experiment to restore the native forest.
However, much of the region around the ranch has undergone a transformation of its own that has been out of the Erdmans’ hands, such as media giant Oprah Winfrey buying up about 1,000 acres next door. Meanwhile, nearby Kula and Wailea now contain mega-homes, some worth tens of millions of dollars, and family members said they could feel development encroaching steadily upon them.
That’s why, they said, they decided to forever preserve two-thirds of Ulupalakua Ranch’s 18,000 Upcountry acres as agricultural lands. They did so formally Saturday with a historic donation easement to the Maui Coastal Land Trust that was two years in the making.
Ranch operations won’t change. However, the deal, which is the largest of its kind in Hawaii history, will preclude future generations from selling off the Ulupalakua land to developers, said the 78-year-old Pardee Erdman. It’s a family legacy all of Maui deserves, he said.
"Who knows what Oprah’s long-term plans are? I can just imagine someone like a Donald Trump buying her out and looking at this (land) and thinking what they could build here to capitalize on these billion-dollar views," said Maui Coastal Land Trust Executive Director Dale Bonar as he looked up and down the misty green mountainside.
Not that the Erdmans didn’t contribute to the bevy of streetlamps below. In order keep the 5,000-head cattle operation afloat, Erdman said, he sold a 1,000-acre parcel to Seibu Hawaii Inc. and Makena Resort, for a reported $7.5 million. The ranch also sold about 1,200 acres for the 600-home Maui Meadows subdivision, which began construction in 1967.
However, the Erdmans, including matriarch Betsy and sons Christian and Sumner, the latter of whom is ranch president, signed an agreement to preserve 11,038 acres forever as a working ranch and wildlife habitat, with the potential for future farming opportunities and green-energy initiatives.
For instance, Sempra Energy recently leased land for a 12- to 15-turbine, 20-megawatt wind energy farm on the Auwahi portion of the ranch. And Pardee Erdman said that with wind and sun technology getting cheaper and more efficient every day, who knows what kind of energy opportunities the land – much of which is windy and sunny – could provide in the coming years?
The donation is the largest of its kind in state history and will ensure that no resorts, hotels, condominiums or subdivisions are ever built on the two roughly 5,000-acre parcels that form a dog-leg shape above Kula Highway and then a watershed down to the shore.
The Auwahi Habitat Restoration Project, led by conservationist Art Medeiros and a group of dedicated volunteers, has been successfully replacing invasive species with native plants while allowing fenced-in cattle to graze nearby.
"I’ve worked with the Erdman family for 25 years, and I know one thing about them: They know how to keep a business healthy and do the right thing for the community," Medeiros said Saturday. "They are interested in cows but also in keeping the lifestyle of cowboys or paniolo alive on Maui. And they’ve done the same thing with me for Auwahi."
Since 1997, Medeiros and his crews have restored about 30 acres of native forest and intend to start work on another 100 acres soon. He said that the Erdmans have been nothing but helpful and modest.
"It’s a wonderful addition to what we’re doing," Medeiros said. "They’re getting benefits from it, but I see it as a pledge to preserve open space on Maui."
Change happens so fast here, the community often doesn’t even have time to fight it before development’s taken over, he said.
Just look at the myriad homes and shopping malls that overran West Maui and Central Maui since Pioneer Mill and Wailuku Sugar shut down, Medeiros said. He added that he shares equal concern that Maui Land & Pineapple Co. will continue selling off its land for resorts and homes to patch up its hemorrhaging debt, especially since the company announced it will no longer grow pineapple starting at the end of next month.
The Erdman easement agreement will run down from the 6,000-foot elevation of Polipoli Spring State Park to about a one-mile stretch of coastline south of Makena. And this isn’t parched red earth or all scorched rock, either. The land may have some restrictive state and county land-use designations, but it also has access to both county water systems and wells.
"I can tell you from our public meetings on the Maui Island Plan; we heard from a lot of people who again and again said they wanted to see green space and agriculture preserved," said Maui County Planning Department Director Jeff Hunt. "They said they want ‘to keep the country country.’ "
The ranch was founded in 1856 by Linton Torbert and was also owned by Capt. James Makee and the Dowsett, Raymond and Baldwin families. It has had koa and sandalwood forests, a sugar cane plantation and products as diverse as sweet potatoes, cotton and corn before turning mostly to cattle in the 1920s.
Pardee Erdman, whose mother was a Wyoming rancher, purchased Ulupalakua from the Baldwins in 1963 for $3.5 million. The Baldwins’ Haleakala Ranch remains the largest on Maui, with about 30,000 acres.
Since 1983, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii has maintained 5,000 acres of Haleakala Ranch in a perpetual conservation easement. Pardee and Sumner Erdman said they considered The Nature Conservancy but instead settled on the Maui Coastal Land Trust because the board is local and offered them more flexibility for future farming ideas, such as lumber and fruits and vegetables.
"I’m so proud of the land; I want to keep it that way," Pardee Erdman said.
He also said he hopes to see a day soon when his land will be farmed to feed the entire island, which now relies almost entirely on imports. And no one can predict the opportunities available for farmers and ranchers a century from now, he said.
Since Pardee Erdman purchased what was then a 40,000-acre ranch, half of it has been turned over to the state departments of Hawaiian Home Lands and Land and Natural Resources. Today, the ranch owns outright 16,000 acres and leases the other 2,000 acres from the state and private owners.
The family will retain ownership of the property, including responsibility for land management, taxes and insurance. However, the agreement wipes out any rights to develop the land, beyond a 20 percent increase in the footprint of existing buildings, such as barns, the store and 14 homes for ranch employees.
As Medeiros said, the owners will receive some benefits, such as a charitable tax deduction and lower property values, the latter of which will make it easier to keep the land in the family, Bonar said. The land is still being appraised, he said.
As for the nine-year-old Maui Coastal Land Trust, the Ulupalakua addition almost quadruples the amount of acreage under its protection on Maui and Molokai.
The Maui Coastal Land Trust, which receives 75 percent of its budget through donations, now oversees 14,875 acres. Last year, the land trust was given its other big contribution – 2,800 acres of the Puu Hoku Ranch on Molokai under a conservation easement.
Local environmentalists started the trust with federal government grants to preserve as much coastal land from development as possible. The nonprofit’s first acquisition was the former 277-acre Waihee Dairy in 2005.
"Personally, to see the Erdmans make this donation is to see their hearts and how they care for the land," Bonar said. "They view it with the reverence of an icon."