User:Lfstevens/Wao Kele o Puna

Wao Kele O Puna (Wao Kele) is the U.S.' largest 27785 acre tropical forest, about twenty miles south of the city of Hilo, within the East Rift Zone of Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii. The name means the upland rain forest of Puna. Puna is one of 9 districts on the island. Lava from Kilauea continues to flow onto forest land..

In 2006, the Trust for Public Land (TPL) purchased Wao Kele, ending a twenty-year struggle to prevent tapping the sizeable geothermal energy resources that lie below it. Opponents believe that the area is the home of the fire goddess Pele.

History
The state of Hawaii owned Wao Kele until 1986, when the then Campbell Estate exchanged Kahaualea, an adjacent forest parcel, for it at the state's request. Campbell Estate was a private, for-profit trust set up for the heirs of Scottish carpenter James Campbell, established in 1900 and dissolved in 2007. Campbell bought more than 84,000 acres of Hawaii land before his death.

Environmentalists proposed the trade because they considered Kahaualea to be in better condition than Wao Kele. The Pele Defense Fund, however, sued, arguing that privatizing Wao Kele would end traditional hunting and gathering by native Hawaiians. The suit led to a controversial Hawaii State Supreme Court ruling that granted natives access to such private property.

In the 2006 transaction, TPL paid $3.65 million for Wao Kele, $131/acre, using $3.4 million in U.S. Forest Service Forest Legacy program money, along with $250,000 from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA). TPL then transfered title to OHA.

On August 28, 2007 OHA took formal responsibility for Wao Kele. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources is responsible for managing the land until 2017.

Geothermal energy
Wao Kele is licensed for geothermal energy development until Jan. 31, 2016. As of 2009, Hawaii uses the permit only to monitor two existing geothermal wells. OHA has no plans for further development. The Hawaii Legislature has provided $2 million to plug the existing TrueMid-Pacific well with sand and concrete in 2009.

The state of Hawaii has substantial geothermal resources, which could dramatically reduce fossil fuel use and energy prices there if the energy can be extracted without damage to the surrounding environment and in accordance with Hawaiian law and culture. Geologists estimate that the big island alone has the potential to generate 500-700 megawatts of electricity.

Wao Kele came to the attention of geothermal developers after other privates sites became inundated with fresh lava from Kilauea, at depths ranging up to 300 ft. Developers claim that 100 megawatts of power could be generated from only 300 of the forest's nearly 28,000 acres, enough to provide all the electricity for the island's 175,000 residents.

Opponents cite the numerous health and safety problems experienced by an experimental state-run plant that closed in 1989, notably including toxic hydrogen sulfide gas emissions. A separate plant went online in 1993 in Puna's Lower East Rift Zone and continues to generate 25-30 megawatts of electricity. The natural increase in hydrogen sulfide and volcanic ash emissions due to volcanic activity within the Kilauea caldera at times produces sufficient vog to affect breathing on the nearby island of Maui.

The forest
Wao Kele is the U.S.'s largest lowland tropical rainforest. It is home to numerous primary and rare plant species including häpuu ferns, ieie vines, nananana makakii (happy-face spider) and köpiko, some of which help to limit invasive species' incursions. Hawaiian bats, hawks and amakihi honeycreepers live in the trees. There are thought to be many more as-yet-undocumented species within the forest. Wao Kele's primary forest tree is Ohiá.

Wao Kele occupies approximately one-fifth of the watershed that feeds the Pahoa aquifer, the island's largest water source.