Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 3, 1 March 2012 — Queen Liliʻuokalani Trust fulfills mandate to responsibly grow and manage trust lands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Queen Liliʻuokalani Trust fulfills mandate to responsibly grow and manage trust lands

Trustee's note: Tlūs month's eoīumn is written by LeeAnn E.P. Crabbe, Vice President of the Queen Liīi'uokaīani Trust.

n 1909, Hawai'i's beloved Mō'ī Wahine Lili'uokalani created a speeial trust dedicated to the welfare of orphaned and destitute children of Hawai'i. More than 100 years later, we eonlinue to be inspired by the Queen's foresight, vision and values that serve as the foundation of our work. The sacred duty of the Queen Lili'uokalani Trust is to manage the

Queen's lands to serve and provide for her beneficiaries. Core trust assets include approximately 6,200 acres of Hawai'i real estate, the vast majority of whieh are located on Hawai'i Island. Ninety-two percent is agriculture/conservation land, with the remainder zoned for residential, commercial or industrial use. Hawai'i Island holdings

include the 3,400-acre ahupua'a of Keahuolū in North Kona. The Trust is sustained and nurtured by careful and increasingly complex management conducted by a dedicated and competent corps of tmstees, administrators, staff and collaborative partners. This careful management of the Trust enables our Children's Centers to address and meet the needs of our Hawaiian children and families through a service strategy that is collaborative, holistic and culturally based. The Trust charges no fees for services to beneflciary children and their families. To sustain and expand these services, the Trust is pursuing new projects to utilize its assets in order to ensure continued Ananeial stability. Currently, more than two thirds of our annual rental ineome is generated by Trust lands in Waikīkī. Pmdent endowment management requires us to reduce risk by seeking ineome sources away from Waikīkī. Trust lands at Keahuolū provide the only source of signiflcant future ineome for expanding our charitable programs. It is for this reason that we have closely followed and actively engaged

in discussions over development and water sustainability issues on Hawai'i Island. In recent months, the National

Park Service has proposed that the State Commission on Water Resource Management designate the Keauhou Aquifer System as a Water Management Area. The park service says this is necessary to protect the Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historic Park from future proposed development in Kona. The Queen Lili'uokalani Trust respects the work being done by the National Park Service throughout the

State of Hawai'i. These national parks are important cultural treasures, not just to the Hawaiian community, but for the entire state. But we do not believe there is a need to designate the Keauhou Aquifer System as a Water Management Area. In the interests of our beneflciaries, we have

proposed responsible development of our lands at Keahuolū, as part of the effort to diversify ineome sources and protect our Trust programs in perpetuity. We have conducted extensive studies on groundwater issues. We work closely with the Kona Water Roundtable, state and county offlcials and the loeal community. We depend on reliable and credible sources of data for decision making. We would not utilize a freshwater source that would negatively impact the community, future generations or the environmental and cultural resources at the Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historic Park or anywhere else in Hawai'i nei. If credible information were to prove otherwise, the Trust would be the flrst to re-evaluate its land use and water practices. The Queen remains a guiding spirit, ka lama o ka no'eau, for those of us who strive to fulflll her mandate to manage and grow Trust assets to ensure that the work of our Children's Centers continues in perpetuity. In this second century of providing service to the Queen's beneflciaries, her vision, ideals and values remain strong and empowering. ■

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Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Trustee, Hawai'i