Final Comprehensive Conservation Plan - U.S. Fish and Wildlife ...

Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge
Comprehensive Conservation Plan
specified in or derived from the law, proclamation, Executive order, agreement, public land order,
donation document, or administrative memorandum establishing, authorizing, or expanding a refuge,
refuge unit, or refuge subunit. The Service defines the purpose of a refuge when it is established or
when new land is added to an existing refuge. When an addition to a refuge is acquired under an
authority different from the authority used to establish the original refuge, the addition takes on the
purposes of the original refuge, but the original refuge does not take on the purposes of the addition.
Refuge managers must consider all of these purposes. Additionally, refuge boundaries may
encompass lands that the refuge itself does not own. Therefore, note in Figures 1-2 and 1-3 the
distinction between Refuge ownership and authorized boundaries.
1.6.1 Hakalau Forest Unit Purposes
Established on October 29, 1985, the purposes of Hakalau Forest Unit are:
� “… to conserve (A) fish or wildlife which are listed as endangered species or threatened species.
. . or (B) plants . . . (C) the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species
depend . . .” (Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended, 16 U.S.C. 1534);
� “To assure the perpetuation of native forest habitats of the Upper Hakalau Forest for the
protection of a number of endangered animals and plants endemic to the area. . . .” (FONSI for
the Environmental Assessment: Proposal to Establish an Upper Hakalau National Wildlife
Refuge, Hawai‘i County, Hawai‘i, May 1985).
1.6.2 Kona Forest Unit Purposes
The Kona Forest Unit, acquired on December 12, 1997, has the following purposes:
� The purposes listed for the Hakalau Forest Unit also apply to the Kona Forest Unit;
� In addition, “. . .to protect, conserve, and manage a portion of the native forest in south Kona,
primarily for the benefit of the ‘alalā and other endangered and threatened species” (1997 Final
Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Kona Forest Unit of the Hakalau Forest NWR).
1.7 Relationship to Ecosystem Management Goals or Plans
1.7.1 Landscape Level Initiatives
Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC): Through a cooperative effort culminating in the 2006
National Ecological Assessment Team Report, the Service and USGS outlined a unifying adaptive
resource management approach for conservation at “landscape” scales, the entire range of a priority
species or suite of species. Known as “strategic habitat conservation” or SHC, it is a way of thinking
and of doing business that requires us to set biological goals for priority species populations, allows
us to make strategic decisions about our work, and encourages us to constantly reassess and improve
our actions – all critical steps in dealing with large-scale conservation challenges and the uncertainty
of accelerated climate change.
In April 2009, Service leadership set up a national geographic framework for implementing
landscape conservation. This framework has led to the creation of Landscape Conservation
Chapter 1. Introduction and Background 1-13