Join us for the Annual Conference!

RPFSS Brown Bag: Aina for Kama'aina - Land Conservation 101
(RECORDED)

Summary: 
Using a case study of the State’s recent land acquisition of the Helemano Wilderness Recreation Area facilitated by The Trust for Public Land, participants will learn about the basics about how large conservation projects like Helemano, the Turtle Bay conservation easement, and others are accomplished, what is a conservation easement, and how diverse perspectives of public agencies, private landowners, private and public funders, non-profit land conservation organizations, community stakeholders, and elected officials, are reconciled.

Speakers:
Julie H. China, Hawai'i State Deputy Attorney General, Land/Transportation Division

Julie China has been a Deputy Attorney General since 2004.  

She has worked on a number of conservation transactions, including the Helemano acquisition and the Turtle Bay conservation easement.  She has represented the Board of Land and Natural Resources in a number of high-profile contested cases and appeals, including the Maunakea Thirty Meter Telescope case.  She has worked for the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawai‘i and the former Honolulu law firm of Alcantara & Frame, and has taught classes at the Richardson Law School and Chaminade University.  

Julie enjoys taking the road less traveled by to distant lands and playing with her basset hound puppy.   

Lea Hong, Hawai'i State Director, Trust for Public Land 

Lea Hong has been the Hawai'i State Director of The Trust for Public Land, a national non-profit organization dedicated to conserving land for people, since 2006. 

She previously chaired the environmental and cultural resource law practice group at the Honolulu law firm of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing (now Dentons), and worked for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.  Lea is a graduate of Rice University and the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai‘i, where she serves on the Friends of the Law School Board and has taught classes on environmental litigation, environmental regulatory compliance, and conservation transactions.  

She is originally from Wahiawa, on the island of O'ahu and enjoys surfing and catering to her mini-labradoodle in her spare time.

Duration: approximately 1 hour