The Department of Land and Natural Resources is gearing up to build nearly six miles of ungulate-proof fencing in state land reserves on the Big Island.

Draft environmental assessments were published in September for road-­building projects in the Waiakea Forest Reserve, the Manuka Natural Area Reserve and the Ka‘u Forest Reserve.

While the three projects are being handled individually, they all have similar goals: building access routes to allow for the construction of fences to preserve sensitive ecosystems from the impacts of invasive ungulate species such as goats and pigs, as well as access roads connecting to those fence lines.

The Manuka Natural Area Reserve project is the most substantial, proposing to extend an existing 1-mile road to roughly 2.1 miles long in order to eventually clear a fence line about 2.9 miles long. The fence will connect two borders of the wedge-shaped reserve, enclosing an area thousands of acres across.

Similarly, the project in the Waiakea Reserve will build a 2.5-mile-long road so crews can clear 2.8 miles of fence line that eventually will enclose an area along the border of the Puu Makaala Natural Area Reserve that is about 850 acres.

The project in the Ka‘u Forest Reserve only proposes grading a road corridor about 1.3 miles long. While the environmental assessment for that project says the road is necessary for maintenance access to an ungulate fence, it does not propose any bulldozing to clear fence lines.

“The roads are proposed to be in areas that have less biodiversity, such as recent lava flows, to minimize impacts to the vegetation that they are intended to protect,” Emma Yuen of the DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife wrote in an email to the Hawaii Tribune-­Herald.

“Forest protection is one of the most crucial actions to safeguard Hawaii from climate change threats,” Yuen wrote. “Forests contribute to water recharge, a process vital for replenishing groundwater supplies. Healthy forests are less susceptible to wildfires, which have become more frequent and severe due to climate change.

“These forests also are home to rare native plants and animals that are only found in Hawaii. Protecting these forests is particularly urgent because many of these plants and animals are nearing extinction.”

While the environmental assessments describe plans to clear fence lines, they do not describe plans to build the fences themselves, as ungulate fences are exempt from the need for an environmental assessment.

The Waiakea project was scheduled in the draft EA to take place “in the second half of 2024,” although it seems likely it will miss that goal.

The Manuka project is anticipated to take place in 2025 and into 2026.

No timeline for the Ka‘u project was included in the draft EA.

Funding for each project is projected to be “minimal,” according to the draft EAs, and will come from existing state general funds.

Public comments for all three draft EAs closed Tuesday, with final EAs expected to be completed in the coming months.