PBS Hawaiʻi Presents
Island Cowgirls
Special | 55m 44sVideo has Closed Captions
Island Cowgirls shares stories of two cowgirls on the Big Island with uncertain futures.
Island Cowgirls shares the stories of two cowgirls on opposite sides of Hawaiʻi island, dedicated to caring for their family ranches. Laʻi Bertlemann grapples with accepting a mainland scholarship or staying in Hawai’i to study her culture and be with her Grandfather. Lani Cran Petrie has a balanced land management plan for Kapāpala Ranch, but the state-held lease is up for discussion.
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PBS Hawaiʻi Presents is a local public television program presented by PBS Hawai'i
PBS Hawaiʻi Presents
Island Cowgirls
Special | 55m 44sVideo has Closed Captions
Island Cowgirls shares the stories of two cowgirls on opposite sides of Hawaiʻi island, dedicated to caring for their family ranches. Laʻi Bertlemann grapples with accepting a mainland scholarship or staying in Hawai’i to study her culture and be with her Grandfather. Lani Cran Petrie has a balanced land management plan for Kapāpala Ranch, but the state-held lease is up for discussion.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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[Soft sounds of nature in the background] [Slack key music] Ku‘ulei Keakealani: Understanding place means understanding its people.We are a true reflection of our place.
This Kula grasslands built me.
These winds built me.
These hills built me.
My parents, grandparents and each successive generation before them built me.
My turn now as a mother to help build my children and the generations to follow.
In this sanctity of Hawaiʻi, which I call home, I shall build upon all that has built me.
(Rooster crowing): Ku‘ulei Keakealani: Most don't realize that the paniolo the Hawaiian cowboy, have been in the islands since the 1800s.
And for our family, it has been our lifestyle, our life ways for many generations.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Rodeo is kind of like my everything.
From a young age, I guess.
Rodeo and when we kuni, it’s like coming together as a family just to have fun.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Today is the last rodeo for our Hawai‘i high school rodeo season.
I was on the first team to go to Nationals when Hawai‘i became a part of the National High School Rodeo Association in ‘88.
Their last few years we’ve have had children place in the top five, you know, top ten.
They put Hawai‘i on the map from shooting to cutting to steer wrestling.
Song “Bout Me” on the radio: Pistol on fire, pistol on go, pistol on fire, pistol on go, pistol on fire, pistol on go… keep it on me cuz these streets really cold….” La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Right now we are on our way to Waimea to Parker Ranch arena for my last high school rodeo.
I just hope that I have the best last rodeo I can have.
That I just give my all that I have in me.
And generally, I just really want to have a good day and spend time with my friends.The best part of rodeo is all the people that come.
Whether it be contestants or just people who come to watch.
Because it kind of gives you that sense of community and family.
It kind of sucks now that we can’t really be by everybody and we have to social distance and whatever.
But it’s fun when there’s people in the stands cheering at you.
Especially when you do good.
It’s like, oh my god, there’s people rooting for me, you know.
[Music] DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: But, we’ll see what are we doing…Did she say anything about college?
She got accepted into Montana State University.
She’s torn because she wants to go to the mainland, because she knows there’s different opportunities.
But she really wants to….
You know, she wants our culture, our language, I guess our kuleana, yeah?
She’s the one who holds that so close.
And I think for us, our culture comes first, yeah?
She’s been taking college classes since the 9th grade, yeah, with her school.
So she’s on her way already.
She’s gotten a lot of credits.
So if she stayed home, and just went to UH Hilo or HCC, you know, whatever, and just continued… But I’m not gonna tell her that.
You know she’s gotta do what she wants to do.
And I have no problem with her going to the mainland and horses or rodeo would be her fun.
[Music] Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī.
Nānā i kou mōʻī Ka lani aliʻi Ke aliʻi Rodeo announcer: And here we go all of our high school contestants for today, our last rodeo of the 2021 season!
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: The basic definition of kuleana is responsibility, but I think within that lies every single value we've been taught from when we are small.
Aloha.
You know aloha kekahi i kekahi.
To mālama.
Mālama everything, your family, your ‘ohana, your kūpuna, akua.
[Music] [Cheering] La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: The adrenaline rush is like, major.
It feels good to go out there and put your all into something.
Being raised how we were raised, that's what we consider like our play.
[Crowd comments] C’mon Camela!
Right there!
Catch it!
C’mon La‘i!
Oh no!
This is a hard one.
There you go!
There you go!
Oh shit!
Hang on!
Hang on!
C’mon sister!
You got it!
You got it!
You got it!
C’mon La‘i!
(Laughter) C’mon girl!
Get up!
Hold that leg, Camela!
Hold that leg!
Come on you guys!
Come on La‘i!
(distant cheering and comment): La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: You look for the signs.
Basically you have to read your animals.
So when they're looking out, they're not like looking all over the place.
For me personally, the moment the cow stops moving completely and like in my head, everything goes quiet.
That's when I'll, like, nod and that's when I'll go.
[Music] DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: School, no school?
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Huh?
I mean, it's between staying home here and doing my Hawaiian studies, or going up there and rodeoing, or going into a ranch management program in Montana.
Hard to choose.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: I mean, I know I'm capable of a lot of things, but like, I know my kuleana too.
Chatter: La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: So me just trying to figure out how I'm going to fulfill my kuleana and like the person I've become in doing so.
Taking it one step at a time.
[Wind blowing]: DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: This pā pohaku, stonewall corral, is Powaina Corral, dated over two hundred years that this stone wall has been here.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: We are in Pu‘uanahulu.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Na Pu‘u.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: In these ancestral homelands.
This is where we come from.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: This one?
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Yeah, right like that.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Papa, these are the hakahaka, right?
The little stones?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: I think so.
Pōhaku liʻiliʻi.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Pōhaku liʻiliʻi.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: That’s your three-great-grandfather stone wall this.
Three.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani Three.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Yeah, (cannot understand) DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Over 200 years old.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani No wonder it’s gotta get put back together.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: (Laughs) All fall apart, yeah.
You no tease!
Bumbye tonight they come visit you!
Aye Aye Aye Aye!
You got the hukis over dere!
(?)
Which one?
I don’t know.
Number ten or eleven know the 12 sista.
The 12 sista sons stay ova hea.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: …you guys can work.
No scared when gotta…big job when you look like this but once we get the niho set we just fill up then.
Fill up and go.
The main one is the bottom.
Where da pipi every time bang.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Where the heck is all the men in our family, guys?
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani We are the men.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: You're not wrong.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: So if you look in our family, we have a lot of girls, there's lots of Keakealani wāhine.
And with that, we have no choice.
Right.
I birthed all girls, my sister birthed all girls, my brother, girls.
And it seems like in every generation there might be one boy, one boy, one boy.
And so that's what I mean, that these practices do not stop or are halted because of our gender.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: We think we can make ova hea pa‘a for next week when we brand.
That’s where we work ova hea.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: You wanna try to huki (pull) one side, right?
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Ready?
One, two… Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: How you guys going?
Work together.
Don’t get mad.
Malia malia (no rush) You guys gotta lift.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: He said kake (turn, shift).
And where you stay Nahe is gonna be on the bottom.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Over here?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Yeah, where La‘i stay gonna stand up.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: So we flipping them li dat?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: No you just going li dat and you folks stand ‘em up.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: K wait.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: This side is gonna be on the bottom.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: See here, see dis?
Dat’s da bottom.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Okay.
So we just gotta huki ‘em up.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Dere you go.
Okay.
Come up to ‘em nice.
Hold.
Take a break.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: C’mon.
Hold.
Okay.
Get that big one yeah.
Alright."
Can go like that ‘ulapa right inside and then let ‘em mo‘i mo‘i.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Okay you guys try and bring ‘em back out.
That’s how papa like ‘em okay?
Sonny so you guys gotta make da bottom go more in.
You guys catch on what I say?
Girls: Yeah.
yeah.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Okay.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Watch hea.
Clean that other one.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Ho!
Did you see that?
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: We have a relationship to these rocks, to these trees, to this dirt.
And when people of place are absent, there is a suffering.
A suffering of the people, the kanaka when they no longer have access then I think there is a suffering of the land, where the land, some people will say have no voice.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: We've been here for over 15 years with a promise of a long term lease and nothing's ever transpired.
That's the worry, you know, month to month, how can you mālama ‘āina, truly mālama ‘āina, or call yourself a steward of the land, on a month-to-month lease.
The uncertainty of not being able to be here next month.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: It's going to be a sad day when we say to our children, no longer can you go down to the stone wall corral.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: To be cut off like that is - oh, you almost cutting off lifeline.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: We would love to see a future where our daughters are able to thrive here at home on our ‘āina.
My hopes, is what we've been asking for, to have a long term lease, to have a say in how this piece of land is managed.
That is the only way we would be able to continue to be stewards on this land and continue to be home.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Come here.
You hungry?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Tutu and papa, wen I look at you, I see Manuela Boy.
Anybody house!
(laughs:) You know what they call Manuela Boy?
Eh, you go house to house, no more house.
Nobody’s child.
(sings) I’m nobody’s child… [Music] [Door Slams] Ku‘ulei Keakealani: Hi Cousin Cousin: Aloha Ku‘ulei Keakealani: Bright and early.
(Laughs) Kakahiaka no (good morning).
Cousin: Love you.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: Yes, love you too.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Maopopo?
You understand?
What is that?
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Wherever you want to put your present, you can leave it.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: You can leave it home if you want to.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Good morning.
[Speaking in Hawaiian] [Sounds of people talking, walking on the ground in the background] DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Of course I have your horse.
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Where’s your mo‘opuna?
Your mo‘opuna came?
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: I do have Hollywood, I have your horse, yes.
(On phone) Your horse is saddled and ready to go.
Ok bye.
[Laughter] DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: Thank you all for being here.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: When I look around our fathers were born and raised into this.
DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: All of us.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: …and our mamas.
Ku‘ulei Keakealani: So it wasn't just our mamas, papas, both.
Every one of us standing here has heard words from Papa.
He is our dictionary.
So it's about the language, the terms that, when when we don't have dad, we got to carry that.
We have worked alongside him for, some of us, our whole life.
We become the repositories.
We become the ones that gotta hold this forward.
If not us, then who?
And so we continue to continue.
Ho‘omau, ho‘omau, ho‘omau.
[Music] [Sonny begins to call and shout for the cows] Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Heilu Elua kanaha Puka nana Pōpo lo Come on you, moha'a (?)
Come on you, (?)
Hino hino ?
Alualu Momona huli kou poo.
Down makai.
Come big girl.
Mea nui [Lots of chatter] Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: La'i come with papa.
Papa show you.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: I'm cutting laho?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Yeah.
Watch Papa what I do so you guys know how to do it.
Put your legs right there.
Watch what Papa do.
Here.
One at a time.
Take your time.
First time.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Right here?
Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: Let it go one.ʻŪmiʻi.
Okay?
You make sure you cut.
Or you’re going cut your hand when the calf punō.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: Dad, can I drag?
Dad: Yeah.
[Lots of chatter] Cousin: Wahine!
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: I no like be in your way.
[Music] Robert Kamuela “Sonny” Keakealani Jr: My time was hard time.
But I love cowboy.
Cowboy life different.
And our tutus to from eh, the four corners of the state of Hawaiʻi was all cowboys before we came today what we are.
We knew never had da kine.
But they taught us how for fish, hunt.
That's where our education came from.
I never go college, but I graduate CC.
But see, I graduated from cowboy college and my degree was CS, common sense.
But hō‘ike nō mākou kēia wahi.
Kēia nō ka ‘āina no Kanaka, you know.
Ma mua, wala‘au Kanaka, kēlā nō, ʻHawaiian’.
Kēlā, I don’t know, today, you wala‘au Kanaka.
‘A‘ale like pū ma mua.
Mākou ma mua, ua wala‘au Kanaka ka Hawaiian.
What is the Hawaiian word for Hawaiian?
Anybody over here know?
Kanaka.
Ka po‘e.
Ka po‘e nō.
Yeah, kēia wahi.
‘O ka ‘āina.
‘O ka wahi kahakai.
Kēlā nō.
Keiki no ka lā, o ka pō.
Ka makani.
Ma mua, hō, puehu.
Kēia manawa, mālia.
Ke nahenahe nō.
Ke nahenahe nō i ka ‘āina nō a puka ka lepo.
[Music] DeeDee Keakealani Bertlemann/Fifth Generation Rancher: I really feel those that can identify who you are and where you come from and what your kuleana is.
It's a little bit easier because you have that identity and your culture becomes your kuleana.
There's none like coming home, to continue in the footsteps of those before you.
Those are huge footsteps to fill.
That's our intent is to continue that legacy.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: When it comes to our papa, La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman We’re the favorites, obviously.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: I know.
I honestly like we do everything for him, but I don't know.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: He's probably our biggest influence.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: I think everything that we do, in a way it's always going to be for him throughout our entire life.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: He’s our only grandparent that is with us right now, with us every day.
That teaches us.
So it's more so to just make him proud and everything is for him.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Yeah, I love him the way I love this 'āina.
Exactly like that.
I would do anything for this 'āina.
I would do anything for him.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman: This ‘āina is where we're from.
It's where we've been raised.
It's what shaped us.
Aunty Ku'ulei said, “Heali'i ka 'āina he kawa ka kanaka.
right, the 'āina is always above us and we're the stewards of the land we take care, we mālama the 'āina.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: We have a big kuleana down here to our 'āina, to our people, to our lāhui.
And I think one of our main kuleana as like the paniolo community is consistently giving back, giving back to our 'āina, you know, giving back to our community.
La‘i Kawaiʻoluokeaohou Bertleman I decided to stay home for school and not go to the mainland.
With what I want to do with my life and with the kuleana that I feel I have, and being raised the way I was, it's more important for me to stay than it would be to leave.
And I think I would have a really hard time without my family and without 'āina especially.
Without this 'āina, you know?
Pu'uanahulu, down makai, it would be hard not to be able to come here whenever I want for whatever reason I wanted.
You feel free, like sometimes time just stops, you know, especially when you're with your family.
Like when I'm with Nahe, the memories that we make, It's irreplaceable.
Irreplaceable, definitely.
And it feels like when we're here together, spending time making these memories, doing all these different kinds of things, perpetuating our culture, it just feels like we can finally be ourselves and we're just we're just us.I think when we look at it, when we look at like this, we see our history, we see our kūpuna, we see our ‘āina.
Kuʻunahenani “Nahe” Keakealani: Our ‘āina aloha.
‘Āina momona.
[Music] Lani Petrie: Nothing can replace the way I feel when I come out here to look at this land and know that it's because of what we did Lani Petrie: I'm highly motivated by taking something that's not producing anything that nobody else wants and turning it into something that's beautiful to look at and producing something.
Makes my heart just skip.
[Music] Lani Petrie: My name is Lani Petrie.
I'm a cattle rancher on the southeast side of the Big Island.
Ranching has been my whole life.
My husband will Bill fly right when the sun comes up, he'll go check water.
It takes him a half an hour to check 50 square miles.
Sound of plane flying: Lani Petrie: He's so vain, he loves his airplane.
This is where I always stand watching him come in.
Come come come!
Come, come!
Come!
They calve in the winter, these calve in the spring and early summer, So we have calves at different times of the year to sell.
So these are the ones that we'll wean on Wednesday.
Lani calls the cows: Come!
Lani Petrie: This is what I want to see cattle do.
And to me it's really important if you want animal performance that they feel good and they're happy.
Lani yells at the dogs: Yeah.
Come on.
Would you guys get in?
You gotta work tomorrow, Get in the truck.
Get in!"
[Music] Lani Petrie: Zeba!
Abby!
[Cows mooing] Lani Petrie: Definitely needing magnesium today.
When animals, including humans, don't have enough mag, they get nervous.
A lot of nervousness.
See how their ears, see how their ears are up?
[Music] Lani Petrie: Those of us down wind of the volcano, the volcano has just changed the land the soils, the vegetation, the PH changes, and some plants can't take it.
The volcano emits thousands of tons of sulfur a day.
In the 2018 event, which fortunately lasted only a few months, it was 50,000 metric tons a day.
Anything metal is toast.
Fences were just melting.
And my dad always coined it.
He says, Yo, girlie, that's my nickname.
He says, Girlie weʻll never end up with something that's too good of an operation because we're just going to end up with what nobody else wants.
[Music] Lani Petrie: So I was kind of raised that way, that we always ended up with something that was pretty rough.
There was no dependable water, it was really an undesirable landscape.
Lani Petrie: This is a pretty spectacular one, it's easy to get in and out of, but they're everywhere.
The original lava lounge.
This is more like the cave that I fell into, 10-12 feet straight drop.
Maybe not quite this deep, I don't know, I haven't been to it in 30 years.
I fell through the hole, through the skylight.
To have that sensation that you're falling.
And you've gone from daylight to complete darkness, and you're falling?
I thought I had died and I was falling into hell.
I remember saying to myself, “Lord, how have I forsaken you?” We landed on a bunch of rocks, like that, and the horse tumbled down.
Greg and my dad, we were all working a group of cattle, so they missed me right away.
And I yelled at him, I said, “look out!” because he was right above me on his horse.
My dad said, well you stay with the horse.
And I was in shock.
But we camped in the hole that night.
The next morning we took shovels and prybars so we could open up the skylight and pull the horse out with the helicopter.
[Ambiant sound of helicopter] [Music] Lani Petrie: So this is the next morning after we’d been in the hole.
I stayed with the horse all night.
And that's me coming out on the ladder.
Um, really can't see into the hole at all.
You know, everybody's all relieved.
Yee ha!
We got the horse out of the hole.
And, you know, the chopper didn't crash.
So she's fully sedated, thank god.
And so while she was still pretty sedated, the vet got her all stitched up, and I led her home."
[Music] Lani Petrie: So, we started here at this ranch, and it was broken down.
So my dad, he just kept fixing things and fixing things.
And we just worked hard, I mean we got weaned off mothers milk and handed a pipe wrench.
We all knew how to twist pipe and fix fences.
And look at it now, because of fertility and pasture management, it's not only pretty to look at it, it's productive.
This is actually the 160th anniversary of Kapāpala Ranch.
I had, this is a picture of the ranch, in the late 1800's, it doesn't really have a specific date, it just says it was the late 1800's.
My family that worked here back in the 1800s, they were Hawaiian, Hawaiian-Haole.
To be in charge of a 160-year legacy, and to be part-Hawaiian on top of that.
I'm quite honored, Iʻm humbled.
My husband and I made a decision back in 2002 when we left our fulltime jobs and we said the ranch has to pay.
So we do what we do best and we're profitable at it.
[Phone rings] Lani Petrie: That's me... Oh, it's my son.
Does he live here and work...?
No!
Because he's like what?
I mean, mom, I'm 34 for the long-term lease expires in nine years, I'm going to be 40 in my 40s.
And why would I come back here?"
[Music] Lani Petrie: Kapāpala Ranch operates on a state lease that is set to expire in 2029, none of us knows what's going to happen after that.
We've invested millions into improving resources here.
We did because we were certain of our future at that time.
If we were facing the same uncertainty we're facing today, it's questionable if we would have made the same investments.
Long term investments need long term tenure.
So, we're at a crossroads that's really hard.
Lani Petrie: We’re gonna go down to the Pono cows and we’ll move them first.
Then we’ll go on up to the F-13s.
We’ll probably just call everything and try and get them to the rice paddocks.
Rice 1.
Did you get to the tunnel?
Bill Petrie: Yeah.
And then there's a wad down, halfway down the hill, of about 40 cows.. Lani Petrie: Probably some thatʻve calved.
[Music] Lani Petrie: Well, our day starts at 7:30, repairing fence, or right now we're putting in a new major waterline.
We're not a big crew, but we all work as a team.
Especially my husband and I.
It's amazing how much just a few people that are motivated can get done.
Lani Petrie: Pliers?
[Cows moo] Lani Petrie: You know when we came here 40 years ago there was no fences so the men had to push the cattle really hard and they ended up doing a lot of roping, and the animals were so afraid.
Now they're not afraid.
Bill Petrie: Good?
Lani Petrie: Yup.
That's all it takes to stop a thousand cows.
We'll just call them and go on over, open the gate.
No fair, you get to go first.
No fair, no fair!
So everything we did today, that was the nicest move to me.
The cattle they did the happy cow walk.
Yeah, the happy cow walk is like….
And the calves would buck a little bit and and a lot more head down swinging.
Like, like if they were whistling they'd be whistling, and each herd will do it, I mean, it's just this morning, those cattle have had plenty to eat, their calves are on their own, kind of eating on their own.
[Soft moos] Lani Petrie: You see a guava plant coming up like that, there's another one over there.
I've actually seen quite a few.
And that's probably the most agressive plant we have on the ranch, guava.
And so, you know, there's your sign.
[Music] Lani Petrie: Intnesively managed herds tackle the invasive plants that we deal with.
I mean you think about what a cow eats, and compare it to somebody going out and trying to mow grass.
It's impossible to have 10,000 weedeaters going 12 hours a day 365 days a year.
Here is the boundary between Kaʻu Forest Reserve and the ranch.
This is blooming night jasmine, and boy you can see right down the fenceline the cattle actually graze it where it comes over and reaches over the fence.
Thirty years ago we started to see a few plants and its just in the last 10 years, you can't even get through it.
The native forest as we know it is getting pushed back.
You have the grasses that grow up, they ripen, they die.
It becomes a huge fire load.
[Fire crackling] Lani Petrie: The fire in 2018 actually started in Keauhou Ranch.
The cattle were taken out of there about 20 years ago.
The ranch forfeited that land for the national park and its had no livestock.
And boy, when that fire hit it exploded.
And it burned for six days.
When it got to our boundary, of course, there was no fuel load.
So we marched up and down that fenceline for six days to make sure it didn't come in the ranch.
And then we provided water from our reservoirs.
Lani Petrie: So the first thing I do when I come up here is check the rain guage.
Ooh, you lucked out, two inches.
And there's more!
Lani Petrie: Two and a half inches.
So two and a half inches, so 140,000, that’s 280,000, and half again, that’s 70, 280, 350,000 gallons of water since we were here last. "
[Music] Lani Petrie: Kaniwai was developed as a high-elevation source of water to eliminate the necessity for pumps and the need of fossil fuel to deliver water in very expensive high pressure systems.
And using gravity, all natural resources to deliver water over 100 miles of pipeline on 34,000 acres.
It all flows freely.
So it's taking almost a full pipe out to the national park boundary, to those paddocks of O'aikea.
Well the water is critical to everything, no water, no life.
[Sounds of nēnē geese] Lani Petrie: It’s taken the nene a while to find this spot, but now that they’ve found it, it makes me feel good.
[Sounds of nēnē geese] Lani Petrie: In the DNLR lease, at the end of your term, all your improvements are owned by the state and then, the property is appraised and then goes out to public auction.
So you have to buy your improvements back.
And we just put in a million dollar water system.
[Music] Lani Petrie: You know, you can't just go and put in a million dollar investment and then just give it to the state.
It doesn't give anybody any incentive to put capital improvements into the land.
Lani Petrie: The legislature believes that positive advancement and sustainable agriculture, carbon sequestration challenges, wildlife management, wildfire protection and forest health concerns can be cooperatively managed through mutually beneficial practices with ranching, wildlife protection and native forest restoration.
They talk about wanting to keep lands in productivity, and yet they take out all the incentives to invest any money to keep it in productivity.
You know, I guess I’m a little facing the reality that everything that we’re gonna deal with is gonna be short term.
And I can't tackle invasive species that are so highly adapted - I can't tackle them on year to year, or five years... [Dogs barking] Lani Petrie: We're at a crossroads that's really hard, especially being at our age.
You know, do you pick up at 60 years of age and go start over someplace?
Yeah, I'm too old to start over.
[Dogs barking] Does giving up mean that you frickin close your eyes and look the other way because you're not doing what you can.
You know better, but you can't afford to do better.
Is it better just to just go?
Sorry I’m getting…I’ve been told that I get combative.
Well….
Lani (to dogs): Kepa, come.
Lani Petrie: That's the trend now, isn't it, two different colored socks?
I didn't turn the light on when I got dressed."
[Music] Lani Petrie: There's not a lot that I can do as a land manager on a lava field that's 100 years old.
But we do produce food on land that would be otherwise used for nothing.
(whistles) Any business has to generate a return on its investment.
You know we've turned just a ma and pa ranch into a ranch that is profitable most years.
[Music] Lani Petrie: I think that when I approach an animal, I always, number 1 look at them and see if they're having a good day.
And you can tell!
You step into a pen full of cattle, they're talking to you.
They're telling you what they're feel, they are telling you how they think.
And you know, if you take that into consideration.
If you're considerate to them, they will do everything that you want them to, most of the time.
You know that's so powerful to walk into 500 cows and all their calves and they look at you and they go, ok. What do you want us to do.
And when they are happy cows, they raise big fat calves and big fat calves bring you a bigger paycheck.
And then we can do it all over again.
We can go build some more fence and you know wyat, we go put in some more pipe and we can go tackle some more country that used to look like this.
[Volcano rumbles in the distance] Lani Petrie: Some people ask me what do you envision for this property.
And I said to leave it better than I find it, so you're never ending, right?
[Cows moo] Lani Petrie: They kind of want to know when I'm going to retire, and I say I am retired, I'm doing exactly what I want to do.
And I'll keep doing it.
And hopefully there'll be another generation that comes.
You know my son the other day said "Never stop fighting mom."
Its hard, but I'll do it for all the people that rode this ranch before me.
[END]
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