The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is venturing a bit off the beaten path with a plan for managing the new Waimea Valley preserve that could be very fruitful, but presents some challenges as well.

After languishing for years in legal limbo, Waimea Valley was saved from development last year through a $14 million purchase by a partnership involving the city, state, the Trust for Public Lands, the U.S. Army and OHA.

The mix of private donations, taxpayer funds and Native Hawaiian trust money in the purchase is unusual. It underscores an important duty of the entity that will manage the valley: to serve the interest of the public, Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian alike.

The selection of Gary Gill as project manager signals that environmental protection is at the heart of this endeavor. Gill, a former City Council member who later headed the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, most recently worked with Kokua Kalihi Valley on a 100-acre nature park there.

On the scale of preservation projects, however, Waimea is overwhelming — an entire wedge of land from the mountains to the sea that could be a living laboratory for ahupua'a land management of old. It's also an amazing repository of historical artifacts and of native species seen in few other spots on crowded O'ahu.

Its stewardship will demand a high degree of community involvement. OHA has set up a vehicle it believes is best suited to the tasks of master-planning and management, enabling that public input.

The Hawaiian trust-funds investment gave OHA title to the valley, which it then conveyed to a nonprofit limited liability corporation called Hi'ilei Aloha LLC. The tax dollars contributed secured a "public access and conservation easement" that attaches to the title. It legally binds the LLC to uphold the public interest, a commitment that state and city leaders must enforce.

And although corporation control is delegated to nonelected OHA executives serving as "managers," OHA trustees are accountable to concerns of their constituents.

The acquisition that saved Waimea from development is a welcome outcome. Now the work begins for opening this resource to a community that is hungry for its store of natural beauty.