VOLCANO, Hawai'i — About nine years ago Steve Baczkiewicz and his crew harvested koa trees on what he thought was Kahuku Ranch land at the invitation of the Ka'u ranch. The loggers paid the ranch about $14,000 for the trees, and promptly sold the wood.

Seven years ago the state Department of Land and Natural Resources launched criminal and civil investigations into the logging, claiming the crew had crossed over the ranch boundary and had illegally harvested trees on state land.

Baczkiewicz admits that initially after the state confronted him, he thought his crew had erred by logging inside a 1,100-foot-wide strip of land that the state claims, but he denies this was deliberate.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees later, Baczkiewicz believes he has proven the land he logged belonged to Kahuku Ranch all along. He now wants the state to admit it was wrong, and to pay his legal costs.

"It has been huge and devastating to our lives and my business," Baczkiewicz said. "They're trying to cover their tails, I think. This whole thing got out of hand."

William Wynhoff, the deputy attorney general who is pursuing the case on behalf of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, acknowledges Baczkiewicz has raised "a legitimate question" about who actually owns the land, but said this is an important case that should be pursued.

"The bottom line is here is a piece of state property that we always believed that we owned, loggers went onto that property and cut down ... koa trees, there's no doubt about that," Wynhoff said. "Somewhere between 100 and 200 magnificent old growth koa trees are just not there, and if it's our property, we're not too happy about that."

The state dropped its criminal investigation, but the Board of Land and Natural Resources voted in 2003 to impose more than $1 million in fines, costs and other penalties in the case.

The loggers demanded a contested case hearing to dispute the fines, and the state hearings officer in 2005 concluded the state failed to prove it actually owns the land. Now the state has filed a federal lawsuit against the federal Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in an effort to clear title to 177 acres that includes the land that was logged.

Most of Kahuku Ranch, including the areas along the ranch's western boundary where the logging took place, was sold to the federal government in 2003 as an addition to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

If the state is successful in proving it owns the land, the state plans to resume its enforcement efforts against the loggers, Wynhoff said. If the court finds the 177 acres actually belonged to Kahuku Ranch, that land likely would become part of the park, which would effectively end the case against the loggers.

So, Baczkiewicz's finances, future and his business may depend on what the court decides were the true boundaries of a land sale by the government of King Kamehameha IV that took place in 1861.

Ron Self, Baczkiewicz's lawyer in the federal case, said before the logging began the logger sought help from the state, the ranch, the county and a land surveyor to make sure he did not wander off Kahuku Ranch in the isolated area. Baczkiewicz put in a "great effort" to make sure he was in the right place, and Self said the state case has now become a "witch hunt."

For years Baczkiewicz said he believed he might have logged state land, but late in the preparations for the contested case hearing the state turned over an old document known as Certificate of Boundary 85 dating back to 1876. Baczkiewicz contends that document proves the land belonged to the ranch all along, meaning there was no illegal logging on state land.

Baczkiewicz also contends the state has vastly overstated the value of the koa that was taken from the property. His contract with Kahuku Ranch was to harvest diseased and distressed koa, and he denies that he took any "virgin" koa.

However the koa is valued, Wynhoff said, what was taken was valuable.

"It is a significant amount of damage no matter how one runs the numbers, and even if they were able to prove that they really tried and it was an honest mistake, I for one don't consider that to be a defense, nor do I believe it is a defense under the applicable law," he said.

Baczkiewicz has sued the state to try to recover his costs, and said he also wants to draw attention to the case in an effort to "make this state a better place to live in, a place where a person can actually do business with the state of Hawai'i and not end up in this kind of contentious battle."

"We had to borrow against our house, we had to borrow against our business, we owe legal bills with three attorney outfits, it has not enabled us to do anything but live day-to-day. My retirement is gone," he said.

Baczkiewicz's lawsuit against the state was tossed out of court, but Self said he plans to appeal that dismissal.