Hunters challenge proposed Mauna Kea restrictions

Big Island hunters are bristling at a proposed rule being considered by the state land board Friday that they say needlessly restricts their own activities while mixing Mauna Kea protests with unrelated hunting activity.

The rule, hastily created to address environmental and safety impacts from recent protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope, prohibits backpacks and camping paraphernalia and overnight stays within a mile of the Mauna Kea Observatory Access Road. The proposed rule that the land board will mull today is inserted in the chapter governing state game mammal hunting.

That’s the wrong place for the rule, argue hunters, who also say that regardless of where the rule is promulgated, it unfairly penalizes hunters who have nothing to do with protests.

“Every hunter goes in there with a backpack,” said Tom Lodge, chairman of the Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission. “You go out there and make sure you can survive.”

State Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman Dan Dennison said the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife drafted the rules at the request of the state attorney general.

“Camping is already restricted on all DOFAW land without a permit,” Dennison said. “This is an attempt to clarify the rules, because of recent activity on Mauna Kea within DLNR managed lands.”

Hilo hunter Dick Hoeflinger said the hunting rules have an emergency clause that allows the state to act quickly.

“They want to get this done right away, without public hearings,” Hoeflinger said. “It’s a back door, sneaky way to get it through.”

Lodge said the rule, which covers at least 10 square miles, should be scrapped and brought back for public hearings.

“It should go through the administrative rule process,” Lodge said. “There are a lot of people upset about this.”