The Office of Mauna Kea Management is rolling out a set of rules that will for the first time give the office the legal tools to govern public and commercial access on the mountain. ADVERTISING The Office of Mauna Kea
The Office of Mauna Kea Management is rolling out a set of rules that will for the first time give the office the legal tools to govern public and commercial access on the mountain.
Under rules the office would like the public to consider — and the governor to sign following at least an upcoming year of process — four-wheel drive vehicles would be required for trips to the summit, vehicles would have to be cleared of invasive species, groups larger than 10 people would require a permit, and snow play would have to be done with safe equipment made for the purpose rather than with improvised sleds that lack steering and brakes. Access to the summit could be limited to daylight hours.
The eight commercial tour operators who take visitors to the peak will have to reapply for their permits, and rangers will crack down on a proliferation of illegal tours, under the provisions.
Fees for access and parking may be charged in the future, with rangers and University of Hawaii officials vested with the power to temporarily close sensitive and damaged areas and limit the number of vehicles on the summit. Drones and remote controlled vehicles and paragliding would be prohibited on Mauna Kea, along with other prohibitions in a list of rules similar to those that govern natural resource protection, traffic, parking and other human activity at some national parks.
The provisions are designed not to curtail public or Native Hawaiian access but to create a safe environment for all users while protecting cultural and natural resources, say officials with OMKM, which manages about 12,000 acres at the summit.
Rulemaking authority was first granted to the office in 2009, and contested case proceedings surrounding the Thirty Meter Telescope put the rulemaking process on hold for years. OMKM is now forging ahead with creating what will become the laws governing activity on the mountain, said the office’s director Stephanie Nagata, who met with West Hawaii Today prior to an open house Tuesday evening in Kailua-Kona.
Nagata showed slides of vehicles backed up on the access road during snow days and said that an entire lane of the upper access road is sometimes used for parking, with uphill and downhill traffic squeezed into one lane. While the use of four-wheel-drive vehicles has been a suggestion for years, it hasn’t been a rule, and Chief ranger Scotty Paiva said that rangers are now only allowed to advise — rather than instruct — drivers of two-wheel-drive vehicles not to travel the steep summit road.
“Eighty percent of them go up anyway,” Paiva said.
There were 182 vehicle incidents on the road in 2014, compared to 70 in 2010, Nagata said.
“You have blind curves and a lot of cars coming up that are not designed for the road,” she said.
OMKM estimates that 300,000 people stopped at the visitor center last year, up from 200,000 in 2010.
Nagata said it is not the office’s intent to get rid of snow recreation. But enthusiastic residents piling onto the slopes with trash can lids, car hoods, rubber inner tubes and other improvised snow vehicles makes for a hazardous situation, she said.
“A lot of people don’t have any experience on snow,” she said.
The open house was the first of three OMKM is hosting to gather public input as it crafts rules for public and commercial access on Mauna Kea.
Ana Kahoopii of Waimea was disappointed Tuesday evening that the OMKM board of directors was not present.
“Since Gov. Ige himself has said the UH has mismanaged the land, why are they not relieved of their positions?” Kahoopii said. “Is this the solution? A box to drop a note in? The conversation should have been, who do the people want to step into those positions.”
Kauhane Adams of Molokai said the open house format, with informational displays and comment boxes, was impersonal, with little attention given to cultural concerns.
“This is the mountain we all have to climb when we die to go to the next world,” said Adams, who claims family lineage that goes back to iwi on Mauna Kea.
“Where is the control? Where is the management?” he asked. “I see people trample all over the puu. There are iwi in there. This is one Sistine Chapel. It is more than one mountain.”
Chris McCullough of Keauhou mauka said he was disappointed there was no format for verbal testimony.
Once draft rules are created, there will be public meetings and testimony before final rules go to the governor, Nagata said.
In May, Ige expressed concerns about high numbers of people traveling to a summit that Native Hawaiians consider sacred. As part of a plan that called on the University of Hawaii to do a better job of managing the mountain, Ige requested that the UH reduce the number of telescopes on the mountain, returning thousands of acres of unused land to the State of Hawaii to be managed for cultural purposes, and explore higher lease payments for telescopes. Ige also called for Native Hawaiians to manage visitor access on the mountain.
The Hilo open house will be held today from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Imiloa Astronomy Center. A third open house will be held in Waimea on Thursday, from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Kuhio Hale, DHHL West Hawaii District Office.
The rules on the web: https://www.malamamaunakea.org/uploads/about/blog/2015/SuggestedRules_June2015.pdf
