“We need our parks to be healing facilities. We need our parks to look like Hawai’i. But what do people see when they get to Hawai’i? It looks like California,” said a Kona resident, at a meeting on an October evening at Kealakehe High School. The meeting was one of five such gatherings, organized by the Big Island’s Democratic legislators to explore residents’ views on what needed to be done with Hawaii’s ailing state park system.
The legislators and Division of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) officials who were there that night got an earful from the public. Residents complained about drugs and vandalism, stray cats and homeless people, deteriorating facilities and filthy bathrooms, and an unresponsive bureaucracy that had allowed the parks to deteriorate and had failed even to follow up on volunteer offers to help.
“There are places so disgusting that you wouldn’t go there. You’d find a bush,” commented one resident at the Kona meeting.
Another quoted a letter from a visitor: “If I’d wanted a Third World experience, I’d have gone to Mexico. It’s cheaper.”
According to freshman State Representative Cindy Evans, the public meetings had their origin in a monthly discussion group that she and the other Big Island Democratic legislators had formed, shortly after the start of the legislative session. One issue that all of the legislators had been hearing about from their constituents, Evans said, was the deteriorating condition of the state parks. They decided to do something about it.
“In anything, you build teams, and this was one of these things that said if we build a team…maybe we’ll have a united voice within our own Democratic caucus,” said Evans. On December 1, 2003, the island’s majority delegation released a report based on what the public had told them.
“Generally speaking, the overwhelming sentiment was that Big Island State Parks are in a sad condition of disrepair and in dire need of attention,” the report declared. “Not only were specific projects identified, but a clear indication was expressed by many community-minded organizations that they were anxiously willing and ready to volunteer their time and energy to assist with the improvements.”
The report recommended specific improvements for each state park on the island. It also stated that better working relationships needed to be developed between the legislature and the state bureaucracy, and between DLNR and volunteer groups. To implement those changes, says the report, “Legislators are working with concerned citizens and Parks Division personnel to develop a strategy to improve our Big Island State Parks.” That strategy, the report suggested, could also “serve as a model for communities in neighboring islands to examine.”
What the Public Wants
Better interpretive signage (or, in some cases, any signage at all) was suggested for every park on the island. Residents also generally wanted better cooperation between the DLNR’s State Parks Division and community volunteers.
“A common theme expressed at every community meeting by dedicated organizations and individuals was an enthusiastic willingness to volunteer services, time and energy to repair and maintain park facilities in desperate need of care,” noted the report. “As park users, they are very aware of the specific improvements necessary and have offered creative ideas as to how they would collaboratively work with government to achieve common goals.” But the report also noted that “many stated their frustration because their offers of assistance most often went unheeded while facilities continued to fall into greater states of disrepair.”
The DLNR’s State Parks Division has ” Adopt a Park” and ” Curatorship” programs for volunteers. But the report noted that the division seemed to lack a ‘friendly and easy’ process for volunteers to channel their efforts to improve parks.”
Participants at the meeting also offered specific suggestions for improving individual parks. Some of those suggestions are summarized below:
Akaka Falls: Honomu community members wanted cell phones for volunteers to help keep watch on the park, which encompasses two waterfalls and a walking path mauka of their Hamakua village. Like residents all over the island, they wanted better maintenance of the park’s public restrooms. The restrooms at Honomu also need to be more accessible to persons with disabilities.
Hapuna Beach: The Journal reported on the deteriorating state of facilities at Hapuna last July. (See “Slumming at Hapuna Beach” in the archives section at hawaiiislandjournal.com) Participants at the legislators’ public meetings also expressed serious concerns about the park’s condition.
Again, bathroom maintenance was a problem. Residents suggested stainless steel fixtures, which withstood vandalism better. They wanted enforcement of parking provisions for the disabled, and asked that the DLNR work with volunteers to “upgrade and maintain” the landscaping and renovate the camping area’s decrepit cabins. They wanted “road and parking improvements” at the Wailea Beach area, south of the main beach at Hapuna.
Kalopa: Suggestions for the forest park in mauka Hamakua included road improvements, including a bus turnaround area, and a survey to determine the park’s exact boundary (the 100-acre park exists within a larger state forest reserve, and trails from the park extend into other parts of the reserve). Again, residents suggested that the DLNR work with volunteer organizations on park maintenance and improvement projects, including the removal of alien plant species and the blazing and maintenance of trails.
Kealakekua Bay: Residents have long complained about poor policing and lack of sanitary facilities in the area around the Captain Cook monument, which historically was a dwelling-place for Hawaiian ali’i. Participants at the legislators’ meetings asked for a long-range development plan for Kealakekua Bay State Historic Park and for more coordination between state agencies in improving the Napo’opo’o pier, regulating kayaks landing at the Captain Cook monument, and regulating activities in Kealakekua Bay’s Marine Life Conservation District.
Kekahakai: Residents wanted the DLNR to “focus on educational opportunities” at Mahaiula Beach, the sprawling crescent of sand where the ill-fated “Wind on Water” television series was once centered at Kekahakai State Park north of the Kona Airport. (The old Magoon family beach house, which served as a backdrop for Bo Derek during the series, has long been slated to become an educational center). Residents also suggested replacing the area’s “porta-potties” with composting toilets. They also noted that funds had already been voted to create composting toilets for the area, but that the funding had never been released. They wanted more cultural and historical interpretation area.
Kumukahi: This state-owned area next to Kapoho Bay in Puna is not an official state park. But residents brought it up anyway, because it is heavily used by local campers. Composting toilets were suggested for the area.
Lava Tree: Lava Tree State Park, in lower Puna, has been the site of a controversial effort to control coqui frogs by removing alien vegetation and spraying with citric acid, then replanting with native plants. According to the legislator’s report, the community suggested coordinating volunteer efforts with the State Department of Agriculture’s coqui control program – although in fact, such coordination has already been happening between the state parks and community groups such as Malama O Puna. The report also suggested that state agencies “encourage continued work with volunteers to implement improvements including landscaping, painting of restrooms.
“ MacKenzie: This isolated ironwood grove on the Red Road in Lower Puna is the district’s only public park with designated camping. But it has long been under-used, in part because of an evil reputation; at least one camper was murdered there. That happened decades ago, but residents are still asking for better security in the area. They also found the park’s sanitary facilities lacking, and suggested a “safe and adequate” catchment system, and perhaps composting toilets, to help address the issue.
Manuka: In addition to better signage and ADA improvements, this roadside park in the Manuka Natural Area Reserve, near Ocean View, “could use more and better trails and better interpretation of important natural resources,” according to the report, which suggested that state officials should coordinate with the Natural Area Reserve Commission and Na Ala Hele, a statewide organization devoted to trail issues.
Mauna Kea: Mauna Kea State Recreation Area’s cabins currently sit unused and virtually abandoned, judged unsafe by the State Department of Health because of water supply problems.
“Consider yourself lucky not to be staying there,” grumps one travel web site in the wake of the cabins’ closure. The legislators’ meetings brought protests from irate hunters and campers who did use the remote park on the Saddle Road. It also brought offers from pig hunters and others to work with the state on solutions to the water problem. Based on that input, the legislators’ report recommended that ways be found to “restore the cabins for rental use by the general public with [a] portion of the fees being returned to the park where generated for repair and maintenance. The legislators also called for state officials to “work with able and willing volunteers to upgrade [the] water system and cabins.” Old Kona Airport: Kona’s premier urban park sparked a spirited debate about whether it was even in the right hands.
“The state manages areas that are of significant scenic, natural and resource value,” explained State Parks Administrator Dan Quinn at the Kona meeting. The county, he noted, tended to do more purely recreational facilities, such as tennis courts, playgrounds and gymnasiums. Old Kona, of course, shares both values. The legislators’ final report suggested that the state “work with the county to develop [a] better plan for shared use and oversight.” The report also suggested changing the park’s name to ” the proper Hawaiian name for the area,” emphasizing pedestrian over vehicular traffic, and addressing the problem of the park’s burgeoning feral cat population.
Wailoa: This most urban of state parks, located in the tsunami zone where a Japanese neighborhood and part of downtown Hilo once stood, drew a host of suggestions. Again, the report recommended that the state work with volunteers on repair projects, including a burned pavilion. Again, restroom conditions were potent issues. Stainless steel fixtures were again recommended to reduce vandalism. The report included suggestions to increase enforcement and to close the park at night to reduce crime, and to “work with appropriate agencies to assist [the] homeless.” The report also passed on a suggestion that the state build a sailboat ramp at adjacent Wailoa Small Boat Harbor.
Wailuku: Pi’ihonua Houselots Community Association volunteers have already been working on landscaping at this two-part park, which includes the Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots on the Wailuku River, mauka of downtown Hilo. In addition to interpretive signage, residents suggested better safety signs along the river’s high cliffs and dangerous rapids. They also wanted “infrastructure improvements” including picnic tables, shade trees and restrooms.
Who was Left Out?
Two groups of park users who didn’t get much space in the final report were Native Hawaiians and the homeless. But both groups had their advocates at the meetings. Native Hawaiians chastised state officials for the mismanagement of their ancestral land and challenged the state’s right to manage it at all. One participant suggested that every park should have its own Hawaiian cultural center.
Some Native Hawaiians were also among those who brought up the issue of one of the park system’s unofficial but ubiquitous uses: the warehousing of the homeless. Park officials admit having little reliable data on the extent of the parks’ underground homeless population – a fact that makes the problem both harder to manage and easier to ignore. But residents fear the problem will get worse, as Kona’s skyrocketing land prices displace more and more of its kama’aina population. The state’s sporadic attempts at removing the homeless from the parks has only driven the problem elsewhere.
“The local people no can pay the price of that little piece of paradise,” one meeting participant testified. ” Most of us, we stay houseless, all down south. We got evicted.”
What Will the Public Get?
State officials also used the meetings to communicate their side to the public. Some of that news was positive: the state, for instance, has finally allocated money to repair Hapuna State Park’s deteriorating restrooms. But officials also complained about scanty resources and pled to the public for help.
“We want you to understand our problems as much as we need to understand yours,” one official told the crowd at the Kona meeting. ” …We are already overwhelmed. We are understaffed.”
Officials also noted that a huge portion of available funds in upcoming years would have to be spent on mandated improvements to the parks’ sewage systems – most park restrooms currently operate with only cesspools – and on ramps and other facilities to bring the parks into compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Given those demands, legislators may be able to deliver on only part of the report’s recommendations voting more money.
“We are 49th [among U.S. states] in the number of people, 45th in budget, and 15th in visitor level,” noted one participant at the Kona meeting. Underfunded state park officials, sharing the burden of all those visitors, can only look in envy at the tens of millions that the Hawai’i Tourism Authority spends each year to advertise Hawai’i tourist attractions, including some of its state parks, putting an even heavier burden on their unraveling infrastructure. That’s one reason, says Evans, why she introduced a resolution calling on the Tourism Authority to work with the DLNR on state park issues.
“They promote Akaka Falls, Hapuna Beach, Punalu’u . . .” she observes. “I wanted them to step in and say why they weren’t at the table talking about it, too.
“ Evans’ resolution died in committee. But some relief has come from a 2002 bill that forces the HTA to spend some of its Transient Accommodations Tax revenues on maintaining the natural environment in areas frequented by visitors, if those revenues rise above $63.292 million. This year, that provision gave the DLNR about $900,000 to spend statewide on parks and trails – including the funding to finally do something about Hapuna Beach’s decrepit restrooms. But the state parks remain poor stepchildren in a system that seems to favor promoting tourist businesses over preserving the natural beauty on that tourists come to see. With only limited funding available, say state officials, parks often suffer from prioritization. One DLNR representative at the Kona meeting noted that if he had to choose between saving an endangered species or repairing a bathroom, the restroom might wait, but the species could be gone forever.
The DLNR is also looking at alternate funding sources, such as privatized campgrounds at Hapuna Beach and Mauna Kea State Park. But the public meetings underscored another important, underutilized resource: volunteerism. Some meeting participants worried about whether a profit-driven concessionaire would have a built-in bias toward maximizing fees and profits and minimizing expenditures on park maintenance. One resident pointed out that the state had tried a concessionaire at Hapuna once before, in the 1980s, but that the park had simply continued to deteriorate.
Given those budget realities, any improvement in the state parks’ current state may depend on how effectively the bureaucracy can implement one of the report’s major demands: to develop better ties with volunteer groups. That obvious conclusion led some meeting participants to wonder why their offers were not followed up on in the past.
“What I thought was a big strong message across the board, is that people love the parks and they’re willing to help out,” Evans believes.
She also thinks that the public meetings accomplished something, if only by giving the state bureaucrats who attended a chance to hear public concerns directly. “It was a good opportunity for them to kind of hear what we’re hearing,” she believes.
State Parks Administrator Quinn failed to respond to repeated requests from the Journal for an interview after the public meetings. But at least some DLNR officials seem to have gotten the message.
“It has to be a community effort,” said Hawai’i Island parks administrator Glenn Taguchi at the Kona meeting. “We can’t leave it to the state to take care of the parks by itself.”