The press release didn’t say, “FINALLY!” but if it had, the emphatic exclamation would have been warranted.
After 20 years of trying to get a handle on the hordes of people cramming themselves into Kauai’s beautiful Haena, the Board of Land and Natural Resources last week got a big step closer to the finish line.
The BLNR recommended that Gov. David Ige accept the environmental impact statement for a master plan that has been built by many stakeholders over the past two decades.
The plan is remarkable in a number of ways.
It is the first time the State Parks Division is attempting to actually reduce the number of people using the park, initially setting a limit of 900 people a day. While 900 people winding their way through Hanalei, Wainiha and finally Haena every day still seems like way too many people, consider that the estimate, before the April flooding on Kauai, was 2,000 people a day descending on Haena. It’s madness, with cars blocking the turnaround, cars parked in crazy angles along the narrow road, people walking on the road between moving cars.
DLNR State Parks Division Assistant Administrator Alan Carpenter was quoted in the press release as saying, “The most significant proposal in the draft master plan is to initially limit the number of park visitors. This is a major paradigm shift in Hawai‘i State Parks management.”
That 900 limit would include day hikers on the Kalalau Trail but not permitted campers or hunters, cemetery caretakers, kupuna and cultural practitioners who have ancestral ties to the area.
The concept of limiting visitors to a state park shouldn’t be so novel and progressive, yet it is. Over the decades, Hawaii’s tourism industry has consistently won in battles of ecology, conservation, even practicality. But here, with this plan for Haena, other things besides tourists’ expectations are considered.
The executive summary of the master plan for Haena reads, “The plan has gone through many iterations over the years and at the heart of it is the desire of the community to protect the wahi pana and wahi kapu (culturally significant areas) of Haena, along with its natural and scenic resources for generations to come.”
To be sure, the visitor experience plays a significant role. The plan includes interpretive signage, new bathrooms and a parking lot for shuttle vans.
But still, it’s a compromise in a struggle between tourists and locals, tourists and beaches, and tourists and nature that hasn’t seen many compromises over the years.
The plan goes as far as to suggest that offering a daily visitor limit might encourage visitors to “plan ahead and gain a better understanding of the park’s varied resources prior to arrival.”
When tourists are Googling what to do on Kauai or scrolling through beach and hiking photos of Haena, nobody ever tells them to plan ahead and manage their expectations. Maybe residents can hope for less insanity at what used to be the lonely, lovely end of the road.
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
