An ecological treasure and engineering feat may soon be lost to history, and that would be a real shame.
The Board of Water Supply should not move ahead with a plan that could result in dismantling the Haiku Stairs. Instead, the agency should allow more time for the success of an ongoing effort to transfer control of the hiking attraction to an entity willing and able to manage it.
The time alloted to achieve that aim should not be unlimited, of course, especially with the site, popularly known as the "Stairway to Heaven," officially closed but continuing to attract hardy adventurers to its sweeping views of the Koolau mountain range, who access the trail in darkness and from sometimes risky vantage points to elude security guards.
Such misguided excursions are to be strongly discouraged. Besides violating the law, risking their own safety and burdening taxpayers with occasional (and costly) rescues, the trespassers only intensify calls in some quarters for authorities to swiftly rip out the 3,992 stairsteps, which stretch about two miles and climb some 2,200 feet.
During the last seven months of 2014, police cited more than 135 people for trespassing, arrested six and warned 100. These offenders, nature enthusiasts though they may be, are not helping the cause. The fact that Haiku Stairs is closed for now should be respected, with all energy directed toward supporting efforts to find a government agency, or even a viable nonprofit partner, able to manage the overall site, and provide a parking area and an access point that prevents visitors from disrupting the surrounding residential neighborhood.
Achieving this goal should be feasible — it was the clear intent of Haiku Stairs renewal efforts in the early 2000s and the recommendation of an advisory panel last October. Reopening the repaired stairs under the right circumstances would enhance the recreational opportunities on Oahu, where residents and visitors are hungry to explore new terrain. The site could even end up making money, if a reasonable entry or parking fee were charged, as at Hanauma Bay. If financial considerations are a barrier to the city finding a reliable partner, such entry or parking fees should be considered.
The Haiku Stairs were built in the 1940s to reach a Navy tower. The original wooden stairs were replaced with galvanized metal ones in the 1950s. Over the years, ownership changed and the site fell into disrepair; broad access was halted in 1987.
The city paid nearly $900,000 to repair the stairs in the early 2000s, with the intent of reopening the site. But jurisdictional issues bogged down the effort. Honolulu City Councilman Ikaika Anderson has been leading the recent effort to reopen the site and restore broad access, but he rightly warns that time is running out.
The Board of Water Supply, the current overseer, proposes allotting $500,000 of its annual budget, which begins in July, on an environmental assessment that would study the cost of removal as well as other issues. The agency also is open, however, to transferring control of the site to a government agency willing to manage it as an attraction.
"We’re certainly reaching the end of the road. We don’t have years to get this done. We’ve got months at best," Anderson said last week.
Even if the Board of Water Supply proceeds as scheduled with the proposed environmental assessment, the actual removal of the stairs is at least a few years away. But Anderson has said he will cease his revival efforts if the BWS spends money toward an opposite outcome.
Dismantling the stairs would be a very costly project. The recent task force that recommended the site be reopened estimated it would cost $4 million to $5 million to remove the stairs. Even if the BWS study comes in with a much lower estimate, the cost is likely to pose an undue burden, far above the annual cost of hiring guards to enforce the no-trespassing ban.
This price tag might buy proponents of opening the trail more time, but only if the errant hikers pitch in, too.
Oahu residents and visitors, stop trespassing on Haiku Stairs. Your incursions may only hasten the demise of a site you profess to cherish.
