Comm 25-025 re Sugg. 25-06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Comm.25-025 Please provide answers to the following Commission questions by or before July 1, 2025. • What methods are being considered to encourage all visitors to go through the "gateway" before hiking down Ka`awaloa Trail/Road? • What methods could be used to limit the numbers of people/day who are "permitted" to hike down Ka`awaloa Trail/Road from the top of Napo`opo`o Rd.? • Is this being considered: to obtain permission from the County to install a gate at the entrance to the Ka`awaloa Road where it starts at Napo`opo`o Road and to establish a permit system for managing the numbers of people using the trail/road throughout the day? The Ka`awaloa Jeep Trail is under both State and County jurisdiction. Because the trail is unmanaged, the human use statistics are 53,000 annually. However there are 5 entry points to Kealakekua Bay: Ka`awaloa Jeep Trail, Ocean (by boat), Napb'opo`o Warf (by kayak), Manini Beach, and Hikiau Heiau. In total, conservative counts are estiamted at 700,000 visitors annually to Kealakekua Bay. The Kokua Kealakekua property would establish a gateway and hub to manage human use. Our Community Action Plan (CAP) and State Parks both have a goal of implementing healthy human carrying capacity limits to manage trail use. In order to do this we are exploring hollistic and multifacited strategies: o Establish formal partnerships/ co-management agreements with the State and the County. o Gather data critical to determining what the healthy human carrying capapcity limits are for the State Park, including human use and water quality studies. o Collaborate with County law enforcement to ticket cars that are illegally parked along the roadside and highway, as well as ticket hikers who are jaywalking across a very busy and dangerous road. o Partner with the State and County to install a gate at the trailhead to implement hours of operation and trail use. o Partner with the State and County to develop a permit / reservation system for parking and/or trail use, with certain exemptions for Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners and State of Hawaii residents. Currently, the resident count for the trail is less than 1%, and the use of the trail for subsistence gathering and cultural practice is 0% (other than HKN's staff, board, and volunteers). o Develop interpretive and educational signage, programs, and hana lima (work experiences) for visitors to learn, give back, and restore this cultural landscape, and ultimately transform how visitors engage our sacred sites and places. o Develop a by reservation only "Ka`awaloa Visitor Experience" to include cultural guides and trained first responders. o HKN is currently in discussions with State Parks to allow HKN to manage the trail and collect revenues to maintain the trail access, education, outreach, and the broader cultural landscape.