(Hāʻena State Park, Kaua‘i) – One morning, in late June, a Kaua‘i Police Department officer wrote 25 parking tickets before grabbing another ticket book to write another 25. He was one of two officers ticketing car after car on this day. Rental cars had lined both sides of Kūhiō Highway adjacent to the Hāʻena Beach County Park and those ticketed get tabbed with $235 fines. Parking enforcement is one of the tools being utilized to achieve the goals of the master plan for neighboring Hāʻena State Park (HSP). More importantly, is a new adaptive management structure which incorporates community involvement as its core.
State Parks
(Hilo) – The DLNR Division of State Parks, Wailoa River State Recreation Area will be closed temporarily from Thursday July 22nd through Saturday July 24th as dry wells are being installed to prevent flooding in the parking lot. In addition, a water bottle filing station will be installed and portions of the main entry roadway that have deteriorated over time will be repaved.
(HONOLULU) – A hand painted, canvass banner, put up on the mauka slopes of Diamond Head crater was successfully removed by a DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources (DOCARE) officer this morning. Area residents had contacted the media to complain about the “eyesore” that could be seen high on the steep slopes of the crater facing toward the Ala Wai canal.
(KAILUA-KONA) — Several West Hawai'i state parks will experience early closures on Independence Day. The DLNR Division of State Parks will close the following parks at 5:00 pm on Sunday, July 4:
(LĪHU‘E) — The annual plum harvest begins Saturday, July 3 at Kōke‘e State Park on Kaua‘i. Harvesting permits are free and available at the park’s headquarters. These permits must be completed and returned to the headquarters’ drop-box after harvesting. Plum picking is permitted daily between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. in designated areas.
(HONOLULU) – Twenty years in the making, the Hāʻena communities’ efforts to fully participate in the protection and management of Hāʻena State Park took another evolutionary step today. The Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) approved a one-year revocable permit (RP) for the non-profit Hui Maka’āinana o Makana to oversee and manage a Park reservation system, including collecting both parking and entry fees as well as an integrated shuttle system that will reduce the number of cars that enter the Park each day. The hui will also manage the cultural landscape of the park.
(Kailua-Kona) - “It is very sad to see this damage,” DLNR Division of State Parks (DSP) Archeologist, Tracy Tam Sing said after seeing a historic door and window at Hulihe‘e Palace vandalized last month. On June 1, 27-year-old Charleigh Flournoy of Kailua-Kona, allegedly broke into the historic palace by shattering a lanai window located on the lower makai side.
(Hāpuna Beach State Recreation Area, Hawai‘i Island) – The designation of Hāpuna Beach as the top-rated beach in the U.S., by Stephen Leatherman (aka Dr. Beach), highlights the continuing paradox of protecting the features that make it #1 while sharing it with ever-increasing throngs of visitors. This was Dr. Beach’s 30th annual ranking of best beaches.
(HONOLULU) – The upcoming holiday weekend could see the largest post-pandemic number of locals and visitors using state parks, trails, and taking to the water. Numerous DLNR divisions, responsible for management of public facilities and locales, are gearing up for big crowds in popular parks and on heavily used trails and recreating on beaches and in the ocean.
(KAILUA-KONA) – Two, half-day closures on May 28 and 29 at Waialea Bay Marine Life Conservation District (MLCD), will allow corals to spawn and produce new keiki. The beach at Waialea is known locally as Beach 69 and the 35-acre bay is one of eleven MLCDs in Hawai‘i, which enjoy the highest level of protection for their invaluable marine resources.