(Honolulu) – The final stage of work to remove rockfall hazards along the exterior and interior slopes of the iconic Diamond Head State Monument will begin September 18, 2017. This phase will focus on the summit hiking trail, and is expected to be completed by early December 2017.
State Parks
‘Iao Valley State Monument will reopen on Saturday, August 5, 2017, at 7:00 a.m., The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is in the process of completing repairs to the areas in the park that were damaged by a massive flood event in September 2016. Due to pending permit approvals to complete the project, the DLNR Division of State Parks, decided to re-open the park for residents and visitors during the hiatus of construction activity. It’s anticipated construction will resume sometime this fall after permits are approved.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is seeking community input on a proposed light industrial and commercial business park at Pulehunui in central Maui. A public meeting will be held on Wednesday, August 16 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at Kihei Community Center at 303 E. Lipoa St. in Kihei to provide more information on the proposed project and invite feedback from the community.
Volunteers are invited to participate in a community workday and free fun activities to help restore the natural ecosystem of three anchialine pools in the Mahai‘ula section of Kekaha Kai State Park on Saturday, July 29. A beach cleanup is also part of the day’s events.
Since the first of this year, DLNR Division of State Parks maintenance staff on Kaua‘i have gathered, bagged, and airlifted 10.92 tons of rubbish from the Kalalau section of the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park. At least monthly, regular clean-up operations, have resulted in between 520 pounds and 2380 pounds of trash and waste being airlifted by helicopter out of the area. During some months maintenance crews conducted two-to-four operations.
‘Iao Valley State Monument is now not expected to reopen until early August 2017, as the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) continues work to complete repairs to make the park safe for public visitation following major flooding and damage in late 2016. It remains closed until further notice for public safety reasons.
A three day operation last week in the Kalalau section of Kauai’s Napali Coast State Wilderness Park resulted in additional arrests and the dismantling of large, illegal camps in Kalalau Valley.
The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) will open this year’s season for plum harvesting at Koke‘e State Park, Kaua‘i on Saturday, July 1. Permits are required to harvest plums at Koke‘e. They will be available starting on July 1 at the Koke‘e Museum – daily from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or at the State Parks office in Lihu‘e weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Work to restore the Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park to its true wilderness character continued during a three-day law enforcement operation this week. A dozen officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) and the Dept. of Public Safety’s Sheriff Division arrested eleven people for being in a closed area without a permit in the Kalalau area of the park. A twenty-year-old man, who could not produce an identification, was handcuffed and flown out of the park and booked on charges at the Kaua‘i Police Department. So far in May, a total of 28 people have been arrested for failing to have the permit required for traveling past the two-mile marker on the famed Kalalau Trail. During law enforcement efforts over the past two years more than 200 people have been arrested.
State and county wildfire fighting crews today continued to work to establish a control perimeter around a fire that is burning between the 800 to 1,500-foot elevation at the western edge of Waimea Canyon, amid grassland and haole koa shrubs.