Department of Land and Natural Resources

(HONOLULU) – Had it been something other than a sharp fishing knife perhaps the video would have been endearing?  A Hawaiian monk seal pup named Manu‘iwa recently weaned from its mother on a Hawai‘i Island beach.  Staff from Ke Kai Ola, a hospital operated by The Marine Mammal Center at Kailua-Kona and officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE) have been monitoring the pup’s health and growth. 

(HONOLULU) – An estimated 25 people elected to be airlifted out of the Kalalau area of the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park yesterday.  They’d been stranded there since last weekend’s record-breaking rain storm that cut off road access from the trail head back to Hanalei and other Kaua‘i locales. A helicopter pilot who participated in the evacuation operation reports that at least two people decided to stay behind.  Initial reports indicate that the 11-mile-long Kalalau Trail did not experience significant damage, but that can’t be confirmed until a DLNR Division of State Parks maintenance team visits the trail sometime in the next week. It’s not known at this time whether others decided to shelter in place at the designated camping area at Hanakoa or at Hanakapai‘ai at the two mile point, where people can travel without a state permit.

(Volcano, Hawai‘i) –The eleven young ‘Alalā living in the Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve on the Island of Hawai‘i continue to thrive, showing increased natural behaviors, foraging on native plants, and even challenging the occasional ‘Io, or Hawaiian Hawk.  Conservationists are cautiously optimistic about the birds’ continued success in native habitat and are working together with researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo to analyze vocalizations of these rare birds.  Foraging and other social behaviors are also being studied to determine if historically seen activities are increasing now that the group has access to the surroundings in which they evolved.

(KAHULUI, MAUI) – The ‘Ahihi-Kina’u Natural Area Reserve (NAR) on Maui’s south shore will remain closed at least until Monday, April 23, 2018 due to the continued presence of sharks in the popular snorkeling destination.  The NAR has been closed for two weeks, after numerous tiger sharks were spotted, apparently coming close to shore to follow pupping reef sharks.

(LIHUE) – The record-breaking rain storm on Kaua‘i last weekend has resulted in the DLNR Division of State Parks closing the following Garden Island parks:  Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, Ha’ena State Park, Polihale State Park and portions of Wailua River State Park.  Currently there are an estimated 30 campers stranded in the Kalalau section of the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park.  Efforts are underway to contact people who have camping permits to check on their status or to determine whether they made it out of the park safely?

(HILO) - Researchers in Hawaiʻi, working with national and international specialists, have published a paper providing new insight into the origin and development of the tree disease called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD). Scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Hawaiʻi worked with colleagues at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Iowa State to describe two new species of plant pathogenic fungi known to cause ROD. Initially noticed by landowners in Puna in 2010, ROD spread quickly across tens of thousands of acres on the Big Island, killing hundreds of thousands of native ʻōhiʻa trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) in a short time. A plant pathology team led by Dr. Lisa Keith at the ARS laboratory in Hilo went to work collecting and analyzing samples of dead and dying ʻōhiʻa.

(Lihu‘e, Kaua‘i) – Following recent successes in both enforcement and management efforts that have substantially reduced the number of illegal campers, the DLNR Division of State Parks will reinstitute the allowance of additional overnight camping permits for the popular Kalalau Trail, within the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park, Kaua‘i. 

KAHULUI, MAUI --   A large pile of cargo nets and other debris which came ashore approximately two weeks ago at Wai‘anapanapa State Park will be removed tomorrow morning, in a joint effort by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) State Parks and Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) divisions, as well as the County of Maui’s Division of Public Works.

MAKENA, MAUI --  On Thursday morning, April 12, 2018, the DLNR Division of State Parks will be conducting maintenance work at Makena State Park to trim overhanging and hazardous branches in the park. For public safety, the first park entrance (first paved parking lot at the north end) will be closed approximately 5 hours, from 7 a.m. through 12 noon.  All other sections of the park, with the exception of the project area, will remain open. 

(HONOLULU) – Since President’s Day weekend the road system at Ka‘ena State Park has been mostly closed to try and prevent additional resource damage caused by off-road vehicles. The two-mile-long unpaved road is popular with fishermen who use it to access the north shore waters and over the years it’s also been popular with off-road enthusiasts.  “Unfortunately,” explained Curt Cottrell, administrator of the DLNR Division of State Parks, “After we clearly marked and designated the only roads in the park where driving is permissible we’re still experiencing some drivers wanting to go off-road – meaning they are not staying on designated routes which were specifically designated to prevent the common practice known as mud-bogging.”