Posted on: Sunday, April 15, 2001

Opening Sacred Falls still an option

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser WIndward Bureau

Nearly two years after tons of rock plunged 600 feet to the bottom of Sacred Falls, killing eight people in the worst wilderness accident in modern Hawai'i history, the state has quietly begun community meetings aimed at helping to decide the future of the popular hiking trail.

Among the options likely to be discussed will be opening the falls to visitors again, according to Dan Quinn, acting administrator for state parks.

The park, nearly 1,376 acres, has been closed since the May 9, 1999, landslide that also injured about 50 people.

The goal of the community meetings is to update the park's master plan, said Quinn, with the Department of Land and Natural Resources. The original plan was written in 1978.

"I feel strongly that any future direction of the park will require considerable input from the community," Quinn said. "This is a way to get that input, to formulate a concept for the future of the area."

The park's future will depend on the contents of the master plan, but the final decision about whether the falls is opened to hikers will be made at a higher level, Quinn said.

"We have to complete the planning process and consider financial, political, social and economic factors," Quinn said. "The decision itself will be made at a policy-making level."

The 90-foot waterfall is at the end of a 2.2-mile trail that gently ascends a lush canyon, ending at a waterfall and swimming hole. The canyon becomes narrower as the trail rises and in some places the canyon walls are 1,600 feet high. About 55,000 people a year went there before the landslide.

Initially the state met with the Ko'olauloa Hawaiian Civic Club, which had taken the lead to involve the community in forming the original 1978 plan. Recently the state invited representatives from other organizations to participate in the advisory group.

Although the meetings are open to the public, Quinn said he hopes to keep the size of the advisory group at a manageable level.

About 25 people attended the April 4 meeting in Hau'ula, said Janine Tannehill of the Hau'ula Community Association.

Representatives from the civic club, the Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board and a hiking group also participated.

With litigation concerning the 1999 rockslide still pending and memory of the tragedy still painful to survivors and relatives of the dead, the group wants to be sensitive to all concerned, Tannehill said.

"We don't want to make any pilikia," she said. "We want to show respect to people who lost their loved ones."

Those attending the meeting were given a copy of the 1978 plan for the park and asked to review it as a starting point. Eventually the group will form its own proposals, but Tannehill said she suspects they will be similar to what's in the plan now.

The original vision and goals for the park call for protecting the environment, scenic valley and stream; preserving and enhancing the trails; retaining the scenic value; and providing nonurban recreational and educational opportunities.

Hiking the falls trail isn't the only opportunity for recreation in the park; camping and other activities are also possible there, Tannehill said.

"We're not sure where it's going to be headed," she said. "I used to go up there all the time, and I really miss that."

Creighton Mattoon, a Ko'olauloa Neighborhood Board member who attended the meeting, said the advisory group will meet monthly and he expects the process to be lengthy. Some of the issues include historical preservation, cultural preservation and education, Mattoon said.