State wants to keep traffic off La Perouse area trail

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

KAHULUI, Maui — The state is proposing to block traffic in the La Perouse Bay area to protect and stabilize archaeological sites in the area.

The "emergency measures'' and a community-based plan to stabilize the ancient sites in the 65-acre Keone'o'io Archaeological District will be discussed at a meeting at 6 p.m. Dec. 5, in the Maui Waena Intermediate School cafeteria.

The measures, developed by a citizens group, call for closing the La Perouse area Dec. 10-11 while volunteer contractors place boulders at the end of the parking lot and beside the jeep trail to the lighthouse.

The aim is to barricade both ends of the loop trail, where four-wheel-drive vehicles are destroying archaeological sites, and to ease the way for volunteers to begin stabilizing the most badly damaged sites.

The rugged region on Maui's southern coast contains the remains of settlements that date back to 1100 and is the place where French explorer Jean Francois Galaup, Comte de la Perouse, became the first European to set foot on Maui in 1786.

The archaeological district begins at the entrance to La Perouse Bay, lying partly on land owned by the state and extending to the lighthouse at Cape Hanamanioa. The area was placed on the Hawai'i Register of Historic Places in 1988 and is considered eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.

National Park officials, as directed by Congress, recently visited the area to study its potential for inclusion to the federal park system.

The nonprofit group Maui Malama Pono formed the Working Group for Keone'o'io-Kanaloa this year with help from a federal conservation program and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

With members that included neighboring landowners, Hawaiian traditional practitioners, kama'aina families, tourism officials, archaeologists, Friends of Keone'o'io, fishermen and commercial kayak tour operators, the group met five times to discuss concerns and develop emergency measures.

According to the plan, an Americorps team sponsored by Maui's Community Work Day Program will remove rock graffiti, and the land department will provide informational signs.

Future plans include cleaning up fishing sites and outdoor latrine' areas over the next year through partnerships between community groups and government agencies.