Land at Ka'ena Point reclassified
| • | Map: Ka'ena Point land transfer |
By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer
State officials have taken the first step toward protecting hundreds of acres around Ka'ena Point from off-road recreational vehicles that are damaging the environment in the wilderness area.
A total of 360 acres along the Waialua side of Ka'ena Point were reclassified recently from unencumbered lands — where there are no buildings — to state park reserve, a designation that carries stricter rules and paves the way for a crackdown on off-road vehicles.
"They're doing harm to the dunes and the endangered and threatened species in the area," said Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, a Honolulu environmental watchdog group. "That's because there has been no enforcement out there. Now that land is part of the division of state parks ... the police can go out there and do enforcement."
Victoria Lyman, who has lived near Ka'ena on the Waialua side for 30 years, said off-road vehicle owners favor three locations in the area, and the destruction of vegetation at those sites has left only big trees standing. Lyman said she has counted as many as 50 four-wheel-drive vehicles racing up and down old Army Beach, one of the favored sites, more than once.
"They have turned that into dark, blackish sand because of all the tires and exhaust," Lyman said, adding that the two other areas, consisting of several acres, are just as bad and bare of vegetation.
The areas are used mostly on weekends and are relatively quiet during the week, she said.
"We believe that we can more effectively protect the resources through the state parks rules than the unencumbered land rules," said state parks administrator Dan Quinn of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Quinn said the extreme end of Ka'ena Point falls under the jurisdiction of the DLNR's Natural Area Reserves System, headed by Betsy Gagne, executive secretary of NARS.
Gagne said that part of the island has regenerated well since measures to keep out all vehicles were implemented about a year ago.
"There's a landslide on one side and a boulder barricade on the other," Gagne said. "Stuff is coming back. This year we have 'ohai seedlings, they've banded a number of albatrosses, and we have a shearwater colony. So we must be doing something right."
Quinn said he hopes that by placing vehicle-restriction signs and educating the public, the newly designated area will also begin to regenerate.
Curtis welcomed the change in designation because of the protection it promises, but he was still wary because it moves the land closer to fulfilling a master park development plan mapped out in the 1970s.
"Yes, the gauntlet has been thrown, and it will probably become contentious" if the state tries to turn the area into a developed park, said Curtis, who recently helped wage a successful effort to keep power lines out of Wa'ahila Ridge conservation land. "But they said they didn't have funds now and it's not something they see in the foreseeable future."
Quinn said that even the master plan vision doesn't call for much in the way of development. What will happen someday, he said, is that the Waialua side of Ka'ena Point will be developed similar to what's in place on the Wai'anae side, which has been classified as state park land for years.
Curtis would prefer no development but he'll wage that fight when the time comes. Meanwhile, he wants the state to crack down on off-road vehicles.
"I'd like to see that the fishermen can continue to use the road out, but that the off-road vehicles that are doing real destruction be stopped," he said.
"And I think a couple of high-profile police actions against the off-road people would send a strong message."
Staff writer Eloise Aguiar contributed to this report.
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
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