Audubon center at Waimea proposed
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
If the National Audubon Society wins the city's permission to manage the 1,875-acre Waimea Valley, it plans to restore the preserve in a way that would allow one to visit the falls without getting on a tram or walking on asphalt.
Advertiser library photo • March 16, 2002
The group also sees a proposed Waimea Valley Audubon Center operating successfully with fewer than 100,000 visitors a year at admission prices less than half of what is being charged now.
Areas of the Waimea Valley Falls Park such as Kamananui Stream and Secret Pond would be restored as closely as possible to a pristine state under a management plan proposed by the Audubon Society.
Diana King, the society's project director for a proposed Waimea Valley Audubon Center, yesterday outlined in an interview the society's hopes for the valley which the city bought out of a private owner's bankruptcy last February.
The society's plan envisions no money passing between it and the city, she said. The city would own the park, and the society would run it, paying its costs from admissions, an endowment fund to be established for the park, and grants and other money available to nonprofit organizations.
The city, which deposited $5.1 million in escrow to acquire the land in a condemnation process, has indicated it hopes to choose a management organization for the valley by the end of the year.
The park is being run today by Waimea Management LLC, under the direction of Ray Greene, who managed it for East Coast developer Christian Wolffer before Wolffer put the park land in bankruptcy court to protect it from foreclosure.
Waimea Management LLC is the other major competitor for the management contract. A company official declined comment yesterday, referring questions to Greene, who was out of town.
A third organization, Volume Services of America, expressed interest in the contract earlier, and King said Audubon Society would like to work with Volume Services if Audubon takes over as manager of the valley.
One issue is how well competing proposals would fit into the "Waimea Falls Park Community Master Plan" completed last year for the city after a long series of North Shore public meetings.
The society is interested in protecting the entire environment, and has launched a plan to develop a thousand Audubon Centers around the country in the next two decades, many of them in urban settings and others in places not now easily accessible or safe for visitors, she said.
Diane Anderson, past president and adviser to the North Shore Outdoor Circle, said her organization was interested in the Audubon Society proposal because the Outdoor Circle is primarily interested in the preservation and interpretation of the valley's "rich historical and botanical resources."
"The history of the National Audubon Society demonstrates that is their mission as well, and it seems right in line with what we hoping."
She said Greene and his organization had declined an invitation to outline its plan, on grounds that the bidding process was supposed to be private.
Scott Foster, communications director for the Stewards of Waimea Valley group and a critic of the past operation of the park, said yesterday he was not privy to all the details, but was "very supportive of the National Audubon Society's proposal" because "Audubon is being very conservative in their fiscal approach."
He said he understood that Audubon wants to provide access to the valley to as many people as possible at the lowest cost, consistent with restoring and protecting "both the Waimea Valley Arboretum and the badly deteriorated historical and cultural sites.
"They are also very aware of and interested in the many other as yet unexplored archaeological sites," Foster said. He said he understands Audubon has contacted numerous local experts to call on if they get the contract.
King said she will elaborate on the society's vision for Waimea Valley in person for the North Shore community in a public presentation from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. tomorrow at the City and County of Honolulu Surf Center at Hale'iwa Ali'i Beach Park.
King will speak at the invitation of the North Shore Outdoor Circle, which is sponsoring the informational meeting.
She said she accepted the Outdoor Circle's invitation because she wants to dispel the stereotype image of the Audubon Society "being made up of 60-year-old women in funny hats staring into the bushes and saying, 'Oh, there's a meadow lark.'"
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
