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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, July 18, 2005

Rough riders invading landscape

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui Bureau

Oscar Olguin, 21, rides at the publicly financed Kahuku Motorcross Track. Off-road enthusiasts on Maui are hoping for a similar facility.

Rebecca Breyer | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Tim Dinger, 20, rides at the Kahuku OHV park. Only O'ahu and the Big Island have facilities for off-roaders, but the state is considering ways to find places for the growing number of enthusiasts to ride.
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Jordan Kaneshiro, 9, of Kailua, gears up for a ride at the Kahuku OHV park. A state specialist says a more central site for off-roaders is needed on O'ahu, perhaps on private land.

Rebecca Breyer | The Honolulu Advertiser

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WAILUKU, Maui — As plantation manager for Maui Pineapple Co., Wes Nohara has seen the island's dirt-bike craze take off firsthand, as an increasing number of riders trespass across the company's sprawling network of pineapple-field roads. Some have been so bold as to drive right through the company's Hali'imaile baseyard.

"You try to stop them and they almost run you down," he said.

When Nohara is able to confront the riders and explain that they don't belong on a working farm, the reply is: "We have no place to go."

It's a common refrain among off-roaders across the state, but some help may be on the way. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has launched a formal survey of Maui off-roaders to explore the possible creation of a large off-highway vehicle park. Meanwhile on O'ahu, officials hope to persuade private landowners to open up new areas for a similar OHV venture.

Workshops are being planned on Maui and O'ahu this fall in a move to bring together OHV management experts from the Mainland with government planners, private landowners and local enthusiasts.

An OHV park is a developed, managed recreation facility for people who ride off-road vehicles, which include motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, mountain bicycles and four-wheel-drive trucks. There is a 650-acre OHV park in Kahuku, and another in Waiakea on the Big Island, but Maui and Kaua'i lack any large legal riding areas.

DLNR officials said they're seeing a growing number of off-road vehicles using private and state land illegally. It's a problem that is degrading natural areas, damaging vegetation and increasing soil erosion.

"This is a big issue, and we're just seeing the tip of the iceberg," said Torrie Nohara, state Na Ala Hele trails and access specialist on Maui.

Landowners across Hawai'i report an increasing number of trespassing off-roaders. Large agricultural operations, such as Maui Pineapple Co. and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui, say the motorized marauders are interfering with their farming operations and tearing up crops.

"It's always a concern," said Stephen Holaday, HC&S plantation manager. "We operate a lot of big equipment and there's always the potential for an accident."

Nohara said Maui Pineapple has had to take measures that include putting up more gates and upgrading security.

Off-road enthusiasts say there's a great need for legal places to ride. "We've had a lot of problems with outlaw riding," acknowledged Frank DePonte, president of the Maui Motocross Association. "Bike shops are selling more and more dirt bikes, but there is no place to ride."

The Maui Motocross Association operates a track near Pu'unene, but it offers only limited kinds of riding and it's open only three days a week.

Club officials count 1,200 people as either former or current members, but they say the number of riders on Maui is double that, and most of them are seeking other places to ride.

Kurt Furomoto, owner of Aloha Cycles in Wailuku, founded the Maui Motocross Association in 1999 and since then has seen the number of enthusiasts triple.

"This is long overdue," he said of the proposed OHV park.

O'ahu's OHV park in Kahuku is not enough, said Aaron Lowe, Na Ala Hele trails and access specialist on O'ahu. He said officials are observing lots of renegade off-roading on private and state lands.

A more centralized location is needed for an OHV park, Lowe said, and he hopes to persuade a private landowner to open land to dirt bikes and ATVs and charge admission. Lowe said an October workshop with representatives of the Wisconsin-based National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council could help pave the way by showing how it can work economically.

Maui Pine's Nohara said opening a park on Maui isn't going to eliminate the problem.

"Most of the dirt bikers are younger and I can't see a lot of them loading up the trailer and taking their bikes over to the new park. But it will help," he said.