LIHU‘E — In a sharp turn, on Thursday the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Technology stripped away most of the language in a controversial bill originally written to hold authors and publishers of visitor publications liable to readers who
LIHU‘E — In a sharp turn, on Thursday the Senate Committee on Economic Development and Technology stripped away most of the language in a controversial bill originally written to hold authors and publishers of visitor publications liable to readers who suffer injury or death as a result of being enticed to trespass onto private lands.
SB 1207 now has a much different intent. It establishes a task force, attached to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, to identify problem areas in Hawai‘i related to trespassing over privately held or public lands as the result of information published on visitor websites and publications.
The amended bill states that “visitor guide publications may inadvertently invite visitors to trespass on remote or private property to experience an attraction or activity.”
The bill calls for the president of the Senate and House Speaker to form a task force from various parties, including the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, county visitor bureaus, Hawai‘i Cattlemen’s Association, private landowners, visitor guides and the Hawai’i publishing industry.
“I am thrilled that the Senate committee took a good hard look at this bill and saw that the real solution is in engaging the various interested parties rather than attacking them,” said Andrew Doughty, author of The Ultimate Kaua‘i Guidebook.
Doughty, who is also the president of Wizard Publications and wrote several guide books about Hawai‘i, said the previous version of the bill would have unintentionally killed all travel writing about Hawai‘i because of its broad language — including that in newspapers or magazines.
Doughty said Hawai‘i has many places where a travel writer has to figure out if visitors are allowed to go. He said a person on Kaua‘i once put a “road closed” sign on a dusty unpaved road. Doughty said he found out the road was county-owned, and the access was allowed for the general public.
During the senate hearings, Queen’s Bath was repeatedly cited as a trespass issue, according to Doughty. But Queen’s Bath is a legal public shoreline access.
“Even something as supposedly cut-and-dried as Kipu Falls is much more complicated than most people would suspect,” said Doughty, adding that the site has been published in guidebooks since the 1800s.
“It has been in our book for over 16 years, but I heard from the landowner for the very first time only a year ago,” Doughty said.
The next edition of Doughty’s book, to be published later this year, will not reference Kipu Falls anymore. Doughty said he would be happy to help the task force in any way he can.
“There are so many places in Hawai‘i that people think are on public land, but getting to them may actually constitute trespassing,” he said. “And there are lots of places that are posted “no trespassing” where access is perfectly legal. It’s a rat’s nest of access issues and the task force seems the most logical way to untangle it.”
HB 548 is still moving through the Legislature. On Monday it passed with amendments through the Water, Land and Ocean Resources Committee. It had already passed on Feb. 10 the Tourism Committee and second reading. It now has to go through Judiciary Committee.
Go to www.capitol.hawaii.gov for more information.
