LIHU‘E — It is equally refreshing and startling when a state manager declares his team’s supervision of a popular public resource has not been very good. But that’s exactly what Curt Cottrell, state Department of Land and Resources Division of
LIHU‘E — It is equally refreshing and startling when a state
manager declares his team’s supervision of a popular public
resource has not been very good. But that’s exactly what Curt
Cottrell, state Department of Land and Resources Division of State
Parks assistant administrator, said of management of the
world-class resource that is Na Pali Coast State Wilderness
Park.
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of stories about work being done to improve Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park.
LIHU‘E — It is equally refreshing and startling when a state manager declares his team’s supervision of a popular public resource has not been very good.
But that’s exactly what Curt Cottrell, state Department of Land and Resources Division of State Parks assistant administrator, said of management of the world-class resource that is Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park.
“We know our management’s been deplorable,” said Cottrell, adding the current closure of the Kalalau Trail from beyond Hanakapi‘ai Beach to Kalalau Beach and valley through the end of October gives state workers and contractors the chance to, essentially, take back the resource from illegal campers who had been living in the valley and on the beach.
Officers from the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement conducted several sweeps of Kalalau beach and valley since Sept. 7 when the final nine miles of the 11-mile trail were closed to the public to allow for rockfall-mitigation and other work to beef up the trail and remove illegal campers and whittle down goat and pig populations, he said.
“We’re going to make the place better.”
That work has begun already, with surprises for Cottrell in terms of the numbers of illegal campsites and amount of garbage left behind by those who chose to flee instead of being arrested for unpermitted camping, he said.
Some of the unpermitted campers were occupying prime camping sites that permitted campers pay good money for, said Cottrell, adding that 14 different illegal campsites were discovered in the valley, and a like number on the beach.
“It’s deplorable that trash people have left,” including alcohol, blankets, tarps, food, books, clothing and other items indicating long-term residence in the valley and on the beach, he said.
It took workers two days just to collect trash for removal via boat and helicopter, said Cottrell, adding that more, permanent enforcement efforts will be happening once the camping areas re-open to the public on Nov. 1, at which time all available campsites are sold out already.
As a result of the DOCARE sweeps in Kalalau, county beach parks have been filling up with people displaced from Kalalau, he said.
“DOCARE’s taking care of feral people, basically,” while hunters are narrowing populations of wild goats and pigs, he said.
“We don’t want it to re-occur,” he said of illegal camping on the beach and in the valley.
Included in ongoing work is mapping of all campsites with Global-Positioning System technology, with those found to be illegally occupying assigned, paid-for campsites to be arrested, he said.
Balancing the various needs of campers and the long-term sustainability of the environment — portions of the park are natural area reserve and designated as federal critical habitat for endangered species — are fulltime jobs for the skeleton enforcement and maintenance crews, who depend heavily on volunteers especially now that a majority of the trail is closed to the public.
Hunting for goat and pig has been allowed along the trail, something that couldn’t happen if the trail was open to hikers and campers. Ungulates do damage to the trail, water resources and other areas, he said.
The Kalalau camping rates are among the lowest in the country for wilderness camping ($15 per person per night for residents, $20 per person per night for non-residents), and it is the state’s obligation to bring wildlife populations down to raise up the experiences of paying guests, Cottrell said.
“It’s one of the most beautiful ecotourism experiences on earth,” said Cottrell, adding that he is stoked that improvements can be made while the area is closed to the public.
“That’s pretty exciting.”
Meanwhile, rock-scaling experts with a company contracted to do the rockfall-mitigation work have been working in the valley since the early part of this month, with Jim Hobbs of Airborne Aviation flying the workers in on Monday mornings and bringing them out Friday nights.
A few years ago, a huge boulder fell from a cliff near the Ho‘ole‘a Waterfall in Kalalau Valley, crashing through a tent that thankfully was not occupied at the time, Cottrell said.
As a result of that place near the waterfall being designated as a “perpetual danger of rockfall,” it is being closed permanently to camping, he said. It is near the area where a DLNR cabin is located, which is currently occupied by the contractors doing the rockfall-mitigation work, said Cottrell.
• Paul C. Curtis, assistant editor and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.
