New UH Rules = Big Changes on Mauna Kea

[MarkD]

From Civil Beat article: "Big Island: UH’s New Rules Would Bring Big Changes Atop Mauna Kea"

HILO, Hawaii Island – Mauna Kea’s summit could be closed to private vehicles, large religious ceremonies and playing in the snow under rules the University of Hawaii wants to implement on public land it leases atop Hawaii’s tallest mountain.

The restrictions would apply to the hundreds of thousands of people Mauna Kea attracts annually...

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I have questions, and I might be wrong in my suppositions: Isn't the history here that the UH and the astronomers did their science for decades without paying attention to much else on the mountain?

Sure they were irritated by tourists regularly stuck in snow and having other driving mishaps on the one road up the mountain. And maybe tourists knocking on observatory doors asking for this and that. But mostly the astronomers quietly went about their business.

And then some years back complaints arose that the UH wasn't managing the mountain properly. As I recall, the UH was slammed pretty heavily on this. And who did that arise from, primarily? Wasn't it environmentalists? And to a lesser degree, native Hawaiians, in part because they objected to observatories on the mountain?

And big pressure arose on UH for a Mauna Kea Management Plan.

Which, now that it has arrived, apparently is being objected to by the same complainants of UH inaction and indifference on regulating the mountain. Is that about right?

ETA: some of the same complainants

https://www.civilbeat.org/2018/09/big-is...mauna-kea/

[TomK]

This is being discussed in the "Mauna Kea Management report and schedule" thread.

http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=23544

I'd agree that MK was mismanaged and astronomy wasn't the best neighbor a couple of decades ago, but things have changed dramatically since then.

[TomK]

PS - a report from the MK rangers this evening says that one of the porta-potties at the second parking lot near the summit had its supporting ropes cut and the whole thing was pushed over. I doubt astronomers did that and have no idea why someone would choose to do that.

[MarkD]

Seems we're having some duplicate posts today. Just checked Mauna Kea Management, a lot of digression there recently.

People may not be aware this important topic was posted on that thread.

But if discussion doesn't take off here by tomorrow, I'll omit this original post just like I did with the other one so Rob can delete it.

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"I'd agree that MK was mismanaged..."

UH was pretty hands-off on Mauna Kea for many decades. A lot of us did not see that as a problem. The proposed rules are much more of a problem to some of us.

[AaronM]

I've never been a fan of the University being in the business of Land Management especially when we already have a State agency to do just that.

[TomK]

"Seems we're having some duplicate posts today. Just checked Mauna Kea Management, a lot of digression there recently."

HOTPE tried posting a thread about it, but it got hijacked very quickly.

http://www.punaweb.org/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25470

"UH was pretty hands-off on Mauna Kea for many decades. A lot of us did not see that as a problem. The proposed rules are much more of a problem to some of us."

The odd thing is that many of the proposed rules are already in effect but they have made little difference. I agree that if they are actually enforced then this will change access to the mountain significantly, but given the MK rangers have no real enforcement powers, for example, as the rangers in the national parks do, I really don't know where this is going.

[TomK]

"I've never been a fan of the University being in the business of Land Management especially when we already have a State agency to do just that."

I understand why you say that. However, if the management of the science reserve had been given to the DLNR for instance, do you think Mauna Kea would be known as one of the best sites in the world for astronomy? I don't think that would have happened and am not convinced everyone would have unrestricted access to the summit, which is pretty much the case right now.

[TomK]

The latest:

http://bigislandnow.com/2018/10/12/regen...kea-rules/

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any information on what changes are being considered.

[Lolo]

quote:

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Originally posted by TomK

"I've never been a fan of the University being in the business of Land Management especially when we already have a State agency to do just that."

I understand why you say that. However, if the management of the science reserve had been given to the DLNR for instance, do you think Mauna Kea would be known as one of the best sites in the world for astronomy? I don't think that would have happened and am not convinced everyone would have unrestricted access to the summit, which is pretty much the case right now.

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Could always put it under the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. They do a bang up job on everything they touch and the "Protectors" could build anything they wanted.

[TomK]

Sen. Kahele tried to make that happen through some pretty dubious means. Fortunately, he wasn't successful.