Napali Coast park needs better oversight, state officials say

Eleven people were arrested in Napali Coast State Wilderness Park this week, bringing the number of people busted on the Kalalau Trail for illegally entering the park to 28 this month and more than 200 over the past two years.

In a news conference Friday, officials with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources described a raft of illegal activity in the state’s largest and most remote park and emphasized the need for permanent staff members to help control it.

“We have to have people present on a continuous basis to keep down this illegal and improper behavior in the park,” DLNR Director Suzanne Case said.

During a three-day enforcement operation this week, officers discovered at least 12 squatter camps, broke up elaborate mar- ijuana-growing operations and confiscated a crossbow and a number of illegal items.

One 20-year-old man who could not produce identification was handcuffed and flown via helicopter to the Kauai Police Department for booking.

“It was a real eye-opener for me,” said Robert Farrell, who was named chief of DLNR’s Division of Conservation and Resource Enforcement four months ago. “I got a firsthand, close-up look at the challenges we face in enforcing and managing the valuable natural and cultural resources back there.”

Farrell said one camp even featured some of the comforts of home, including a pizza oven, a queen-size bed, an alcohol still and a system of solar- and battery-powered lights for marijuana growing.

Officers collected 30 marijuana plants and identified other patches for future destruction.

“The earth is scarred from some of these fires and clearings that these guys make,” Farrell said.

Curt Cottrell, administrator of the State Parks Division, said outlaw marijuana growers are modifying both heiau and taro patches to create water diversions for growing their plants.

“The damage to both the heiau and (archaeological) sites is just as disturbing as the environmental damage,” Cottrell said. “The problem is we just don’t have the staff to map, monitor and really record where all these features are. So that’s another issue we need to grapple with. We need to protect our historic culture in Kalalau Valley.”

Once home to a thriving population of ancient Hawaiians, Kalalau Valley is now remote and rugged, with an 11-mile trail that is traveled each year by thousands of residents and tourists alike. The trail is the only access by land to the Na Pali coastline, from Haena to Kalalau, and it passes through five major valleys before ending at Kalalau Beach.

The trail is notorious for being dangerous to people unprepared for its length, steep cliffs, stream crossings and unpredictable weather. A permit is required of anyone who travels past the trail’s 2-mile marker.

Cottrell said social media has been both a curse and godsend for officials trying to deal with illegal activity such as pot growing.

Internet postings have encouraged illicit activity, he said. “But now we’re getting positive support,” with people condemning the illegal activity and urging more law enforcement, he said. Pictures and videos have also helped officials to locate the encampments.

Case said that while the remote park has been plagued by illegal activity over the years, the department is committed to restoring it to wilderness.

She said enforcement and cleanup operations will continue. However, she added, a more cost-effective way to keep a check on the problem is assigning dedicated, full-time park staff to provide education, outreach, emergency response and law enforcement notification.

The DLNR asked this year’s state Legislature for six positions for the park (about $300,000 a year) before lowering its expectations to two (less than $100,000), but none were funded. Case said her department would ask lawmakers for the funds again next year.

Cottrell said state parks across the islands are in desperate need of more funding to keep up with growing tourist use.

”People are coming here from all over the world,” he said. “We need a bigger cut of the tourism pie. Tourism is up, but we don’t get incremental increases to respond to tourism — ever. That’s the biggest disconnect. We promote, promote, promote, but we don’t reinvest in both enforcement and parks and forestry staffing to deal with the impacts of these increased numbers.“

Farrell, a former assistant chief with the California Department of Fish and Game, said this week’s enforcement effort reminded him of some of the illegal marijuana operations he worked on in the Golden State.

“It was a bit of deja vu for me,” he said.