Foes of the planned Thirty Meter Telescope on Tuesday vowed to continue blocking construction of the $1.4 billion project despite plans announced by Gov. David Ige to improve the stewardship of Mauna Kea.

Declaring the state in many ways failed the mountain, Ige said Tuesday he would revamp the management of the summit to give culture and natural resources equal footing with science.

Ige, in an afternoon news conference, announced the pending formation of a Mauna Kea Cultural Council to advise the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and asked the University of Hawaii to take numerous actions to improve its stewardship, including decommissioning at least 25 percent of the current telescopes before TMT is operational and returning to the state more than 10,000 acres at the summit not being used for astronomy.

At the same time, the governor reaffirmed the TMT’s right to proceed with construction, saying the project won all the necessary governmental approvals. He said the state would support and enforce TMT’s right to continue work and ensure public safety and the company’s right to use roads.

Those opposing TMT on the mountain and in the courts expressed disappointment.

"We truly believe they have no idea what they are up against … Let it be known that we will protest forever the building of the TMT," Kaho‘okahi Kanuha, leader of the Mauna Kea "protectors," said in a statement.

Kealoha Pisciotta, leader of the Mauna Kea Hui, said: "I’m afraid people aren’t going to accept Ige’s words. If the TMT starts up, he gets to carry the burden of arresting people."

Pisciotta said Ige failed to offer any solutions for what’s happening on the ground.

"I heard a lot of words but not a lot of substance," she said.

Deborah Ward of the Hawaii island chapter of the Sierra Club was also critical.

"We’ve heard all those promises since 2000. Virtually everything he said the university had already committed to, including decommissioning telescopes," Ward said.

"Although the governor said he’s listening, I’m afraid he’s not taken on the full impact of those who don’t want it to proceed," she said.

Construction of the next-generation telescope has remained on hold while protesters camp out at the 9,200-foot level, ready to block work vehicles. Thirty-one protesters were arrested April 2. TMT opponents say Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest mountain, is sacred ground to Native Hawaiians.

Henry Yang, chairman of the TMT International Observatory Board, issued a statement after Ige’s news conference: "We are grateful to Gov. Ige for his leadership and his statement of support for TMT’s right to proceed. We will work with the framework he has put forth."

Yang didn’t offer a timeline for when construction would start again.

"We know we have a lot of work ahead of us," Yang said. "We appreciate that there are still people who are opposed to the project, and we will continue to respectfully listen and work with them to seek solutions. We also want to acknowledge and thank our many supporters on the Big Island and beyond."

Ige said that in recent months he met with the university, TMT officials, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Native Hawaiian lineal and cultural descendants, DLNR officials and individual supporters and opponents of the project. He also visited the summit of Mauna Kea.

"In many ways, we have failed the mountain," he said. "Whether you see it from a cultural perspective or from a natural resource perspective, we have not done right by a very special place and we must act immediately to change that."

The governor said he would inject cultural voices into the summit’s leadership by creating the Mauna Kea Cultural Council "to ensure that all acts from here forward are sensitive to and observant of the host culture."

The council, whose members have yet to be named, will review all leases and lease renewals and proposed rules, especially those relating to access, he said. It will also look at environmental and cultural documents, decommissioning plans and consider leasing portions of the mountain to cultural groups, among other things, he said.

Ige called on the university, which subleases the summit area from the state, to take 10 significant actions to improve stewardship with the TMT in mind:

» Accept responsibility to do a better job in the future.

» Formally and legally bind itself to the commitment that this is the last area on the mountain where a telescope project will be contemplated or sought.

» Decommission beginning this year as many telescopes as possible with at least 25 percent of all telescopes gone by the time TMT is ready for operation in the 2020s.

» Restart the environmental impact statement process for the university’s lease extension and conduct a full cultural impact assessment as part of that process.

» Significantly limit non­cultural access to the mountain.

» Require cultural training for anyone going to the summit.

» Substantially reduce the length of its request for a lease extension. (UH is asking for a 65-year lease.)

» Voluntarily return to full DLNR jurisdiction all lands — more than 10,000 acres — not specifically needed for astronomy.

» Ensure full use of its scheduled telescope time.

» Revisit the issue of lease payments by existing telescopes now, as well as requiring it in the new lease.

UH President David Lassner met with reporters after the governor’s news conference, but he had few details about how the university would respond to Ige’s requests.

Lassner, however, conceded that "the university can and must do better" and added: "We apologize for where our efforts have fallen short to date."

Kanuha, one of the 31 protesters arrested in early April, said the state should also accept its own responsibility to do a better job, "and this begins with stopping any further development and desecration" of the mountain.

In addition, Kanuha criticized the creation of yet another advisory council, saying there’s already one advising the university’s Office of Mauna Kea Management and its advice usually isn’t heard or followed. He called on the Native Hawaiian community to boycott the new council.

At his news conference, Ige also asked the TMT team to increase its support for Native Hawaiian students interested in science and technology through admission to and scholarships at its own or partner institutions with first priority given to students on Hawaii island and then to students statewide.

The TMT has already committed $1 million annually to an education fund and agreed to eventually pay $1 million in lease payments, with 80 percent going to mountain stewardship and 20 percent to OHA.

The 18-story TMT — to be operated by TMT International LLC with partners that include universities and astronomy institutions in the United States, India, China, Japan and Canada — is expected to be the most powerful optical telescope in the world, capable of seeing more than 13 billion light-years away.

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CLARIFICATION: Gov. David Ige’s called on the University of Hawaii to take 10 specific actions regarding stewardship of Mauna Kea, including that UH “must formally and legally bind itself to the commitment that this is the last area on the mountain where a telescope project will be contemplated or sought.” A Page A1 story Wednesday abbreviated that demand to say the UH must formally and legally commit to TMT being the last telescope project. However, representatives of the Thirty Meter Telescope say that Ige’s demand does not preclude upgrades to existing telescopes.