Land Board meets to discuss Mauna Kea access

State officials released Thursday a long list of issues and problems linked to Thirty Meter Telescope protesters ahead of Friday’s state Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting to consider restricting nonvehicular nighttime access to the Mauna Kea summit region.

A proposed emergency rule would restrict access to anyone not traveling in a vehicle on Mauna Kea Access Road from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. The rule would also prohibit camping gear, including blankets and tarpaulins, within 1 mile of the road at any time.

Friday’s 9 a.m. meeting is the Land Board’s regularly scheduled meeting in Conference Room 132 of the Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St.

While state officials have said the emergency rule is designed to promote safe access to the summit and is not necessarily aimed at any one group, the protesters contend the rule is specifically targeted at them and intended to prevent them from blocking construction of the $1.4 billion TMT project near Mauna Kea’s summit on land they consider sacred.

On Thursday the state released three months of activity logs maintained by the University of Hawaii’s Maunakea Visitor Information Station and Office of Mauna Kea Management rangers, along with some highlighted incidents that officials say illustrate the need for the emergency rule.

Incidents recorded at the visitor center include bomb threats, theats of violence against TMT workers, glaring and staring at center staff members, yelling in the visitor gallery, harassing visitors and staff, vandalizing the bathrooms, suspected shoplifting of souvenirs from the gift shop, disrupting center operations, smoking marijuana and blocking the road.

Incidents observed by the Mauna Kea rangers include the illegal construction of shelters and cultural features in the forest reserve near the visitor center, plus the discovery of invasive ants and plant material — including black bamboo, ti leaf plants, a monkeypod tree seed pod and guava sticks — identified as high risk for introduction of invasive species.

According to their logs, rangers also reported hostile and intimidating comments and gestures directed toward observatory workers and visitor center staffers, plus damaged and defaced property. In addition, they reported a drop in the number of commercial tours visiting the summit.

Dan Meisenzahl, UH spokesman, said the hostile incidents are not representative of all the protesters. On several occasions, he said, some of them have helped to defuse some situations.

Leaders of the “protectors,” as they call themselves, maintain that their three-month presence on the mountain has been generally courteous and respectful, required only by the need to prevent desecration of the sacred mountain. They also say the group practices kapu aloha and aloha aina in a tradition of nonviolent protest and respect and integrity for the land.

Mauna Kea Access Road and the Maunakea Visitor Information Station have been closed to the public since a June 24 clash with a TMT work convoy that resulted in 12 arrests.

With the help of rocks and boulders placed on the gravel road above the 9,200-foot level, protesters turned back the TMT work crews ascending the mountain to try to restart construction of what’s expected to be one of the most powerful optical telescopes in the world.