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A project started two years ago in hopes of “changing the conversation” about the controversial Thirty Meter Telescope has issued a final report that indicates the community favors improved management of Mauna Kea with controls on the amount of traffic and visitors to the summit.
Those are among the findings of a report released last week by EnVision Maunakea, a community-based initiative that sought to gather perspectives about Mauna Kea’s future during 15 listening sessions and in written submissions.
More than 100 Hawaii island residents offered their opinions.
“EnVision Maunakea was created so the different voices from our Hawaii Island community could be expressed in a safe, constructive, judgment-free space,” Susan Maddox of Friends of the Future — Hawaii said in a news release. Friends of the Future spearheaded the community opinion initiative.
Funded by the University of Hawaii and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, the effort was created in the wake of protests that blocked construction of the $1.4 billion next-generation observatory planned as one of the largest and most powerful ground-based telescopes in the world.
The initiative was billed as a way to help ease the tensions that flared across the island from the TMT dispute.
In the end, the results were nuanced. In regard to the TMT and the current observatories, participants did not speak with a single voice, according to the report, except perhaps to recommend “no more.”
“But ‘no more’ sometimes meant ‘no more after the TMT,’ sometimes ‘no more unless others are removed,’ and sometimes it meant ‘no more at all.’ Based on what we heard, we could never answer a question phrased as ‘were the participants for the TMT, or against it?’” the report said.
“Everyone seemed to recognize that the observatory issues were large-scale and very difficult politically, economically and culturally.”
There were some areas of agreement, however, including the belief that the mountain is not being managed as well as it could be. Some participants brought up specific management issues, according to the report, “but generally people just shook their heads and offered us various versions of ‘we need better management up there.’”
Management of Hawaii’s tallest mountain has been a hot topic for some time, with state lawmakers, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim all proposing or working toward new forms of oversight.
Regarding controlling access to the summit, sentiment was overwhelmingly in favor of allowing only four-wheel drive vehicles above the 9,000-foot-level of the Mauna Kea visitors center, and there was general agreement that “some form of private/rental car restriction-plus-shuttle would have to be put in place.”
“Everyone who talked about ways to control access recognized that charging a fee for access might be part of the solution. No one thought it would be easy to plan and implement, though,” the report said. “We think a summary statement of what we heard would be: Something must be done, and soon.”
TMT foe Kealoha Pisciotta, leader of the Mauna Kea Hui, said she declined to participate in EnVision Maunakea, saying the group was trying to manufacture a change in heart regarding the controversial TMT.
“They didn’t succeed,” she said.
The future of the TMT, first proposed for Mauna Kea nearly a decade ago, now likely rests in the hands of the state Supreme Court, which is considering appeals to the project’s sublease and conservation district use permit.
The EnVision Maunakea report is available at the project’s website.
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