This week’s Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) protests held at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and at various University of California campuses came as no surprise. In the wake of a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in late October that cleared the way for installation of the $1.4 billion TMT, Mauna Kea’s self-described protectors vowed to continue to resist.

In 2015, some Native Hawaiians and others objecting to construction of another massive structure on what they see as sacred land, staged demonstrations and other acts of resistance on the roadway to the remote Maunakea Science Reserve. Here’s hoping that illegal blockades ending with arrests are now a thing of the past.

Protesters have a right to express their views, of course. On Wednesday, at the University of California, Los Angeles, a Mauna Kea Hui leader testified before the University of California Board of Regents, urging the members to divest in the TMT project. The California university system is one of the partners in the TMT.

TMT’s supporters, meanwhile, applaud the project’s unparalleled opportunity for scientists and students in Hawaii to benefit from the leading edge of astronomy in our own back yard. The giant telescope is slated for the last new site to be developed on Mauna Kea; any future development would occur only on existing sites.

Moving forward, Hawaii stands to draw optimal benefits if the protectors, who helped spotlight legitimate cultural and environmental concerns, work in tandem with the 50-year-old Science Reserve and others to shape a sustainable future for the astronomy precinct, which occupies 525 acres of the 11,288-acre site.