KULA, Maui >> The rare snow that fell at Haleakala National Park over the weekend was mostly melted by yesterday, but park service officials say the damage to rare plants atop the dormant Maui volcano will take some time to heal. Haleakala snow trek
damages rare plantsCrowds trampled the plants
on their way to the rare snowfall,
park officials sayAssociated Press
About 3,000 people headed to the Haleakala summit to play in the snow, which had not fallen in about 10 years, on Sunday and Monday.
The park closed Saturday because of snowy road conditions and a power outage.
"We had a lot of families up here," said Mike Ing, supervisory ranger at Haleakala National Park.
But crowds caused environmental damage to the rare plants and insects atop the volcano when they traveled off roads and trails to get near the snow, which wasn't accessible Monday, park service officials said.
"We got trashed," Ing said. "People were wandering and driving all over the place. We spent all our time doing traffic control."
A weather system that blew over Hawaii over the weekend brought the wintry conditions to the 10,023-foot Haleakala crater and to the 13,000-foot slopes of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island.
But while the volcanoes on the Big Island are accustomed to periodic snowfall, Haleakala, which is a national park, is not.
Park spokeswoman Jennifer Talken-Spaulding said one of the things that sets Haleakala apart from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa is the alpine environment ecosystem.
"There are a lot of specialized plant and animal systems that don't grow anywhere else in the world," she said.
The National Park Service provides trails for visitors to walk on to view the plants and animals at the summit. Visitors are not allowed off those trails, she said.
"This weekend, we had a lot of people off trail," she said. "We had people trying to go sledding, but there really wasn't enough snow, they were skidding over the rocks."
There were no injuries reported over the weekend, but several park staff observed that several threatened Haleakala silversword plants had been stepped on or broken, Talken-Spaulding said.
Yesterday, there were footprints and sled marks on the hills, she said.
"When you have damage like what we had damage over the weekend, it doesn't just recover overnight. It takes a long time for the resources to come back," she said.
"It's pretty disheartening because we want people to enjoy the park, to enjoy this unique experience."
According to a report by the U.S. Interior Department National Biological Service, the Haleakala silversword was near extinction in the 1920s because of vandalism by people, goats and cattle. But conservation measures have protected the plant and allowed it to increase, the report said.
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