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View Point
Hawaii's state parks are in serious need of investment, increased management and protection. Although we continue to welcome visitors to experience Hawaii's natural beauty, programs to protect our wilderness areas, including our parks, are often relegated to the lowest tier of funding priorities, and are among the first to be cut or restricted during budget negotiations. Parks aren’t
neglected,
just popularOur parks and park facilities aren't suffering from neglect. They are suffering from being too popular.
The lands within Hawaii's 26,800-acre state park system include some of the most breathtaking and spectacular natural areas in Hawaii. Because of their incredible beauty, many parks like Kokee, Na Pali and Polihale on Kauai are some of our most visited destinations for travelers seeking a nature experience.
But many of these fragile places are on the verge of being loved to death because they simply can't handle the increasing traffic.
Combined with severe staffing shortages, diminished funding for maintenance and the inability to control the number of visitors, Hawaii is left with a system currently unable to effectively protect resources or provide a high-quality experience for park users.
It's undeniable that Hawaii's state parks need help. They are underdeveloped and in disrepair, but not because the Department of Land and Natural Resources wants to manage them that way. We simply don't have the funds to handle the load.
Along with high visitor traffic, resident use of our parks is also on the rise. Loss of natural areas to development statewide is also putting more pressure on public parks, trails, beaches and forests.
More critically, there isn't the commitment, investment or political will in our community-at-large to ask tough questions about whether natural areas should be made available for such high use and, if so, who should share in the responsibility to pay for the upkeep and protection of these places.
Another truth is that DLNR isn't and hasn't been getting the support it needs. It doesn't receive a mere 3 percent of the state's budget, as a recent article suggested. We receive even less -- a mere 1 percent.
Overall, Hawaii ranks 48th in the country in fish and wildlife spending -- a startling statistic for a place that markets itself as a scenic, tropical paradise.
The visitor industry is having a significant impact on our land and sea. At some parks as many as 95 percent of users are visitors to Hawaii. Yet DLNR continues to be blamed for why our parks are in disarray.
Hawaii isn't alone in its struggle. With eco-tourism on the rise, state parks across the country are attracting record crowds and are struggling to find ways to accommodate the traffic. Some states have been successful in finding new funds. Others have had to shut down entire parks.
Given the reality of inadequate funding but increasing use, my department is faced with the choice of either finding ways to raise revenues through user fees or restricting visitation to these places because we don't have the money for their upkeep. Both options face significant opposition and neither is optimal.
At DLNR, our job is to take care of the resources first, then offer them up to public access and commercial use if and when appropriate. It's our responsibility to determine acceptable levels of use of our natural areas and to manage them accordingly, but we need the funding and public support to do so.
And we need the visitor industry to share the responsibility of protecting the places it markets to our visitors.
Timothy E. Johns is chairman of the state
Department of Land and Natural Resources.