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No more
legit tours on
Manoa Falls Trail

'The abusers get to stay,
and the legal guys got to
leave,' says an operator

---

By Treena Shapiro
Star-Bulletin

While others operated illegal tours on the Manoa Falls Trail, John Alford felt he should obey the law and help protect the environment instead of going around new state rules aimed at regulating hiking tours on state trails.

Alford, 39, was one of two commercial vendors who were given permits to take tourists on the popular trail.

But now the state has decided it cannot enforce the regulations and has revoked Alford's permit as of Feb. 15.

That's what he gets for obeying the law, says Alford, who founded Bike Hawaii/Ohana Adventure Tours around the Manoa Falls Trail hike.

"The abusers get to stay, and the legal guys got to leave, and it's a very disappointing thing when you're trying to do business in this state," he said.

At the minimum, Alford says he will lose more than $2,000 in printing costs of color brochures and posters that feature Manoa Falls. "We've got thousands of color brochures that will just be thrown in the trash," he said.

The permits and new regulations on the Manoa Falls Trail went into effect in 1999 in an attempt to protect the trail from overuse.

But the state does not have the resources to enforce the regulations.

"We decided it's just too busy," said Curt Cottrell, manager of the state's Na Ala Hele Trails and Access Program, of the state's decision to end commercial tours on the Manoa Falls Trail.

Eight years ago, the trail averaged less than 30 people a day.

Now the trail sees 100 to 200 people on weekdays and more on weekends, Cottrell said, and an increase in ecotourism companies threatened to increase the traffic by an extra 100 people per day.

Cottrell also noted that the trail does not have bathrooms, and the presence of new side trails and hidden toilet paper have raised concerns about human waste entering the watershed.

Cottrell hopes that eliminating commercial tours completely will make it easier to enforce regulations against unpermitted large groups.

"We're uncomfortable with the walk-ins and illicit operators we haven't caught yet," Cottrell said.

"The only thing we can control at this point is the issuing of permits."

Alford said other state trails that allow commercial tours do not have a waterfall.

He is hoping to find a private landowner willing to let him lead tours on his or her property for a share of the profits.

"Waterfalls are a big seller," he said.

"Visitors probably look at Hawaii as pristine beaches and waterfalls, and they want to see both."

The state is hoping that the revenue it has already collected from commercial vendors will at least allow them to break even on the $47,000 permit system.

Cottrell said he hopes that other tour companies will try to partner with private landowners like Kualoa Ranch rather than use state trails illegally. Otherwise, he fears that ecotourism may leave trails in a degraded condition similar to Hanauma Bay.

"Manoa Falls is the poster child of ecotourism that's kind of going sour a little bit," Cottrell said.

"It's the old adage, 'People will love it to death.'"