DEBORAH WARD / DEPARTMENT OF LAND & NATURAL RESOURCES A sign marked the end of the Manoa Falls Trail in February, to keep people away from an area where rocks have fallen in the past.

Manoa trail may
open next week

The Land Board must first
approve safety changes made
to Manoa Falls Trail

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

Manoa Falls Trail, closed three months after a landslide, could reopen as early as Friday if the Board of Land & Natural Resources approves changes intended to make the trail safer.

Gil Coloma-Agaran, chairman of the Department of Land & Natural Resources, said staff will brief the board about the steps taken since a landslide was discovered Jan. 31 and the popular hiking trail closed.

"We'll brief the board on the 9th (Thursday) and tell them we are going to reopen once we get a few things done," Coloma-Agaran said. "Depending on whatever reaction we get from the board, that could be as soon as that weekend."

No one was injured when about 370 cubic yards of rocks and dirt slid to cover an area to the right of Manoa Falls.

Coloma-Agaran said that since then, department workers have built a viewing area that stops hikers short of reaching the falls with boulders and rocks, and warns them of the landslide hazard with signs. They also removed several trees near the falls that were non-native and were deemed to be potential hazards in the future.

If hikers stay in the area marked by the state, they would be outside the area where falling rocks and debris are likely to land if another slide occurred, according to an internal department memo.

Curt Cottrell, manager of the state's Na Ala Hele trails program, said that will mean no more dips in the pool below the falls.

State workers will monitor public compliance with the new limitations. If people violate the barriers or there is a recurrence of a slide, the trail could be closed again.

"State parks and trails are wilderness areas ... not man-made attractions," Coloma-Agaran said. "The trails are as safe as we can make them, with obvious hazards to be marked."

While Manoa Falls will soon be back in the public domain, there are no plans to reopen Sacred Falls, the Windward Oahu state park where eight people were killed and 32 injured by a rockslide on Mother's Day, May 9, 1999.

Coloma-Agaran said that park is closed "for the foreseeable future" and that any move to reopen it will depend on three things: the outcome of pending lawsuits against the state regarding the accident; the wishes of those living in the vicinity of the park; and geologists' concerns about the instability of the area.

After studying Kaluanui Gulch, where Sacred Falls is located, and the adjacent Maakua Gulch, a U.S. Geological Survey team said in August 1999 that both are dangerous and should be permanently closed.