MAUNA KEA VISITOR INFORMATION STATION
The University of Hawaii's Office of Mauna Kea Management seeks public comment on possible limits to summit access.
Sierra Club opposes HILO >> The state chapter of the Sierra Club is urging residents to oppose any restrictions on access to the summit of Mauna Kea.
curtailed access
to Mauna Kea
By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.comThe University of Hawaii's Office of Mauna Kea Management recently mailed a questionnaire that seeks public comment on possible limits on access, including limiting private vehicles, charging an entry fee, or establishing a gate at the mid-level of the mountain.
Seven of the 12 questions propose limits.
Responding to the Sierra Club statement, Mauna Kea Management director Bill Stormont said, "That's the kind of stuff we want to hear."
Such comments will be used to write administrative rules for public use of the mountain, Stormont said. Adoption of those rules is at least a year away, and will not be done until additional public comment is taken, he said. The University of Hawaii Board of Regents will make the final decision.
"It's not a matter of tallying votes (from the questionnaire). It helps us begin to understand what the community is thinking," Stormont said.
The Sierra Club was thinking that it had heard the call for restrictions before.
"University and astronomy officials have long argued that the major cause of the mountain's environmental and cultural damage is 'unlimited public access to the summit,' a position reiterated in the survey," the Sierra Club statement said.
And the questionnaire states, "Experience indicates that the key to effective management of (summit) areas is to resolve the question of unlimited access to the summit."
The Sierra Club has long accused observatory construction of creating trash and damaging insect habitat.
"The university still won't acknowledge the major causes of environmental and cultural damage are the industrialization and commercialization of the summit -- not island residents driving up with their families," said Sierra Club spokesman Nelson Ho.
But one question does ask for opinions on limits on commercial tour vehicles.
And another question proposes what some might see as a compromise, a possible "reasonably priced" shuttle from the mid-level to the summit.
