Naalehu meeting marks final public comment on Kahuku park plan
At Nāālehu, residents pushed to keep Kahuku rustic as the park weighs new trails, campgrounds and limited access to Kahuku-Pōhue.
Residents who want Kahuku to stay low-key got one last in-person chance Tuesday night to speak on a plan that could shape trails, campgrounds, visitor access and long-term management across the Kahuku Unit of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The talk-story session at the Nāālehu Community Center ran from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with the public comment period open through July 1 at 8:59 p.m. HST.
The National Park Service is reviewing a Comprehensive Site Management Plan and Environmental Assessment that would guide interpretive and educational activities, picnic areas, additional trails and small campgrounds. The long-term goal is to open Kahuku full-time like the rest of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, while allowing Kahuku-Pōhue, the coastal makai portion of the unit, to open to limited visitor use first and expand later if critical resources are protected. A previous session was held June 13 at the Kahuku Visitor Contact Station from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
That future is colliding with a strong local preference for preservation over development. Superintendent Rhonda Loh said the overwhelming majority of public feedback has favored low-impact experiences and a rustic feel rather than more roads, buildings or heavy infrastructure. Danielle Foster, the park’s environmental protection specialist, said access to Pohue is the main thing people are asking for, but she also stressed the challenge of balancing that access with the need to protect natural and cultural resources. The proposed plan includes a day-use permit system for Kahuku-Pōhue.
Kahuku’s ranching past still shapes the debate. Once one of the biggest cattle ranches in Hawaii, the land produced beef and hides for more than 150 years, and the park says the current site still holds a vault toilet, trail markers, an unpaved parking area and a visitor contact station from the ranching era. Kahuku was acquired in phases, with the earlier ranch parcel added to the park in 2003 and Kahuku-Pōhue acquired in 2022. The park says the unit is open Thursdays through Sundays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., has no potable water and sits near mile marker 70.5 on Highway 11, about an hour from Kīlauea Visitor Center.
Visitor pressure is rising even as the landscape remains lightly developed. Park visitation at Kahuku climbed from 18,926 in 2022 to 26,280 last year, and park managers said outreach in November 2024, along with three public meetings in 2022, focus groups and meetings with local organizations, helped shape the current plan. The final decision will determine whether Kahuku grows into a broader access point or remains closer to the rustic experience many Kaū residents said they want kept intact.
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