Who Maintains Hawaii's Trails?

The vegetation in Hawaii is notorious for its rapid growth. As such, Hawaii trails need to be maintained periodically less the these pathways be swallowed up and returned to their natural trail-less states. As someone who has taken part in the creation of new trails in Hawaii, I can attest first-hand to what a Hawaii mountain ridge looks like in its natural state, and what that ridge looks like after people have created a route along it, and how quickly that same ridge can return to its natural state if left unhiked or uncleared. The return to "the way it was" happens with amazing quickness and ease.

Knowing this, who maintains the trails in Hawaii? A portion of the work is done by the state of Hawaii, namely a branch of the Hawaii state hierarchy called Na Ala Hele. As necessary and well meaning as Na Ala Hele is for the governance and maintenance of state trails, it is beset with the problem of not having enough funds and manpower to do its work. Accordingly, on the island of Oahu, a good deal of the work on trails is done by volunteers, most of whom are members of the Hawaiian Trail and Mountain Club (HTMC).

Just about every Sunday of the year, a crew of volunteers from the HTMC heads into the mountains to maintain a trail. The crew usually numbers a couple dozen volunteers, and crew members use handtools such as machetes, loppers, and sickles to clear back vegetation that encroaches on trails. In recent years, the crew has turned to heavier artillery for its work: chain saws, hedge trimmers, and weed eaters. As needed, HTMC volunteers will lug picks and shovels up steep mountain slopes to repair trail sections that have become eroded or that have been covered up or collapsed due to landslides.

Up until recently, the crew has been led and organized by a silver-haired grandmother named Mabel Kekina, 79, a longtime member of HTMC. At present, Kekina is recovering from a health condition and the crew is being organized by Mike Algiers, another veteran hiker and past president of the club.

HTMC, which has over 500 members, always welcomes new members and particularly new volunteers for its trail maintenance crew. For more information about the club, go to the HTMC site. Additionally, I post on this blog the club hiking schedule along with the trail maintenance schedule. If you are interested, please join them.