OAHU CLIMBING ACCESS UPDATE & GOOD NEWS – JULY 26, 2014 Whether you’re new to the island and wondering what’s up with all the closed climbing areas, or been here forever, now practically local, yet still confused as hell because you couldnt sort out all the craziness during the past 2014 legislative session – this update is for you. WHY ARE OAHU’S CLIMBING AREAS CLOSED? Oahu’s 3 main closed climbing areas were closed during the summer of 2012 due to a serious injury which occurred at the main wall, Mokuleia, in June of 2012. Despite the fact that this was the first such serious injury in 22 years of Oahu climbing history, the two State landowner agencies, DLNR (Mokuleia & Jungle) and DHHL (Makapuu) responded with a heavy hand due to fear of liability born out of the March 2012 $15 million settlement for the Kauai Brem case (amlawdaily.typepad/amlawdaily/2012/03/hawaii-brem-gibson-dunn.html). HAS ANYTHING BEEN DONE ABOUT THE CLOSURES? Heck, yes. The Oahu rock climbing community with the support of the Access Fund and other groups and individuals sympathetic to our plight, have worked hard for 2 years to resolve the situation. Unfortunately, despite a lot of diligence and labor by rock climbers in the 2013 legislative session and again in the 2014 session (joined by hikers, paragliders, and bikers) to pass an amended Act 82 that would have given the State greater protection from tort liability on public lands, our effort was defeated by Sylvia Luke and the Hawaii Association for Justice in April 2014 (civilbeat/2014/04/21744-hawaii-rock-climbers-file-ethics-complaint-against-rep-sylvia-luke/). Since then, we have been collaborating with the Hawaii Attorney General’s (AG) office to get our climbing areas reopened. IS THERE ANY GOOD NEWS? Yes, on Saturday, April 5, 2014, two days after our SB 1007 HD1 was gutted by the unethical actions (kitv/news/outdoor-enthusiasts-at-odds-with-rep-sylvia-luke/25427618) of Hawaii State Representative, Sylvia Luke (see forthcoming PART 2 of this update for complete discussion on this and more) - I received confirmation from DLNR Chairperson, William Aila, that DLNR would collaborate with the AG’s office to determine another means of reopening our closed climbing areas despite our wrenching setback by Sylvia Luke. Shortly after April 5, Mike Bishop and I met personally with William Aila to discuss the reopening plan, and subsequently met again with DLNR and the AG’s office to work out more details. HOW IS THE REOPENING POSSIBLE DESPITE THE GUTTING OF OUR BILL BY SYLVIA LUKE? We have been informed that the basic mechanism by which the closed areas (Mokuleia, Jungle, and Makapuu), will be reopened shall involve a combined use of hybrid Act 82 warning signage to be posted at all the cliffs and MOAs between the State and the community that certain safety rules will be followed, and between Climb Aloha volunteers that safe bolting and inspections shall continue at all the cliffs. WHEN EXACTLY WILL MOKULEIA REOPEN? We were contacted by the AG’s office on Friday, July 25, 2014 with a new update that the areas would be reopened by September 30 at the earliest and October 31, 2014 at the latest. During the interim, final approval of the signage and details of the MOAs will be resolved. This timeline is irrespective of either possible primary election outcome. I DON’T HAVE TIME TO READ MORE, IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE CRITICAL AT THE MOMENT? Yes, we will also update you in the next 1-2 days regarding the upcoming primary election which is extremely important. We will provide you with voting recommendations for legislators that helped us with our effort to reform Hawaii recreational tort liability during the past 2 years. Last, but not least, the Access Fund has been extremely helpful during our battle the past 2 years. If you are not a member please join now and annually renew your membership with this vital nonprofit rock climbing advocacy group here: (accessfund.org/site/c.tmL5KhNWLrH/b.4954061/k.9AF8/Join_or_Give.htm). OTHER GOOD NEWS: On June 16, 2014, Act 82 was finally signed into permanent law by Governor Abercrombie as Act 86, Session Laws of Hawaii 2014. It took DLNR 11 years and a lot of help from the outdoor community during the past 2 years to accomplish that. Even though it’s not what we (the informed outdoor community) really wanted, the new permanency of Act 82 is still noteworthy and commendable. See PART 2 (forthcoming), we’ll get into the history of Act 82 and its significance. You can stop here if that’s enough good news for you to go about the remainder of your summer with some amount of optimism. If however, you’re still curious how we got into this situation, why Oahu’s climbing areas were closed for over 2 years, and how you have been continually screwed by certain Hawaii legislators and a plaintiff attorneys’ lobby over the past 2 decades, by all means check back here in a couple of days for voting recommendations, history on our situation (PART 2), and how we continue the battle for recreational tort reform in Hawaii (PART 3).
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 10:07:42 +0000
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