The Hawaiian Homes Commission is considering proposals to charge fees to visit Mauna Kea and use those funds to pay for reforestation efforts and restoration of cultural sites.

How much the tolls would cost and the specific projects that would be funded under these efforts is not yet clear. The preliminary proposals come from two competing groups on the Big Island: one is the Waimea Nui Community Development Corp., an offshoot of the homestead association representing Waimea; the other is headed by a Native Hawaiian tour operator called Koa Kia‘i.

Kali Watson, director of the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, said he wants to see the two groups work together. “I don’t look at it as competing,” he said at a commission meeting Tuesday. “I look at it as collaborating, supportive.”

Watson told the Koa Kia‘i group that the commission usually chooses organizations serving specific communities, in this case that would be the Waimea group, but that they raised good ideas to help generate revenue for the department.

Vy Lam, a DHHL staffer who worked on Indigenous issues for the federal government, said there’s space for the two proposals to work together. The Waimea group’s plan is more focused on cultural education while the Koa group’s proposal placed a greater emphasis on generating revenue through tourism.

DHHL polled attendees at community meetings and found a preference among beneficiaries for the Waimea group’s plan. Still, members of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, which will ultimately decide what happens with the plans, said they’d like to see the groups come together.

“I really support a collaborative effort,” Mike Kaleikini, a Big Island commissioner, said. “It’s a win-win for everybody.”

Whether they can work together is yet to be seen. 

Kalaniakea Wilson, one of the leaders of Koa Kia‘i, took issue with how his group was portrayed at community meetings in the last two months. At a commission meeting Tuesday, he took aim at the Waimea group, saying they are already involved in numerous projects, and took shots at the department, which he said showed a bias for the homestead association.

He told the commission that Koa Kia‘i has the support of homestead associations in East Hawai‘i.

Mike Hodson, president of the Waimea homestead association, told Civil Beat that the people behind Koa Kia‘i aren’t from Waimea and would come in with different traditions. But he said he doesn’t want to get dragged into a fight over land and would rather find a way to be a good steward.

“That’s not land for (living on),” he said of the acres of rugged and remote mountain slopes far from any infrastructure. “That’s land for mālama.”

Whatever the result, Watson said the department needs to consider how the proposals fit in with broader management goals on the mountain, which is being transitioned to the Mauna Kea Stewardship and Oversight Authority. Attendees at meetings hosted by the authority have expressed interest in limiting visitor access or charging fees to drive to the summit. 

Any of these proposals would involve working with the new authority and the University of Hawai‘i on projects affecting the mountain.

“We can’t do it alone,” Watson said. “We don’t control the mountain.”

Kaleikini said he wants a proposal to come back to the commission by its next Hawai‘i island meeting in October.

Both Proposals Rely On Fees

Waimea Nui’s plans to manage the land around the Mauna Kea Access Road date back to 2009. Various DHHL directors indicated they wanted to take up those plans, but each time, they stalled, Hodson said.

Then, in 2019, protests over the Thirty Meter Telescope led to a lawsuit over the control of the access road, which sits on land owned by DHHL. In 2024, the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruled the state illegally asserted control of the road and ordered that it be returned to Hawaiian homelands.

That set the stage for the two requests now before the Hawaiian Homes Commission.

The Waimea Nui plan would charge an access fee for vehicles traveling to the summit. How much the fee would be hasn’t been determined yet, Hodson said.

Revenues from the fees would be used to fund cultural education programs in the area and to restore trails on Mauna Kea. Hodson said the fees could also pay for projects to protect sensitive cultural sites in the area like an adze quarry on DHHL land.

Waimea Nui’s plans call for a cultural center and programs to educate visitors to the mountain. The group would also employ educational monitors who can deter bad behavior. Four years ago, one visitor started an uproar after posting a video of himself urinating on Mauna Kea’s summit.

The visitor apologized, but Hodson wonders if such incidents could be prevented with better education and more awareness.

The proposal to manage the access road is part of broader plans to benefit the Waimea community as a step toward self-determination for the Hawaiian homestead association, which has kickstarted other projects creating farming opportunities and constructing a community health center for the rural community.

Hodson said they don’t take the responsibility to manage the road lightly. “That was a big decision, if we take on that kuleana,” he said. “This is forever.”

Kalaniakea Wilson, a Native Hawaiian tour operator, is one of the names behind Koa Kia‘i’s proposal to manage the access road.

Koa Kia‘i’s proposal focused on generating revenue from various tours that could operate on Mauna Kea. Those include walking and biking on trails, holding astronomy and cultural tours, and conducting restoration tours to benefit nearby forested areas. 

According to the group’s presentation, a for-profit entity would run the tours, while a nonprofit would do reforestation work and conduct cultural education and monitoring.

The group’s presentation also mentions establishing a food truck and gift shop. Like the Waimea Nui proposal, it would rely on fees for funding. Koa Kia‘i proposed setting up a toll booth and charging for parking.

The group estimates it would need $1.5 million in start-up costs but expects to generate $1.75 million from parking and toll fees in the first year. Eventually, revenues could top $3.5 million annually.

Wilson didn’t respond to messages seeking comment for this story, but during a community meeting in April, he said the goal is to help the department generate revenue to develop its lands.

He is one of 11,000 on the Hawai‘i island waitlist promised a homestead lot under a more than 100-year-old federal law.