Officials Fear Someone is Going to Get Hurt or Killed

HONOLULU - 14 hikers have been arrested since last Thursday on the K?ne‘ohe side of the Ha‘ik? Stairs by the Honolulu Police Department, which then alerted the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement (DOCARE). Eight of the 14 were arrested this morning. They all face criminal trespassing charges.

HPD informed DLNR that the hikers reached the top of the stairs via the Middle Ridge Trail in the Moanalua Section of the Honolulu Watershed Forest Reserve. DLNR on Friday announced the reopening of this section with a warning for people to stay off the Middle Ridge Trail. It is not a state-sanctioned trail and using it to reach the top of the stairs is illegal and dangerous.

While deconstruction of the entire stairs is on hold due to litigation, several modules comprising numerous stair cleats that secure the stair modules to the hillside have already been removed by helicopter. The hikers who were arrested used ropes from the top of the Middle Ridge Trail to get down to where stairs still cling to the side of the mountain.

DOCARE Chief Jason Redulla said, “It is dangerous for people to enter the construction zone and dangerous for them to try to descend the ridge. They need to think about the consequences if someone gets hurt, or worse, and needs rescue. It is a difficult place for first responders to reach, which could delay medical treatment. Plus, it’s incredibly disrespectful and self-centered for anyone to be on the Ha‘ik? Stairs, or on the Middle Ridge Trail, when it’s been made abundantly clear that these areas are off-limits for safety and natural resource protection reasons. They fail to consider not only the risks they’re taking, but the risks emergency teams face when having to rescue people who are breaking the law.”