Good for state officials and their plans to start making private operators play by the rules when conducting hiking tours on public land. According to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, as many as eight commercial enterprises advertise
Good for state officials and their plans to start making private operators play
by the rules when conducting hiking tours on public land.
According to the
state Department of Land and Natural Resources, as many as eight commercial
enterprises advertise their hikes-for-a-fee on Kaua’i on the Internet. Yet none
of the outfits have the mandatory state permits for such ventures.
Enough’s
enough, says DLNR. If companies want to make money off Kauai’s network of
trails that afford world-class scenery, then they should follow the regulations
that are in place for monitoring the businesses and controlling the
environmental impact.
Taking that a step further, tour operators should
also be required to give a percentage of their business receipts to a fund for
maintaining the trails. Nothing against free enterprise, but when it’s at the
expense of public-held land, there’s an obligation to share for the common
good. That’s especially important on Kaua’i, home of half of the state’s
DLNR-controlled land and a constant struggle by state officials to keep trails
and other public land from slipping into disrepair from overuse.
The state
is well within its right to make tour operators toe the line. Any operators who
don’t like it can take a hike.