Categorized | Environment, Featured, News

Hawaii Volcanoes Park to benefit from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

MEDIA RELEASE

Hawai‘’i Volcanoes’ visitors, native plants and animals, roads, and trails to benefit from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009.

“A new Visitor Emergency Operations Center will allow us to consolidate emergency services functions in the park, care for visitors in distress more effectively, and respond to natural disasters more efficiently, said Superintendent Cindy Orlando.

The money for the project is among $750 million in stimulus projects for national parks announced Wednesday by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

“Our other projects will allow us to protect fragile native ecosystems from non-native influences and repair high visitor use trails,” added Orlando. ” All of these projects will have lasting value to the state, the island, and our visiting public.”

The four projects at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, totaling $7,802,000, selected for funding include:

Replace Existing Dilapidated Visitor Contact Station to Support Visitor Services

Exisiting ranger station to be replaced.

Exisiting ranger station to be replaced by a new Visitor Emergency Operations Center.

Hawai‘i Volcanoes now has the wherewithal to pursue a dream—to combine its visitor and resource protection operation into one centralized building. The park’s long-envisioned Visitor Emergency Operations Center (VEOC) will become a reality.

“We’re ecstatic…and shovel-ready!” said Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando. It’s expected the park will be ready to break ground this fall.

The 4481square foot structure will incorporate the existing footprint of the 1271square foot ranger office with a new addition of 3210 square feet.

It will be home base for nearly 25 park staff, including law enforcement and eruption duty rangers,  firefighters, and dispatchers of the 24-hour Pacific Area Communications Center.  Accessible, it will be the place visitors go for emergency medical services and to register for backcountry hikes.

The VEOC will serve as the command center during major park incidents—eruptions, elevated SO2 levels, earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, hurricanes, air accidents, etc.  An air-filtration system will ensure the building remains a safe haven during times of elevated levels of sulfur dioxide. There will also be training and conference rooms, and an interview room and holding cell for those detained for investigative purposes.

The structure will meet criteria to qualify as a Green Building under Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, with potential to test new alternative energy sources, including solar, photovoltaic and hydrogen (for a back-up energy supply).

Rehabilitate Halema‘uma‘u Trail

Halemaumau Trail

Halemaumau Trail

Park trail crews plan to improve several miles of the popular Kilauea summit trails. They’ll replace rusted railings, fill holes, add water bars for drainage to curb erosion, and stabilize historic rock walls and steps. The trails wind through ‘ohi‘a-hapu‘u rainforest, home to ‘apapane (Hawaiian honeycreeper) and ‘oma‘o (Hawaiian thrush). Vistas provide expansive views of Kilauea caldera and Halema‘uma‘u crater, the site of an ongoing eruption since March 2008.

Replace Boundary and Pig Fencing

Allan Ramos and Howard Hoshide work on a fenceline.

Allan Ramos and Howard Hoshide work on a fenceline.

Project funding will allow resource managers to replace nearly five miles of fence on Kilauea and Mauna Loa. Fence life in the park’s often harsh environment is about 20 years.

The park’s 30-year fencing program provides the most effective means to keep out pigs, goats, sheep, and cattle, thus safeguarding the park’s native plants, birds, bats, and insects.  Hawai‘i Volcanoes provides habitat for forty endangered, four threatened, ten candidate endangered plant and animal species, and a number of rare species and species of concern.

Resurface Rainshed Roads

 

Roads to be resurfaced

Roads to be resurfaced

Maintenance crews will repave approximately 50,000 square feet of asphalt roads near the park’s water collection and storage area. The existing road with its pot holes and alligator cracks is heavily used by park staff. A compacted 2 ?  inch overlay of asphalt cement will provide a smoother and safer surface for vehicles and preserve the rainshed’s road system.

 

For a complete list of funded projects that total $15,740,000 for Hawai‘i national parks (Pu‘uhonua o Honaunau, Kaloko-Honokohau, Haleakala, Kalaupapa, and USS Arizona Memorial) , go to http://recovery.doi.gov/docs/nps/nps_state_projects.pdf

photo credit for 2 photos –Fenceline and Halema‘uma‘u Trail :   G. Brad Lewis

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

 

Quantcast