Respectfully fighting against the privatization of public lands in Hawaii for generations to come.

Photo:Marina Riker/Civil Beat/2022

About us

Founded in 2007 Public Access Trails Hawaii does research, education & advocacy to open public access to public land. Path respects private property rights. We are a 5O1C3.

VISION:

People from all walks of life and ages will use Hawaii’s diverse and safe trails, paths, and bikeways in their daily lives.

Paths have become the preferred link for Hawaii’s people because they provide easy and safe connections between homes, businesses, schools, shopping, and other commuter-oriented destinations.

As a result of these trails, community bonds have strengthened, and both children and adults are more physically and mentally healthy.

Residents and visitors are more culturally sensitive because they are given the opportunity to travel in the same way as Hawaii’s first people and, at the same time, have been educated about Hawaiian history, traditions, and customs.

Hawaii’s ecosystems and unique plants, birds, and insects are thriving because the improved path systems have reversed urban sprawl, which has plagued the islands for decades.

PATH uses the best modern technology by providing digital resources for walkers, bikers, and others, including a GPS-activated, searchable database for Hawaii’s trails.

GOALS AND ACTIVITIES:

Research and identify existing trails legally owned by the state or county but which are not open to the public either because the trail was forgotten or never improved (for example, where the county required a private landowner to dedicate a path for shoreline access but the landowner or the county never improved the access);
Devise solutions to challenging issues such as landowner liability, trail stewardship, and multiple or incompatible use problems (such as cultural versus other uses);
Where other approaches fail, seek political or judicial assistance to assure that trails owned by the state or traditionally used for cultural activities are reopened to the appropriate users.

While PATH has initiated work on several projects, it continues to focus its efforts on accumulating information to assist it in offering the best solutions and assuring its charitable work complements the work of government agencies and nonprofit organizations with related or overlapping missions. To that end, PATH has been identifying and consulting with governmental agencies, nonprofit organizations, commercial operators and other community groups that work on recreational or cultural access issues, such as shoreline access, walking and hiking trails, bikeways, greenways and other trails or paths.

Why…

“Trails should be open to everyone — just one small battle in what he sees as a larger fight to ensure that access to Maui’s public lands isn’t lost.”

“Public access is going to be the biggest issue for the next hundred years,” Brown said. “But no one seems to notice, because day by day, it decreases.”

“To ensure that public agencies and officials do not use their positions of power to deprive Hawaii’s current and future generations of their constitutionally protected property rights.” – David Brown, Civil Beat 2022.