Maunawili Trail Gets Graffiti Clean-up

Written by Brooks Baehr - bbaehr@kgmb9.com

May 14, 2008 06:49 PM

Maunawili Falls Trail is a natural treasure traversed by hundreds of hikers every week, but taggers have left their mark.

The Windward Oahu trail was covered by graffiti.

Wednesday three volunteers armed with cleaning solvents, scrub brushes, and power tools accompanied a state forestry worker on a clean-up mission.

They found graffiti along the 1.25 mile hike from the trail head to falls. Just about anything that could be tagged ... had been tagged.

"All it takes is one person to start the process and then all of a sudden the next thing you know is the sign (trail marker) is unreadable," said Aaron Lowe, the Oahu Trail and Access Specialist for the DLNR's Forestry and Wildlife Division.

"I consider the trail god's post card to me. This is him telling me, 'This is what I'm all about.' And this is my way of saying thank you ... (by) taking this (graffiti) off," said Greg Caudra, an avid hiker who, along with daughter his daughter, volunteered to Christal, volunteered to help rid the trail of the graffiti.

Avid hiker and frequent volunteer Charlotte Yamane also scrubbed, scrapped, and washed graffiti from the trail.

Signs, trees, and stairs long the trail were all covered in paint. So were large boulders near the pool at the end of the trail.

"You can tell that it was done probably within the last couple weeks seeing here that this plant still has some pain on it," Lowe said.

When a wire brush was not enough to rid the rocks of graffiti, a grinder was used to strip the paint from the rocks. The team did its best to catch contaminated dust and shavings.

"That was pretty important to me because I didn't want it to get in the water," Lowe said while catching paint particles in a plastic sheet.

"Red paint is not supposed to be in this picture, obviously, and it's a travesty that it's here. It's defacing natural resources. It's just unacceptable," Lowe added.

Lowe and the volunteers are upset about the visual blight, the effect contaminated water could have on plants and animals, and he believes the people who visit the falls deserve better.

"The graffiti was really the glaring non-natural thing that we ran across. I think it is disappointing. I think it is a very selfish thing," said Karen Nelson, a visitor from New Hampshire who

In airing the story KGMB9 tried to obscure any identifiable marks left by the taggers. KGMB9 did not want to give them the satisfaction of having their so called "signatures" aired on television. But the authorities have photos the graffiti and if they can find the culprits, they may be charged.