Protestors gathered at the gate of the hiking trail leading to Kalaupapa National Historic Park to protest tours Thursday. Protestors said they felt the community should have been consulted before the National Park began the tours to reduce the potential impact on Molokai. Photo courtesy Walter Ritte

The National Park Service has backed away from a plan to start offering tours at Kalaupapa National Historical Park after Molokai residents protested the move, saying the federal agency failed to consider how increased visitation could affect them.

Maui County Council Member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez, who holds the Molokai residency seat, said Monday that U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda of Hawaii called her to learn more about the issue, and the congresswoman said she would urge park Superintendent Nancy Holman to work with the community in developing a plan for the tours.

A meeting between Tokuda and Holman is scheduled for Tuesday. Rawlins-Fernandez said she appreciates Tokuda stepping in to help.

“It’s exactly what we were asking for,” Rawlins-Fernandez said.

In June, the National Park Service announced it would offer tours at Kalaupapa twice a week on Thursdays and Saturdays, starting July 9. The all-day, ranger-led hiking tours were intended to provide information about Kalaupapa’s history.

Park officials warned the public that the hikes would be strenuous, starting at a gate that leads hikers down a zigzag trail descending 3 miles one way and about 1,600 feet to the Kalaupapa peninsula. The park said the tours would be capped at 100 people per day.

The remote peninsula is where Father Damien volunteered in 1873 to care for people with Hansen’s disease. He was later canonized as St. Damien by Pope Benedict XVI.

On Thursday, a group of residents met at the gate to protest the new tours. A second demonstration was planned for Saturday, but National Park Service officials paused the tours.

On Saturday morning, Rawlins-Fernandez read an email from Kalaupapa National Historical Park Superintendent Nancy Holman saying the tours were being paused after “protectors” assembled at the site.

“They wouldn’t have done this without our community showing up, without our people demanding that we be consulted in our home before any kind of activity is done like this,” she said.

According to Rawlins-Fernandez, the biggest concern for many residents was the lack of consultation with the community and the agency’s failure to consider and mitigate the potential impact on Molokai residents.

Molokai is a rural island with a population of about 7,400, a figure that has not changed substantially in the past quarter-century. Rawlins-Fernandez said one concern is that Molokai has a limited number of flights aboard small passenger aircraft, and many of those seats are essential for commuters.

The park previously relied on tours operated by a longtime Kalaupapa resident. However, those tours ended after the resident died in May at age 91. In June, the National Park Service announced its plans to begin offering its own tours.

Rawlins-Fernandez said the community needs to understand the impact of the National Park Service tours on the island before they begin.

“If they had consulted with us, we could have had conversations about how something like this could work and how we could mitigate the impact to the overall community,” she said. “The largest concern is no consultation beforehand. What kind of precedent does that set for when they scale up?”

Holman was unavailable for comment Monday.