HONOLULU (KHON2) — The Department of Parks and Recreation is getting ready to bring park rangers to Oahu parks with a new program launching later this year, and they want input from the public.

Nathan Serota, DPR spokesperson, said the survey is asking the community several questions to determine what exactly the park rangers would be needed to do.

“How the public is interacting with our parks, you know, how they’re using them; what kind of illegal activity they’re seeing in the parks, particularly as it relates to commercial activity and businesses; and also what kind of enforcement powers they would be willing to give to potential park rangers in the future.” said Serota.

DPR said they’ve received an overwhelming amount of response from the community that’s been very helpful with 300 surveys submitted in the past 72 hours.

The survey, available until March 28, will give the new rangers some direction.

“We’re gonna try to focus on, like, the main beach parks that we commonly hear issues and then kind of work around,” said Leina Diamond, DPR park ranger manager.

“The idea, I guess, is to take sections of the island and then visit a bunch of parks at one time and kind of rotate through those. So, it’s going to shift around throughout the week.” added Diamond.

“We’re looking to bring four additional park rangers on board, should have them out in the field this summer, and they’re going to continue that fact finding mission, and, you know, seeing what the existing conditions are out there.”

Nathan Serota, DPR spokesperson

The presentation of the park ranger assessment program findings will be due September 2024.