An Approach to Managing Diamond Head Trail Recreationalists and Their Environmental ImpactVolcanoes are an important part of my life. As soon as I found out my husband was stationed in Hawaii, I knew I had to hike Diamond Head. Besides volcanoes, I am also extremely passionate about education and conservation, which makes maintaining the integrity of Diamond Head a key goal of mine. Selfishly, I want to be able to hike Diamond Head for years to come. This article will discuss how recreationist demographics and their environmental impacts on Diamond Head can potentially be addressed through management approaches. The Diamond Head Trail is hiked by approximately one million people each year. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources conducted a trail and park user census that detailed the user profile of those who chose to hike the Diamond Head Trail. The results showed that people are more likely to hike in pairs, while between 20 and 25 percent of people hike alone. Coincidentally, the percentage of people hiking in pairs rather than alone aligns with a study of local parks that found 81 percent of adult men participated in groups rather than alone (Chapter 2). The majority of Diamond Head hikers heard about the trail by word of mouth, and most hikers told someone who was not with them that they intended to hike it. People wore a variety of shoes, including 69% running shoes, 12% tevas, 7% hiking boots, 6% slippers, 5% dress sandals, and 1% moccasins, while 5 people wore heels. Less than 20% of users got lost, just over 10% of users reported leaving the path, and 90% of users remembered seeing signs but not what the signs said. The average age of hikers is 25 to 34 years old, the majority of hikers...... middle of paper ......have already suggested the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to improve their brochure. I hope that such changes will allow me to continue hiking Diamond Head for a long, long time without worrying that a rock will fall on me or that entire portions of the trail will shrink and become unusable due to erosion. In conclusion, the demographics of recreationists who hike Diamond Head have had an increasingly damaging environmental impact on the trail. The management approach to solving this problem should include education, conservation, and perhaps even putting up physical barriers to prevent people from leaving the trail. Diamond Head is my favorite place on Oahu, so I'm personally invested in trying to mitigate the damage and hope that increased management will keep track of it for a long, long time..