LIHUE, Hawaii — Kauai County has used bulldozers to knock down dwellings determined to be illegally erected on county park land.

The action came Thursday along Wainiha Bay and the Wainiha River.
Many of those whose houses, shacks and tents were destroyed contend the county doesn’t own the land. They say it had been given to Native Hawaiian families who had been tending the land and living there in a system known as “kuleana lands” tenancy.
Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s executive assistant, Beth Tokioka, says officials began receiving complaints last year about people living in alleged illegal structures at Wainiha County Park.
Tokioka says notices of violation were posted last month, but the owners refused to remove their structures.
———
Information from: The Garden Island, http://www.kauaiworld.com/