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May 8, 2007 <br /> <br /> County Council Chair Pete Hoffman <br /> and members of the Hawaii County Council <br /> Re. Resolution No. 134-07 pertaining to feral pig control <br /> Dear Chairman Hoffman and members of the Hawaii County Council, <br /> I appreciate the efforts of the County council to control feral pigs in residential <br /> and agricultural areas. Feral pigs have been very destructive in native Hawaiian forests <br /> for many decades by uprooting native plants, exposing soil for invasive alien weeds to <br /> germinate in, and creating stagnant pools of water for mosquitoes to breed in and spread <br /> bird diseases. <br /> As you may know, in recent years in the mauka areas of Honolulu where I grew <br /> up, pigs have been invading house lots and ruining landscaping. On several islands they <br /> have damaged a variety of crops, particularly root crops like sweet potato and taro but <br /> also papayas, our biggest crop in Puna. I do not know of any records of such damage. We <br /> do need this information and it should be available to the public, (but without specific <br /> properties identified) .One way to get it would be via the trapping program the Council <br /> has proposed. Good record keeping is important to show that such a pilot program can or <br /> cannot be cost effective or made cost effective. Therefore, the people that run the <br /> program must be responsible and capable of good record keeping and reporting. Can the <br /> Hawaii Island Pig Hunter's Association do it? Possibly, so but I don't really know. <br /> Some property owners I have spoken to in Puna are wary of such an arrangement. I have <br /> heard recently that the USDA Wildlife Services may be contracted to do the work. That <br /> would solve most of the potential problems. The County must require complete <br /> accountability, regardless of who does the work. Good pig traps are not very cheap to <br /> produce ($350 or more?) and there are a lot of people out there that will want to keep <br /> them! I assume the County will make traps available to individuals via a loan program, <br /> but again there must be accountability (perhaps via placing a deposit or showing a valid <br /> ID?) so the trap comes back after a specified time. Some government agency (such as <br /> USDA Wildlife Services) or responsible NGO needs to track, recover and maintain the <br /> cages and clearly this will incur some cost that needs to be estimated now. <br /> In fact, to me, the budget proposed for this program seems quite high. The public <br /> should be able to see a proposed itemized budget (and comment on it) for the program <br /> before it is approved by the Council. Lastly, with respect to accountability, no feral pigs <br /> must ever be released anywhere. They will only become someone else's problem or get <br /> back into native forest and cause mere damage there. If any pigs are reported to have <br /> been released, that person responsible should be banned from the program permanently <br /> and the responsible NGO or government agency must be held accountable. <br /> Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this resolution and I commend the <br /> Council for taking an interest in the feral pig problem in the County of Hawaii. Feral <br /> pigs are probably our worst vertebrate alien species in Hawaii and much more works <br /> need to be done to also protect our watersheds and native Hawaiian forests. This <br /> resolution is a step in the right direction. <br /> Aloha, <br /> cam,. No. 215.E <br /> Ref. Tc: ~*e <br /> Patrick Conant Ref. Date MAY 1 6 2 <br /> P.O. Box 1172 <br /> Volcano, HI 96785 <br /> <br />