2019-04-15 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – April 15, 2019 GC: We’ve had this discussion before... NP: Our forests are being fenced because they’re saying the wild mammals are damaging the forests, um, especially with their new plantings so that’s interesting to me. GC: Right, we’ve worked with Parker Ranch with grazing and we like the cattle in the trees because they keep the grass down – so what we see on Parker Ranch…is an agro-forestry system where you can have the grass, ah, excuse me, the cattle among the planted trees and you see a lot of pigs in the gulches and the native forest areas. NP: Well, that’s interesting cause this is what we’ve been fighting – is that the game animal are good for the forest... they manage the wild grasses... remove fire fuel – so that’s very interesting – you’re actually appreciating... GC: Right. GD: If I remember correctly last time there were some questions raised about the toxicity of burning eucalyptus trees in the plant, um, so I have a few questions regarding that, I guess, is, are you aware of any concerns in burning... GC: I’m not. The minutes I read talked about the possible toxicity in the albezia that had been poisoned, so if the albezia’s been poisoned there could be some remnant chemical that goes in but, um, we would have to test that – we haven’t got access, we haven’t been invited to use any albezia like that, um, I’m a scientist – I have a Ph.D. in forestry – my instinct tells me that it would – that we would not find any trace elements – I think it would be – I think the tree would have used it up – to be honest – but I would – we would test it if we were going to get any. GD: So currently the plant’s plan is to burn eucalyptus in... GC: That’s what we access to at the moment – we have lease – we have a Kamehameha Schools lease in Kau and we have the Parker Ranch lease so that’s our primary focus right now. GD: Is eucalyptus usually used as a fuel to burn traditionally? GC: It is. Traditionally it’s one of the highest value papers in the world... GD: Right. I’m not sure if this is accurate – but I think it was a Chinese company that was coming and logging here not too long ago – or a Japanese company that was pulping it but... 19