2019 07-30 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawai’i Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – July 30, 2019 BKK: Any other questions? All right, thank you John for coming and really do appreciate it. TN: Thank you, John. Appreciate you being here. b. Willie-Joe Camara – Hunter & former GMAC Commissioner BKK: I would like to recognize Nani for our next presenter. NP: I’d like to welcome Willie-Jo Camara for coming - one of our fore-founders of GMAC – to share what’s been happening in his district for the hunters and any other comments about game management plans. WJC: Hello, Willie-Jo Camara. I just have a few things – first thing on the Hamakua side there’s a gate that was put up in Ookala where the former Big Island Dairy was – well, anyway, the dairy put the gate up so there was a big to-do with that and the hunters were upset that the gate was gonna be there and blocking access to Ookala forest which is the main trail up there. There was a bunch of talks with the dairy on when they were gonna have it closed from what time to what time – the last that I’ve gotten from – I talked to Jackson at DLNR last week – is that the gate is closed pretty much normal hunting hours – outside of normal hunting hours. They’re supposedly locking the gate an hour or opening the gate an hour before sunrise and locking it an hour after sunrise – so pretty much giving a half an hour more than legal hunting hours. There is also a sign there on the gate with a phone number for somebody who, you know, might have come out late or something like that. You know, they’re just trying to protect their assets that are up there – they have a lot of money invested in that place and there has been in the past some vandalism and stuff, um, so far I haven’t heard of too many horror stories about that – it’s working pretty good as far as I know – my suggestion to DLNR when they were talking with the diary was to have a time limit for these guys to call, you know, maybe make it 8:00 o’clock or something because, you know, I mean, if you you’re – the concern from the hunters was – what if you’ve gotta wait for your dogs to come back or and it takes ‘em longer – but I think by 8:00 you kinda know if you’re in there or not – it was made out like it was gonna be a bad deal but I think the dairy was really willing to work with everybody and in the past they were really good with the hunters, I mean, they never chased hunters out or anything like that so that wasn’t a problem. On that same with Ookala – Jackson said that they are cleaning the trail starting from Keanakolu and working their way down. NP: Who’s cleaning the trail? WJC: DLNR... NP: Oh. Have you seen it? 12