2019 09-10 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – September 10, 2019 forth, which I support the fire break part, but, I mean, this really is a – I think something we have to really consider as we move forward in the future because we just start using more and more of this stuff and it is altering - both the invasive species and the use herbicides – potentially it’s altering the soil structure and what happens is when that soil structure starts changing than native species can’t grow anyway and, you know, eventually, it just causes more fire hazards as far as I’m concerned cause we just have only invasive plants keep growing, growing, growing and you could be doing this in perpetuity, so, um, this is from forest ecology and management now – this was a part for – see understanding the effects of herbicides and all ecosystem components is important as they are applied to large areas of forest annually. So the key aspect of forest certification and of sustainable management is that there are limited long-term effects from herbicides – so even a tree farms and places in cattle – the places I gotta have to make sure that what they’re doing is they’re not just pumping tons of herbicides in there or whatever – so they’re suspect in some of the uses of this stuff and lichens are an important component for forest ecosystems – their functions include contributing to nutrient cycling, stabilizing the soil and providing food and nesting materials for vertebrates and invertebrates. Herbicides applied force ecosystems can reach non-target organisms and many of these non-target effects are not well understood including those on lichens and so forth. That’s all scientific papers and stuff so I’m not quoting somebody’s blog and they’ve noticed that the use of certain herbicides reduced the abundance 40-60% of the species of these type of lichens and mosses and things like so, ah, that, and then one other statement here is herbicide use is increasing worldwide both agriculture and private gardens, however, our knowledge of potential side effects on non-target soil organisms is still very scare. So nobody really knows but I just hope that people consider that in the future and if they can mow and things like that – I know it’s more labor intensive but that’s probably a better for the environment anyway – the composting and the mulching and stuff. All right. Thank you. NP: Thank you so much – that’s very interesting. TN: Hakalau Forest area in their program – have they created and expanded their forest area of native plants or are you telling us that it has not been successful? TS: That the upper section was once ranch land and they were trying to create corridors for the birds so they planted all these koa trees and so forth – they figured the birds would visit up in there and, you know, they’d take seeds from native berries and so forth and they’d poop it out and they can grown but that’s not been happening and the birds don’t seem to visit those areas but they do visit where the old ohia trees, you know, even if they’re just single trees and where small clusters here and there and there was like seven to eight different species of native understory that would grow on all the mosses 18