2019 09-10 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – September 10, 2019 and everything that is under the ohia tree – but all these mosses and everything are absent under the koa trees – so they’re wondering, you know, if there’s no moss and if the birds do poop there the seeds don’t have any chance of growing and then they come in and herbicide to get rid of the grass, so it’s kind of a cycle of the grass choking it out and you herbicide the grass so one thing or the other it’s not letting the native species understory grow or recover and they do have parcels that they plant and everything but they have to also still herbicide those areas – they cover ‘em in plastic, they mulch it and they plant some of the native understory in there and it’s kind of mixed review – the problem is they need to plants ohia but you can’t really do that right now cause you can’t move ohia around so they would have to build a grow facility up there and that’s time and money and everything so – it all comes down to funding. But if they could plant ohia instead of koa that probably would be a much more beneficial for forest restoration. TN: They’ve not thought about making it a mixed forest and not just a single tree forest? Because up at Mauna Loa Bishop Estate did a single koa tree forest program back in 1975 and they found out it wasn’t conducive to a forest environment and so they did another area and they had mixed forest and not only did they plant koa, they planted other native species along with hapuu and you know you need to start where the forest is and expand from the existing forest going out and not in an open area that used to be a forest so maybe the idea is to take the existing forest and expand from there because if you have the existing lichen moss in one area couldn’t you expand from that forest – older forest area – and expand out into the open area. I’m not sure what it looks like so I’m – just my thoughts, sharing... TS: That’s kind of what they’ve done – so, I mean, It’s been successful in that bordering area with the intact forest but as soon as you branch out from there with the kikuyu grass and everything it really, the habitat changes quite abruptly. TN: You mean to say they’re how far away from the existing forest? Are they 500 yards, five hundred feet, I mean, are they next to the forest or are they out in the open? I’m not understanding. TS: It’s a lot of acreage so, yeah, I don’t have the specifics on the exact locations of their corridors and everything, but you can see some of it if you drive on Mana Road – you’ll be able to see some of the areas there and I think the idea is they planted the koa because they would kinda help to try to shade things out and get a canopy in there and then they can work underneath there but I – the birds just aren’t coming in the area to help with natural recruitment, yeah? I think that was goal of it. So they have to re-think this now. The point I was trying to make is that the – to get to that point – I think if they constantly have invasive grass or they’re constantly herbiciding – either way – the native understory is not going to recover. 19