2019 09-10 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – September 10, 2019 MC: And it’s all just working them correctly and utilizing the right animals in the right places. NP: It’s all about careful management. MC: Yes. Correct. And that’s what we do at 3C Goat Grazing. NP: Yup. More power to you. Thank you so much. MC: Thank you guys for having me this evening. I appreciate it. NP: All right – so Old Business OLD BUSINESS Legislative Agenda Discussion NP: Legislative Agenda discussion – which is actually New Business in that if we get on it right now we’re ahead of the game – deciding what we want to do at the Legislature this year. We’ve done some really powerful things there in the past – we’ve banged our heads against the wall a lot there also in the past – we still need to give it our best shot so, um, I have a couple ideas of bills that by popular demand and also bills that I would be really interested in and I want to throw them out for discussion with the commissioners. So the first bill – I just wanted to give a little background information that just refresher information. In the early 80s there were thousands of sheep on Mauna Kea – the palila population was 6,000. Over 22,000 sheep were removed over 40 years. Mamane – the palila food and habitat resource has since flourished but regardless the palila population is down to 1,000. The cause of palila decline has to be something else – so the original argument presented to the federal courts that won the mandate to eradicate the sheep was wrong. So the facts are in – the cause is something else – the mandate is based on wrong information – sheep harming palila by browsing on mamane is false – so I wanted to and this is not any kind of final wording – but I wanted to work on a bill that would enforce the DLNR to re-evaluate whether sheep are the primary cause of the decline of palila on Mauna Kea and report the failed result of 40 years of game animal eradication to State and Federal courts. And I don’t know what obstacles there would be in that – I do know that they do know reports – but it would be more of an compiling of information to change the mandate and, um, the second bill I would be interested in is a bill that would order the DLNR to complete the ten-year old unfinished Habitat Conservation Plan. That would be a start if they finished that plan it would be a start in allowing coexistence of game resources with native ecosystems in west side Puuwaawaa/Puuanahulu. So, ah, those are two bills and I have people working on how that would be written up and so I’m wondering if any 24