2019-10-29 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – October 29, 2019 DCAB and run our plans through them and through DPW and unfortunately, if anybody knows, it does put a little bit extra time in anything when we start having to look at ADA tie-ins. So... That’s the reason for the delay. AA: Our previous meeting we had people from the public that address that issue that the salt actually breaks – that is not good for the soil – so what are you guy already using? MM: We try to use it in areas that we can’t get to like rocky areas and things like that where really soil is not the issue but, um, it became too cost prohibitive to continue using that so we tried it for a little while and then knowing how much salt to put down and what’s the water mixture – but in the areas that we tried it was more rocky areas than anything else of soil issue... AA: So how was it really working? AA: How did the vinegar work out for you guys? MM: We tried with the vinegar – we found this recipe that was vinegar, I believe, Blue Dawn dishwashing liquid and water. It was OK but in areas where animals were around it really messed with their noses, um, it leaves a long, long scent on it, um, when I tried it on my driveway it was the same thing. My animals didn’t like it too much but the issue that we have is no matter what we try everything is still gonna come back – it’s just something that needs to be continued and continued and continued. So what we have to do is identify the solutions that are gonna be a good long term effect, something we can budget for, something we can find readily available cause we have about 162 facilities with about 282 sites throughout the Island. We have almost 550 employees, however, 160 of those employees are in Parks Maintenance and then a still smaller section of that are our park caretakers. For instance, in Puna, we have 17 sites that our park caretakers take care of, yet we only have 9 park caretakers including their supervisor and that’s all the way from Shipman to Isaac Hale up to Volcano for that area so we’re trying to make the most impact that we can with the limited amount of resources we have, which is why I was saying that if this project does expand – Bill 101 does go through and we have to go through zero herbicide use – I believe it was 2023 – then we’re gonna need more manpower to help out with that. We’re also gonna need some assistance from the community in their parks – in their community parks where they area – we’re gonna be asking for help – we’ll be asking for help from the ball teams, we’ll be asking for help from anyone who uses these fields, um, and everybody’s gonna have to understand that a little bit of pokey grass, a little bit of weeds and stuff – they’re still gonna have to make do with it on the fields. NP: Hopefully funds can come from other locations, I mean, I would think, if a bill passes that should mean allocations of funds. 6