2015-11-16 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 16, 2015 and plant range and our survey values, so our take estimates are built both on those plants that are outside of units that we know exist plus those that are modeled to be outside of the units. So that's how the take estimate is built. The benefit, like just putting say our mitigation for one individual species is 100 plants. Just throwing 100 plants on the ground and walking away is not success. So the goal is to have mature, reproducing individuals in the field — that is the goal for, if it's 100 plants we need 100 of those in the field so it may take 1,000 plants to get to that level. It may take 2,000 plants to get to that level, For some of the species it's going to be a huge concern. It will be a concerted effort 25 years to get to some of these population levels — there's no doubt about it that some of them are much more challenging than others. Comment period begins November 8, 2015 and ends March 7, 2016. The EA that's associated with the HCP has to go through that process as well (concurrently) and must be final before going to the board, The EA is separate from the HCP. It could take several months. What has to happen on the federal side? SF: One concern was critical habitat. They wanted to address plant recovery — adverse modification to a critical habitat in a way that we did not have written into our HCP and that we were not prepared to write in. The second was that there is critical habitat for listed plants that are not there. Since the plant is not there it was not written as part of our HCP. However, Feds requesting that be taken that into consideration. EA: We have plenty of space for mitigation for those unoccupied habitat — critical habitat — those species that they have issue with, it's just a matter of working that out in terms of agreeing with what the appropriate mitigation would be, but we definitely have ample space in terms of fencing units. 0 Who on the federal side actually gives us approval? SF: It is the U.S. Fish & Wildlife regional office. * Are these animals impacting those plants and do they know that for sure? SF: There's also an appendix in the HCP where they did some vegetation studies at Puuwaawaa to document fenced and unfenced individuals and the impacts that the game mammals had on those species. • Once approved, is there some monitoring process. Is that an annual or biennial process? How does that work?