2015-11-16 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 SF: No, most HCPs that gets done — the applicant is required to provide some kind of an assurance of funding and different instruments can do that but it's always been required. When we talked to the AG about this issue and we said the state really can't do that because the state and the feds, for that matter, fund things in bienniums and how are we supposed to do that? Actually we were having the discussion related to a different HCP altogether. So we need to work that out but, my discussions with the AG so far indicate to me that we'll figure out a way through that. • What is DLNR's plan for the 4,000 acres at Kukaiau recently being purchased, is game hunting or any type of game management gonna be considered for any of that? SF: We are not familiar with the details of that and I don't know where we're at on the acquisition. Your question is well taken and I'll get back to you with the information. • We need to manage game, plants and not other things that keep people out of the forest - it all needs to co -exist, right? We will be making comments on the HCP and EA. SF In the case of EAs, it's required under the law to record and acknowledge all of those comments and to provide some kind of response and so that should be in the EA. I'm not a lawyer but I believe there are ways that you — there are avenues by which you can challenge an EA if you don't like what was written in the end and I can't tell you anymore about how you would do that, you'd have to ask a lawyer, but there are ways to do it. With regard to the HCP — the board is the approving authority, so the staff's responsibility, as delegated by the board, is to represent all of those comments that were made to the board when it goes to the board for approval — the board needs to be made aware of them. So what we do is — cause I've done other HCPs before — we write it up in the board submittal and we say here's the kind of comments we had and try to represent them in an accurate manner — so we do that — if you do not feel that they're represented, you should tell the board that — so, you know, everybody — the board is the approving entity — it's a public meeting and the board is there to hear not just what the staff thinks but what everybody else there thinks, so, if you don't like it, you go to the board and you tell the board what you think. Suggestion was made that these hearings must be done here in the evenings for the hunting community is able to attend. Many cannot afford a trip over to Oahu.