2021-12-14 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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discourage that – to me that turns me – I’m fighting the entire waiwi issue because of the biocontrol – cause I don’t want that on my property – and there’s something – it’s like a taking a government’s taking – when the government comes in and wants your property – they have to compensate you. If the government released the strawberry guava \[unclear\] – we told them this when we were arguing this with their EA and all of that. You’re gonna have to – there should be compensation for the loss of trees on private property – if they’re valued by the owner – so you’re trying to include the public and make everybody on board which you’re gonna need to do – but when you use a biocontrol – unless the thing you’re attacking is hailed by everyone – so that nobody minds the biocontrol agent being on their personal, private property – if you do that – then there’s not a problem. But when you’re attacking the species that is valued, that has been labeled an ornamental fruit tree and has benefits then you are affecting people and taking away something from them of value and there’s going to have to be some compensation. I think the government is going to have to deal with that someday if it really gets bad – someone’s gonna have to sue – but this is an issue – and it is a moral aspect to this too, in my opinion – an ethical aspect. Just because you – some people – want a forest to look a certain way and we’re talking about human values – I’m an anthropologist – OK – I’m an environmental anthropologist – and I know how the environment really reflects human values – the way we define the environment and what we want to do with it. And, you need to be respectful for the various different ways people do define their environments and we need to not use methods that are sloppy like biocontrol. So when you do that you’re gonna get objections from people – if you want to go in and harvest waiwi in a responsible way – of course, some people already said – a lot of great things were said, you know, if you go in and make inroads you’re going to bring in more invasives. I mean, the waiwi has been here for 200 years – so the fact that it’s suddenly getting out of control probably reflects development and that there’s another factor that needs to be raised that no one’s mentioned – which is climate change – the reason things are in flux right now – environmentally – is because we are experiencing climate change – so you can’t just rely on old species that are born here and old patterns of growth and say things like the “proper canopy” as if God made Hawaii a certain way and it can only be this way with these species in this place. We are in a time of flux. There’s gonna be – there are other species and we have to learn to live with them and utilize them the best we can – some are obviously noxious that we’re gonna want to manage but we should do it in a way that doesn’t – the problem isn’t worse than the solution. I mean – the solution isn’t worse than the problem. So I think we need to choose our battles and we need to realize that the biocontrol agenda that you’re trying to promote is going to alienate parts of the public and is actually going to impact certain people more than others – probably low income people – people who rely on hunting and gathering – not everybody that does is low-income but I would guess and I hope GMAC someday does a survey to see who does the hunting around here? I mean, if we affect hunting is it affecting low- income people disproportionately? Is it affecting certain cultures, sub-cultures in Hawaii more than others because then it’s not fair. And, you know, you’re gonna make enemies with the biocontrol – so I don’t know if all of you remember the whole biocontrol issue or if anybody has any questions about that – but, you know, it’s a scale insect – it causes galls on leaves and it lowers their ability to – if you cut the waiwi – and there’s the insect around it won’t grow back very well, but it’s gonna be standing there sick – less productive than before and it’s still there and you’re still gonna have to get rid of it – so getting rid of sick and you’re talking about 25 to 40% of the forest being waiwi – and it’s gonna be infested – that’s like an infested forest and these little insects float in the wind \[unclear\] the leaves bubble on the leaf – the insect lays eggs that get extruded through the gall and into the air and carried with the wind and it’s gonna go everywhere – it could cause other problems on other trees – just because they said they’ve 19