2022_01_18 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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EA came out for – in all the, you know, testimony and so forth came out of where the waiwi – I missed all that – I don’t know I guess I was busy getting retired. But when I read it – two years ago – my hair went on fire. I mean I’ve been working in that area – I know what waiwi looks like just like you, you know, but when I saw what it was like looking at the waiwi problem in layers – that layer directly above sugar – it’s solid – and then it starts thinning out, it starts thinning out – when you saw the number of acres involved that is what put my hair on fire. I thought, God, we’ve got to find, there’s got to be a way – now I ran into, you know, the reason for the EA, you know, was to spread the insects in the gall – well, I called Tracey Johnson and said, well, how’s it going? And he said, oh, it’s going great – you wouldn’t believe, you know, and he was telling me all this stuff – well, how, what do you mean it’s going great. He said, well, it’s moving at almost 100 yards a year – a 100 meters a year, sorry. And I thought, a 100 meters a year and you’ve got a problem that’s 1.1 million acres – that’s a long time. And so I started questioning what could be done to hasten that and that’s what got me involved in the waiwi problem or this issue but I think more important and this I didn’t – I’m embarrassed to tell you – and there’s a lot of other people in my position and others that didn’t realize the difference between the Conservation R lands and the Conservation T lands. Everybody knows the Conservation T lands but when I looked at the top of where sugar was that looked like the end zone of where I could be active in terms of managing those lands directly because of all of the hoops – I’m sorry this mask keeps falling down… AA: Yeah, hold on. Dalilah – I got a question from the public. Is it OK for him to remove his mask because I guess it’s – he sounds kind of muffled to some of you public – I not sure… DS: Based on the COVID rules if he’s gonna remove his mask you should be distanced six feet away from him, however, I know that some different things going on with council – so since you’ve got the room – that’s the best way to stay compliant. AA: Excellent. PS: I apologize. Sorry about that. They were looking for reasons to get moved away from me anyway. Anyway, so, what I didn’t understand, didn’t realize and I really believe a lot of other people don’t realize is what those lands that are above sugar – those are Conservation R lands – and that’s not the only Conservation R lands and Don went through a map or two with you last time to take a look at it – but they overlay the strawberry guava problem pretty well and when I looked at it further I saw that those lands were designated in 1962 to be used for recreation and commercial forestry – that just – I was shocked. So all of a sudden I’m looking at land that was, formerly just kind of the end of the road and don’t go up there unless you want to go hunt or something and I realized – no – I started reading, well, what was the intent there? Why were all those acres set aside for that purpose? And, you know, if you look at it – at that time multi- purpose management on large landscapes was the way to go – in that era. But these 4