|
what are the actions available to you? Are you actually utilizing your community hunters to help
<br />reduce the numbers on your land? You know, is it fencing that needs to happen and what are
<br />the potentials – ripple effects – if you fence that area it’s going to change the movement
<br />patterns of the animals –how’s that gonna either improve or impact things in other places – so
<br />we’re trying to take a really comprehensive approach to that, again, that was funded by USDA
<br />so that’s why it’s focused on the rancher’s side of things when we’re thinking about other kinds
<br />of numbers I do appreciate – I think the State is working on doing a better reporting system for
<br />like as a hunter you’re checking in, you’re reporting the number of animals you got that day and
<br />it’s not a paper system so that other people aren’t, you know you don’t have those reporting
<br />issues of people not wanting to show everyone else how many animals they got.
<br />
<br />LT: Do you guys use that hunting data as well for you guys charting and distribution maps other
<br />than the, ah, you know cause you guys get the data from Maui Nui – so do you guys also use the
<br />DLNR hunter checking data?
<br />
<br />MP: I think they just started that two years ago – when was that electronic system implemented?
<br />Within the last two years, yeah? So, for Maui the project finished in 2018 was it 2018 Derek? So
<br />I think the system was implemented after we finished the project, um, Hawaii we just finished
<br />data collection in 2021 so, again, there wasn’t good overlap with those data and I know there’s
<br />kind of a lag time in hunter uptake for using that system too, so, um, down the road that’s a
<br />great idea and that’s something that would be a great point of comparison for our model, so
<br />thanks for that suggestion.
<br />
<br />LT: OK. Right on, mahalo… That’s all my questions.
<br />
<br />AA: Thank you, Leomana. Any other questions or comments from the Commission? Not seeing any,
<br />ah, Abraham, District – 5, it was brought up earlier in a meeting about the Act 315, how do you
<br />guys – what is your guys stance on that – it’s just that, you know, because our game animals,
<br />you know, they came in as a sustainable resource, as a resource, right, that’s why the Hawaiians
<br />brought ‘em in that’s why Captain Cook pretty much brought in a lot of pigs, the goats, the
<br />sheep and, you know, they were gifts to the high chiefs, you know, and to the kings and, it just –
<br />they then became overpopulated due to lack of game management, right, and then now, last
<br />year, we got a sustainable resource bill to get our game animals, our game resource out from
<br />that invasive species wording and, just making it a sustainable resource so what is your guys’
<br />take on that – in the research that you guys are using, doing…?
<br />
<br />MP: Melissa Price UH, so I appreciate that question and I appreciate the work to get things into the
<br />legislature so that you have a policy basis for making change. I want to be really forthright, you
<br />know, I’m not Hawaiian and so I’m – I can’t speak to those values – I listen to what other people
<br />are saying and I try to make sure that I’m supporting and giving good data. The student that
<br />worked with me in my lab and I made sure that they had 2 Hawaiian scholar advisors as well so
<br />that things were grounded in Hawaiian ways of knowing and perspective to make sure that that
<br />was all done appropriately in looking in the Hawaiian newspapers one of the things that was
<br />really interesting is that prior to Captain Cook’s arrival and the devastating disease that
<br />impacted Hawaiian people and really changed the physiological systems so that you didn’t, the
<br />water was diverted, you had all of the things that really impacted the system – \[unclear\] an
<br />agricultural resource within the area of management, right, and the \[unclear\] kanaka, right? And
<br />21
<br />
<br />
<br />
|