Feral Ungulate Management Plan for West Hawaii HCR17-3

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The Division has dra?ed temporary rules changes (§183D-3) increasing the number of available hun?ng days and removing the bag limit for goats and pigs in both Puu Waawaa Forest Reserve and Puu Anahulu GMA. The temporary season would increase archery hun?ng in Puu Waawaa from 16 days to 89 days (a 550% increase) and in Puu Anahulu from 38 days to 89 days (a 230% increase). This rules change would also increase the Puu Waawaa muzzleloader season from 7 open days to 52 open days (a 740% increase) and add a 52-day muzzleloader season to Puu Anahulu (no season currently exists). The Division uses camera traps and instantaneous sampling to es?mate goat densi?es in Puu Anahulu and Puu Waawaa. Popula?on es?mates over the last 5 years are listed below:  2018 - 1,900 goats  2020 - 2,000 goats  2021 - 2,150 goats  2022 - 2,150 goats Combined with harvest numbers, these data indicate a stable popula?on of feral goats. The proposed rules changes should lead to increased harvest numbers of goats and pigs, helping to reduce the popula?on of each species in these areas. Anecdotally, other areas where public hun?ng has not been established have seen drama?c increases in goat numbers. Most of these areas occur on private land where the state has no jurisdic?on to establish public hun?ng regula?ons. In 2018, the DLNR Access and Acquisi?ons Coordinator posi?on was abolished. This posi?on was par?ally tasked to work with private landowners to create agreements that allowed for public hun?ng/animal control to take place on their proper?es. Ongoing research is being conducted via DOFAW and University of Hawaiʻi to produce models detailing the abundance, distribu?on and impact of ungulates across Hawaiʻi Island using data acquired through ﬁeld surveys. Abundance informa?on allows areas to be priori?zed based on rela?ve impact per island and per game species. Both the conserva?on priori?za?on and hun?ng poten?al models will iden?fy areas for improved management and the value of land acquisi?on for increasing hun?ng access. Model outputs may be used to iden?fy areas for poten?al ungulate exclusion fencing and high priority hun?ng areas to minimize conﬂict between DOFAW management objec?ves. These models may be used in discussions on iden?fying high priority areas for both conserva?on and hun?ng. DOFAW also partners with other agencies to protect pris?ne forest and priority watersheds. In these areas hun?ng regula?ons allow for year-round hun?ng with no bag limits. There are also 466,769 acres of forest and watershed protected by fences, with ac?ve staﬀ and contracted removals of ungulates. This includes DOFAW lands, Watershed Partnerships and other agencies.