2023_02_21 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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grass so the pigs usually congregate around all the big grassy areas so the big cemeteries right below Ponahawai Street, one other one is the one in Waiakea-uka and across from Honolii, um, there’s huge long fence lines within town and so these big fence lines are gonna divert a lot of the wildlife in the area – the local wildlife. They’re also in Hilo Town – following the rivers – cutting down all of the vegetation around our rivers going up Wailoa Park. Two rivers over in Waiakea-uka and the main river up Kaumana Drive – on both sides going up it seems like there’s a lot of development happening going from Bayfront all the way to hospital and a lot of the animals are being driven out of their natural habitat so – just if you guys are in Hilo Town – be aware there’s a lot more wild animals because their homes here locally around the rivers are being destroyed. I checked also into the last meeting I talked about the raw sewage spill that happened in Keaukaha – every year we get about 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilling into Keaukaha when the waves come up – a couple of the workers at the plant they told me it’s because of the pipes that go out in to the deep ocean – the big swells – they just build up the back pressure and I guess according to whoever is the planner on site – they have to release all the pressure and they have to also release – if they decided it’s a good time to release it while the waves are sweeping out and the currents are strong, one other thing I’d like to mention is if you guys noticed currently on Maui in a marine sanctuary we have a yacht broken down leaking diesel – putting trash in the area – this is one of the things as the wild game commission we got to focus on is how do we manage our own properties and lead with pono leadership? You know, we don’t have a statewide game management plan and so these other counties they’re left to themselves to fend for the animals in the wild. I don’t know who on Maui is calling with the type of representation we have here on the Big Island but as for me, I look at the other islands and I know they don’t have game management. They have one person per island, so it’s kinda like our duty to say something that we see happening across the state because we’re lacking and every island depends on the next. So I just wanted to bring that up that we have the 30 by 30 bill going in, right, we got funding for this this year, and so I’d just like to focus our attention on our protecting marine areas because this isn’t only happening in Maui, this is happening in Kona – this has everything to do with the manta ray dives – with all of the pollution they’re bringing out by bringing so much illegal activity, out in the ocean and these – it’s not only happening to Kona or the Big Island – this is happening to all islands. Anyway, that’s my district report. Mahalo. AA: Thank you, Leomana. District – 4, Brian Ley? BL: Brian Ley, District – 4. The usual – being overrun with pigs. Legislators won’t do anything – pass any bills or move any bills so we’re stuck for another year with being overrun with pigs. I did have a meeting with the Fire Chief for the County and a couple of fire officials about trying to get them on board with writing a letter to the Mayor to write a letter to the Attorney General who overturned the federal mandate on Mauna Kea because of the massive fire hazard we have – like you said we just had a fire from lightning strike which is right adjacent to the palila habitat and like you said, you know, I came in with a binder of scientific studies – one after the other – in Hawaii, on the mainland, the other islands – the statistical things is just overwhelming – so I don’t know why we constantly can’t do this and why we can’t have a game management plan to keep these animals \[unclear\] DLNR lady that says we have a game management – if we had game management we wouldn’t be overrun with pigs, the deer wouldn’t be overrunning Maui, and, you know, it’s just obvious then we would have the game birds wouldn’t be disappearing – we have to game management – and we need to step up and get this game management and get these animals under control, bring the population down and bring ‘em up and do the habitat 3