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The most dramatic increase was an increase in the number of Game birds reported taken from Hawaii Island,
<br />up from 6107 in FY14 to 11,654 in FY15. Participating in game -related wildlife activities is an important
<br />recreational outlet for many of Hawaii's residents and visitors. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
<br />Service 2006 National Survey of Hunting, Fishing and Wildlife -Associated Recreation, 18,000 persons
<br />hunted and spent 420,000 days hunting in Hawaii. The survey also indicated that hunters spent
<br />$21,000,000 in the State for hunting -related recreation, up 40% from expenditures reported in 2001.
<br />Legal Framework
<br />Hawaii's resources are managed under the authority and mandates of several laws and regulations. State
<br />law authorizes and mandates the protection, conservation, development and utilization of wildlife
<br />resources of the State. Specifically, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS) 171-3 mandates that the Department of
<br />Land and Natural Resources shall manage and administer forests, forest reserves, wildlife, wildlife
<br />sanctuaries, game management areas, public hunting areas, Natural Area Reserves, and other functions
<br />assigned by law. HRS Section 18313-2 mandates that the Department shall manage and administer the
<br />wildlife and wildlife resources of the State which, by definition, includes both game and nongame species.
<br />Section 18313-3 further mandates that the Department shall adopt rules protecting, conserving,
<br />monitoring, propagating, and harvesting wildlife and under 18313-4 the Department is given the authority
<br />to maintain, manage, and operate game management areas, wildlife sanctuaries, and public hunting areas
<br />for these purposes. Chapter 195D, HRS, provides broad authority to the department for the management
<br />of indigenous spp. and provides protection of those spp. by prohibiting take. Within the Department,
<br />DOFAW has been delegated the management responsibility for terrestrial wildlife and the game management
<br />component of that program.
<br />Development of wildlife management policy in Hawaii involves a broad range of considerations. Natural
<br />resources are managed in consultation and collaboration with partners, communities, and constituents,
<br />who represent a wide variety of opinions about resource management. Legislative, congressional, and
<br />judicial decisions influence, and may even dictate, natural resource management policy. In addition, many
<br />of the statutes and rules that direct management are broad in nature and, at times, conflicting.
<br />In order to deal equitably with its varied constituencies and mandates, DOFAW has developed an open and
<br />interactive process to determine guidelines for management strategies for all lands under its jurisdiction. This
<br />process has often resulted in emotional and, at times, divisive, debates over potential forest land use and
<br />wildlife management practices as demands among user groups increase and we attempt to integrate
<br />environmental, local community, hunting, and native Hawaiian
<br />cultural concerns. Appendix IV describes the Resource Management Guidelines as
<br />1 Resolution of the very large discrepancies between the USFWS National Survey numbers and hunter checking station data has been
<br />previously approached as follows. With questionnaires returned from over 1,300 Hawaii hunters in 2003, the number of hunting days
<br />estimated was 5.2 times the number of hunting days reported in check stations for that year. If this factor is applied to FYI check
<br />station data, the result is 204,700 hunting days. When national survey results were adjusted to include only licensed hunters (10,080 in
<br />FY10), the national survey estimate was 234,100 hunter days annually, much closer than the more than 10 fold difference between
<br />state and federal raw results
<br />5
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