|
way down to the highway – the old highway to Kona – there’s no landscaping there – so I don’t
<br />know what they’re talking about as far as landscaping. There’s no real agriculture in that area
<br />too – livestock, you know, cause PTA – state land – there’s nothing there. Only when you get
<br />down to Waikoloa on the bottom side you going see some Ag land down there – but even there
<br />– \[unclear\] do false grazing – cattle’s there and \[unclear\]. And that’s all gonna be developed, I
<br />guess, eventually. OK. So maybe landscaping in that area, um, so it’s not a big problem, um, we
<br />have a farm – my family has a farm – we don’t have problems with sheep and goat or if we do
<br />we eat them. That’s our solution, yeah, I mean honestly that’s what we do. Um, the big problem
<br />for us on our farm is Nene. We can’t do anything about Nene. They just wiped out a whole field
<br />of Chinese cabbage so if their kimchi price goes up – blame the Nene. That’s what’s happening.
<br />\[Unclear\] we plant the field times. Imagine the cost of that, so, we aren’t harvesting any Chinese
<br />cabbage for the next 3 or 4 weeks. None at all. And that’s only the tip of the problem because
<br />the Nene are starting to nest there and so now what’s gonna happen. It’s a nesting \[unclear\]. So,
<br />you know, there needs to be other solutions where they can relocate animals whether it’s native
<br />or non-native, um, they need to relocate them to more remote areas. There’s always gonna be
<br />conflict, I mean, you know, I work with, um, they, ah, with NOAA for a little while and they were
<br />talking about relocating monk seals to the main island, right, and I thinking but why would you
<br />do that. Monk seals say that I’d rather live up there where there’s no humans but bring ‘em here
<br />for what? For the tourists? For the tourists to see them. So, we need to relocate these animals
<br />somewhere, ah, so that we can avoid conflict. They talked about trapping programs too. Trap
<br />animals and I don’t know whether to \[unclear\] or destroy them or whatever, OK? But it’s a big
<br />problem, I guess, let’s see – rules and highways. One of the things that they wanted to do – that
<br />I agreed with is they need to keep the vegetation down along the roadsides – so they talked
<br />about this ten-years zero vegetation zone. Um, I think that’s a good idea – that’s probably within
<br />the responsibility of County and State road crews that go out and mow all the time, um, I know
<br />there was some issue with use of Roundup but they use it all over in Puuwaawaa. You see the
<br />big \[unclear\] that’s all Roundup that’s not guys pulling the weeds out or going out with weed
<br />eaters – they’re using Roundup, um, sorry, I don’t know, I got issue – there’s issue with Roundup
<br />but, ah, there’s ways that they can do it, you know, without chemicals, um, but, you know, even
<br />if you do that and you reduce the fire risk, you reduce some of the road hazards you still gonna
<br />get a few animals that want to cross the road. I mean, they’re gonna see the green grass on the
<br />side of the road – they’re gonna cross it. Um, they talked about replacing rumble strips because
<br />it collects water and the animals come out to drink water after the rain. Um, yeah, that happens,
<br />but, ah, I don’t know how you going get the state or – I don’t know who owns the highway –
<br />Daniel K is state highway? Yeah. So, the state would have to come up with the money to cover
<br />the little grooves and they want to put bumps out instead. Maybe down the road on the new
<br />highway but I don’t know who they’re gonna do it on the old highway and then the fencing was
<br />the other one. They talk about fencing, I guess, both sides of the highway all the way down from
<br />Hawaiian Homes all the way down. So you look on the mauka side – the Mauna Kea side you
<br />going get one, two, three fence lines so you keep the hunting area and then another fence line
<br />on the other side – very high costs – it’s gonna take years to do – years of maintenance – never
<br />gonna end, um, they want to build bridges, I guess, so that animals can either cross or – so I
<br />don’t know – it’s a big undertaking – they get millions and talk about millions and millions of
<br />dollars for fencing and, you know, all you need is one smart goat that’ll climb over the fence and
<br />that’s it \[unclear\] so, in conclusion I asked or I made a few recommendations because I
<br />don’t want to just be shooting down their ideas and telling them this isn’t gonna work or, cause
<br />every solution has flaws no matter what so, I told them we cannot be waiting two or three years
<br />for funding to be approved and then for construction to be completed – in the meantime cars
<br />12
<br />
<br />
<br />
|