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standing committee just so that we can all get together and say Hawaiian Homelands what’s
<br />your mission, what are your issues, what can we do to help to reduce the strike. What do you
<br />see? Ah, PTA, what do you see? What resources do you have? How can we mitigate all this? Um,
<br />and that I think kind of went over people’s heads, again, that’s just my impression, um, the
<br />other thing too was – let’s see here, yeah, so we need to have unified plans – just have a
<br />standing group of people that are working on it continuously. Um, with the Nene, um, another
<br />comment I got from Mark is, yeah, you’re right, there’s always going to be conflict with that and
<br />I don’t know how much acreage you have. I know that I was told that because of Nene being
<br />protected – that – I mean, it’s a really sticky thing. Supposedly DLNR’s supposed to help mitigate
<br />some of the protected species or maybe Wildlife Services, if it’s federal. Um, to help mitigate the
<br />problems with the Nene, either with relocation, um, which is huge and then also if it’s a smaller
<br />property, ah, NRCS and other agencies might be able to help with putting up some netting to try
<br />and prevent them from coming in. That’s really expensive, especially if you have thousands of
<br />acres. If it’s maybe a 10-acre – then perhaps those agencies can help, um, those landowners
<br />with that besides, um, relocation. So those are some other resources, um, the concern that we
<br />have from the HGOA aspect was relocation of species, particularly pigs because of the diseases
<br />that they carry, um, HGOA is really, really worried about especially swine brucellosis and pseudo
<br />rabies. Um, there has been an uptick in a number of hunting dogs that were affected this past
<br />year. I’ve gotten calls from at least 5 different veterinarians about dogs dying with pseudo
<br />rabies, um, as well as spillover of brucellosis into other species such as horses and people. So we
<br />need to be really, really careful about where we relocate these animals and it’s my
<br />understanding that, I think, DLNR says you cannot transport feral animals without a permit or
<br />something like that. Um, with sheep and goats, again, it belongs to the people that are on the
<br />property – if private citizens are receiving these animals from, say, a round-up or a cull – then
<br />there’s a disease called Scrapie – which is the sheep and goat version of mad cow and, um, the
<br />State of Hawaii would mandate that once those animals leave their farm of birth then they need
<br />to have USDA identification and HGOA can help with that, um, unless they’re going straight to
<br />slaughter. Um, and then, oh, yeah, the other mitigation was – I think this problem was so vast
<br />that we need to look at – I don’t think there’s one fix all – I think we have to implement all of
<br />these things, um, I do know that with the fencing, ah, yeah, it is expensive but there’s fencing
<br />already there, um, and on those stretches – if we could just close the gap at the bottom that
<br />would greatly help because it would prevent those animals from getting to those ruts on the
<br />rumble strips, um, the animals can then graze up to keep the grass down, um, and that’s where
<br />the land – it depends on where you put the fence, um, for private landowners, um, Hawaiian
<br />Homelands, um, granted it’s a perimeter – I think if we’re able to work with the Feds and the
<br />State, um, the biggest thing with the fencing – yes, you have to maintain it but if it’s done
<br />correctly, um, you can keep deer out, I mean, this is what they do – OK – not to bring the
<br />mainland, but they had problems along the inter-states with deer and deer can jump really high
<br />– like really high, um, and it would kill lots of people on these inter-states, um, and so they – a
<br />lot of the states put up – with federal funding – deer fencing, which has been pretty effective.
<br />The only thing is if we do that - these animals migrate back and forth – so if you stop them from
<br />migrating that’s gonna create a whole ‘nother ball of wax. Um, and this is where having the
<br />animal passages come in – yes, it will cost money but does it have to be fancy and expensive?
<br />No, it could be something as simple as a culvert under the highway where the animals can go
<br />back and forth. You could put gates on either side to manage their migrations. One thing that’s
<br />bad about a fence all the way – if fire management is not being – if we have another brush fire
<br />like we did with that big Parker Ranch fire, you’re gonna see all these dead burnt up animals
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