GMAC Minutes 12.17.24 Final draft

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four acre park where Hawaiian honu is a 600 year-old refrigerator that's on the blink right now. The last time that pond was completely dredged was 1964, after the 60s tsunami. There's been some minor dredging of different areas of the pond but not entirely. We embarked on a clean-the-pond effort, pond restoration as a traditional fishpond, is our number one priority. So, since 2016 we've been allowed to go into the pond and take out accumulated mud, muck, slime, sludge, whatever you're name for those 3 feet of stuff at the bottom of the pond is—we've been removing it one 5-gallon bucket at a time. We're up to 19,500 gallons of mud taken out of the pond. Two years ago, we embarked upon a Genki Ball project to use the central microorganisms to eat the sludge and the toxins. And that is showing some great impact, we tested 7 areas in the pond for a year and then we expanded the entire pond. Cats have an impact on the pond—with their feces and this impacts the Nene, the monk seals, the green sea turtles, pregnant women. Spaying and neutering a cat is an effort I wholeheartedly support. Returning a cat to a colony is something I'm very hesitant about because spaying and neutering a cat does not get rid of toxoplasmosis—does not get rid of the hunting instinct in cats for going after kolea, Nene, and other native birds. It's also this visual permission to break the law—if somebody sees a car parked on the sidewalk in front of the teahouse, they think that's a parking space and everybody parks, oh, he did it, I can do it. So, this visual permission of seeing cats there—therefore it must be an OK place for me to dump off my cat is very sad, it's very, very sad. To see humans treating these animals like trash—to just be tossed away. There are some compassionate acts that have severe unintended consequences. Fire ants really like cat food so then the cat goes to the ball and is covered in fire ants and, blinded or cataracts from the fire ant bites. We have a program to try and reduce the fire ants in the park—this is a public health and safety issue, but there are certain places that cannot be sprayed because they are too close to the pond —ironwood trees that are right on the edge of the pond, and nobody wants to spray food. The damage we are seeing in the park is not only to the human beings and to the wildlife, but also to park assets. Cats scratch and there are trees that have had their bark shredded from cats scratching on the trees—the corners of the teahouse have had to be renewed with new lumber because of the cats scratching on every corner around the tea house. These are problems, problems that I think can be solved, I'm very happy to hear about the potential feeding station that would allow for cats and not Nene. Fire ants will still get in but one thing at a time. We've been very happy with the involvement of Mr. Lerma and Nene.org with DOCARE with the County and others in protecting our Nene. I know George Travelin [sp?] and I think he's here with us on Zoom, I'm uncertain, I don't see all of the names there of all of the participants— but he did provide a portion of this presentation, ah, view, and I have one more here printed out—this is only a portion of his presentation on his situation in Liliuokalani Gardens. The estimate is between 75-100 abandoned cats— I won't call them feral. They're abandoned cats in Liliuokalani Gardens in various parts of the park and the estimate from cat map, which is provided to you there—the link, and QR Code—the estimate from cat map is between 377 and 521 abandoned cats in the Waiakea peninsula. This is a problem to every enterprise on the peninsula, not only to the park and to our wildlife. 20