2014-10-27 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —October 27, 2014 little bit of [unclear], I took some scientific papers and I read a bunch of `em and particularly about the dry land forest areas — so this would be Puuwaawaa, Puuanahulu and it's very difficult to restore native ecosystems in these dry land forests because of invasive weeds and invasive grasses. I took a paper that was co-authored Lisa Hadway as well, so they know these things and basically at the end in their conclusions and observations it asks — is the goal of achieving a self- sustaining native dry forest independent of perpetual human intervention realistic or even important? Now there's a lot of science in these things but basically all it means is that these things are going to require a lot of work. A lot of people, a lot of time, a lot of funding and a largest population of people in these areas —just so happen to be hunters — in the ocean they happen to be fishermen — but if we need a lot help and a lot of work and people that care about these areas — it would seem not logical to get rid of the largest population of people there that care. And that's what we're having right now. So we'll continue on. I'm gonna take some examples of maybe why some of these things don't work. Like I said, maybe I could have showed you some good ones but I think the media on TV shows you all the good ones anyway. So let's talk about some of the other ones. The upper left picture of the Puuwaawaa Forest Bird Sanctuary — I think this was established in the 80s — a very long time ago. The forest bird sanctuary was originally there to restore habitat for the alala —the Hawaiian crow. If anyone's part of the current events today you' know that we're gonna be releasing a crow on the other side of Mauna Loa, actually, in the Kau Forest Reserve instead —where I think historically they don't have any records of them being there —we actually pulled the last few out of the wild in the South Kona area and Puuwaawaa. So ask the question — is the native habitat there since we fenced it 15, 20, 1 don't know— a very long time ago — has it been restored good enough to release our original intent of the alala there? And obviously not—we're not doing that— so that begs a question — is habitat restoration happening? And instead we're actually gonna release the bird on the other side of Mauna Loa in a place where there's a lot of pigs. I don't know maybe it will work— I'm not the scientist— it probably will work—who knows —but all I'm saying is what does that say about habitat restoration? Is it happening? And in the picture you got banana poka —we got a bunch of invasive grass, we got ivy —we got everything — I took this on a tour while I was there. I know, it's a lot of work to deal with these things. A couple other things —we have a lot of fountain grass — it's a big problem — a fire hazard and also noxious weed on the ground from suppressing all natural regeneration of any native plants. As you can see — if we fence — and don't take care of it— now this is just, you know, to keep the plant there so the cattle don't whack it— maybe you can grab a seed bank out of it— but if we fence the whole thing, we're gonna have a pretty good sea of fountain grass if you don't take care of it quick. And this is in Puuwaawaa —we have a grazing management plan to address these things but all I'm saying we can't 10