2014-10-27 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —October 27, 2014 gentleman that testified before me talked about we have areas in PTA that are also fenced and eradicated as well. Be it for native plants, archaeological sites, whatever it is. And there's a couple other little fenced - in these little pink areas in Puuwaawaa that I know of that area also fenced and eradicated as well. Because we're such a big area and I only frequent these higher elevations —we also have a lot of other fences in Laupahoehoe, Puumakala, Kahalaleo, Kohala, Manuka and private lands which are actually quite sizeable. I don't exactly know where they are so for accuracy I didn't put them on the map. But it doesn't matter, cause I'll show you how they disappear anyway even without those. So let's add in the next section — the natural area reserve system or NARS. Now it's a common misconception that NARS is a public hunting area —yes, you can hunt in there now, but you're not going to be hunting there in the future. And I'm going to tell you why — the language of NARS is "in reserve the strategies to reduce population of non-native animals to the lowest possible that will be employed." Essentially, that's eradication. You got to get rid of them. They're non-native animals. Sustained use management of animals for hunting is contrary to the intent of the NARS system. So you're not going to have sustained [unclear] hunting in there. Where practicable regulated public hunting will be used to control these animals and at the bottom you can read the rest— other control methods — shoot in helicopter, fencing, whatever it is — is to reduce these non-native animal numbers. So I know it may upset a bunch of pig hunters or people that like to use the NARS system for hunting but they should know that NARS is not a sustained public hunting area. I'm always told, "Oh, NARS have the most liberal hunting and it's great." That's for a reason. It's not going to be that way in the future. So just to get that out there. The purple areas are the NARS areas. You can see actually I messed up — that's actually Puuwaawaa safety zone — so you don't count that but all these purple areas. And I believe the NARS system doesn't— may not require public hearing for fencing, If I'm not mistaken, so I believe Manuka is to be fenced —we got a lot of big areas to be fenced. So it's unfortunate for the hunters — but, you know, hey, that's the law and we were asleep when these things were written. Let's talk about the next thing. Forgot the — priority one into watersheds and probably every ones seen it on TV—the big rainfall is the forest launched by the Abercrombie administration. I think it's a great thing, I'm not bashing it— all I'm saying is it affects you as hunters. So in the green area — the darker green areas — you have the priority one watersheds — in the lower areas you have the priority 2 watersheds and essentially it's been deemed that your non-native mammals in these areas are detrimental to the watershed. No matter how many — they're detrimental. A pubic hunting system has not been part of the watershed program. Therefore a lot of these areas are scheduled to be fenced, eradicated, controlled —whatever you want to call it. Just know that hunting was not 5