2014-11-17 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 VI. PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS: Chair Lodge welcomed Jo Jo Tanimoto who testified in Kona. JT: Hi. My name is Jo Jo Tanimoto and I live at Kawaihae. I thought I was going to be on the agenda this evening, Tom, I mean that's what the indication you gave to us so Robert Shook are in attendance this evening. So, I'm gonna pick the discussion item and that will set us right up into the discussion for his (R. Shook) project that he wants to create with the help of the game commission. So I have a copy for you guys — I'm just going read it — so it says, "Thank you for the opportunity to share an exciting community idea as an alternative for eradicating goats, pigs and sheep. I watched the You Tube presentation of the GMAC February meeting and speaker Lisa Hadway of DOFAW, which is why I'm here. So the item says — what works and what doesn't. Number one — I noticed that the maps of DOFAW, that Lisa shared, does not include North and South Kohala. Number two — those maps do not include the Kohala watershed, which specifically Pelekane and Waiulaula watersheds. Number three — the presentation of maps did not include the fenced areas of the Pelekane watershed, where we feel in Kawaihae that this is a problematic issue that the Game Commission should be aware of because it's so problematic that it got into the County CDP [Community Development Plan] document for the South Kohala area. Number four — those maps did not include the historical significance of trails and access to the mountain and along the seashore; the discussion did not include funding for protection of wildlife in the watershed areas and it's almost like it's not even acknowledging that there's anybody that lives in the area. The hierarchy map needs to be updated as of last year the Aha Moku division was included in the DLNR and it wasn't in the map either. Therefore, I come to the conclusion that South Kohala is not included in any DLNR budgeting and planning actions that are set to take place without this communities' comments; and I object. The actions, budget, the maps and the information shared all need to be fixed. And then number 7 — divisions of DLNR need to work together so that you address the gaps in authority that run concurrent with each other. And I think one of your members on that panel also brought that up. OK. So we have a proposal for a draft game management plan out there long before 2006 when we had the earthquake and all of the feral goats were loose and roaming around causing traffic accidents — they were eating all our plants in our yards and what not. And we needed to get — we still do, in fact, it's still going on — we need to get rid of those animals but we definitely do not want to be subjected to shooting these animals from the helicopter — like what happened couple months ago. And it's pretty close to where we live, so we're not comfortable with that. We have 2