2017-11-8 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – November 8, 2017 hour that we’ve been here so far is that game management is not on the plate. It is a hunter da kine. I can guarantee you that if you open Puuwaawaa 24/7 \[unclear\] 99% of the hunters is not gonna appreciate that and we know why that is – you never admit it – but you don’t want the animals there so you’re gonna let us do your job in getting rid of all the animals. I know you’re not going to admit that – that’s fine – we don’t have to go there – but that is why we’re here cause we are here for our game. We’re not here arguing that we don’t want any plants – that’s not the point – I love the forest – I love to be in the forest – I don’t want to see it go away – but I wanna have a decent day of hunting when I go hunting. Right now, you can spend a lot of money on archery equipment and there’s no place to go hunt ‘em – to use it. Oh, sure there is! There’s Puuwaawaa. But there’s not an animal out there for me to shoot. There’s not many in there at all. DS: Well, part of the thing about the year-round daily is it allows us to just open areas up. If you try to do game enhancement in a particular area that’s gonna have a negative impact especially on \[unclear\] species – we can’t do it. So it’s like do you want your year-round daily or do you want nothing. WJC: We have no beef with seasons – there’s just no game there to be had. So why we’re here is we’re wanting to figure out a way to manage the game in our game management areas. Let’s start with Puuwaawaa - the HCP’s been going for what – twelve years and it still hasn’t been done. DS: So you’re talking about game enhancement – put yourself in our shoes – you cannot take endangered species – how are you gonna rectify those two? DY: How do we make sure our interests are in that conservation because right now it doesn’t seem that way and when we are not in that conversation this is the result. I don’t want to go down there because I’ve been down there and all it is is hakaka and it’s not nice. WJC: To get back to Theresa’s question. What you were trying to say is when you chose areas to become a natural area like Puuwaawaa bird sanctuary – Hakalau – it’s because you’re calling it pristine areas – that’s why you’re wanting to preserve that but for hundreds of years animals have been in these areas yet they’re still considered pretty much your pristine areas so why is there such a push to remove them so quickly. DS: Well, a lot of the areas that are in the best condition haven’t had many animals in them and we want to keep it that way – so a lot of these areas you just don’t have that many animals. If you have a lot of animals a lot of times you don’t have any forest at all. WJC: So where on this Big Island would you consider pretty much pristine? 11