2017-11-8 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – November 8, 2017 DS: Different animals have different impacts on forest and there’s 411 species, you know, it’s on the federal list of endangered species, threatened and endangered species there’s four hundred and eleven plants on that list. We have a lot... TN: Yeah, but most of them are destroyed by insects not animals. The wiliwili tree and the dryland forest area is because of those tiny insects that bore their eggs into the tiny little buds of the wiliwili tree. DS: We’ve got a lot of issues with invasive species that’s why we spend a lot of money... TN: Yeah, but our invasive species that come in are not the animals that we hunt. DS: Right. TL: Let’s talk about Puuanahulu. There may be areas of severe erosion, former pasture, crop lands, forest plantation would probably relate to Puuanahulu as well. Areas of non-native grass or brush resulting in fires or intensive grazing examples are portions of Kekaha Game Management Kauai, Puuanahulu on the Big Island and it’s put by DOFAW, or I guess DOFAW, and it said, you know, it’s the most popular area in Hawaii to go hunting is Lanai. And the other popular areas to go hunting are all privately owned and they’re not state land. The question is – why don’t we have state lands that are attractive. Why isn’t Puuanahulu or Puuwaawaa or the combination of those two or Kapapala or other areas that are out there – not utilized or used as an attractive hunting area that would actually support itself – make some money for the state on top of that – which is what Mauna Kea would have done – where you wouldn’t have to be begging for money to endangered species and the rest of it – was a hunting program that was robust and, you know, brought people in to go do that. But Puuwaawaa and Puuanahulu are badly degraded so my question is why isn’t it that we can’t do habitat enhancement so that you can bring animals into that area and do you even know how many animals can be supported by that area. DS: We just circled right back again and we’re talking about endangered species again. I already said that OK. We cannot take endangered species. We want to get and do a relationship with the hunters. I worked for many years as wildlife manager on Oahu. I had really good relationship with the hunters. And I think most of the work needs to go on the island between our staff and the hunters on the island. The resources are different on every island, the demographics are different on every island and we need to work together and get a better line of communication going and develop better trust between ourselves so we can work together more effectively and we’ll try to help you out the best we can – there are some things we can do and some things we 13