2018-07-02 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – July 2, 2018 RW: My name is Ric Wirick. And one of the main things running for this position for is to unite our farmers, ranchers, hunters and fishermen, so I’m really here to learn tonight. I’m listening. I’m trying to take it in and so this is a question for you – but in general – a question – as I’ve been talking to the farmers and ranchers I’m seeing that it’s the State, actually, that gets in their way – the State restrictions are getting in their way. As I’m listening to this tonight it’s coming up again. One the one hand we have a national parks and on the other hand we have the State and I guess what I’m here to ask tonight is a subject that came up in our first debate and that was a word or wording called “Home Rule.” In other words – where the County can begin to decide what is best for the County and this particular case for the Islands. At what point in time and maybe this is where this can be answered is can the Island step up – the County step up to do what’s right for their island and in this particular case to get the ability to hunt and fish without the restrictions put on us by the DLNR and so I guess that’s one of my questions here tonight. I’m again trying to learn all of this right now and if you have a strong County Council that’s able to step up for you and support you in this and that is, you know, with all of you here tonight doing this as a commission of volunteers – this is the type of thing where I’d really like to work together because this is a real component to being able to feed ourselves, to be able to feed our islands – your concern, exactly, I mean, we have to look at that realistically – we can’t just step back and say it’s not going to happen if those containers stop – people will starve. It’s that easy – so I’m asking how we move towards the “Home Rule.” TL: One of the things that happened – Nani very eloquently mentioned how it is we came to be and we were voted in to be – we were voted in nine county districts with a 2/3rds vote – those that voted 2/3rds of them said, hey, we want to have somebody to start \[unclear\] our forest. People are getting tired of what’s happening in our forests – they’re getting tired of being pushed around – and so, once we were created – this commission was created – we embarked on creating a State Game Commission, as well, with which we were finally successful in doing. Another thing – to answer your question, James, is the fact that we also were successful in getting a resolution. Our resolution is not law - but it is something that people are supposed to be following as an intent of what the Legislature wants. And that particular legislation or that particular resolution, which was HCR 22 – for the first time ever puts a value on our game, our fish, our game and our birds – mammal, birds and so forth – and on top of that – makes them a sustainability resource. In other words, the State is saying – the Legislature is saying, you know, we need this game here and we’re seeing the need for it right here on this island with the volcano already. We’re seeing people that are going out and harvesting game and feeding people in the neighborhoods. So this is a very real situation and so we do have situations here where we still have people that are utilizing game, sharing it with neighbors and so forth – and a large part of our population here does it as, you know, as a daily thing – it’s just like going to the store and on Molokai 40% of the meals have to do with 15