2018-07-02 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – July 2, 2018 drivers for the creation of this national park. The Territory of Hawaii had possession of the lands as did Bishop Estate, at the time. The Hawaiian Organic Act of 1900 had given the possession, use and control of the government lands to the Territory of Hawaii. They had the right to give the land away – that was their – at that time. Representative Kalanianaole presented the bill to congress to establish Hawaii National Park and finally, after a number of iterations of that bill – it was passed and after all the land surveys and land parcels were donated to the federal government. So then we have the final bill that was presented to congress and approximately 35,868 acres of Kilauea summit and 17,920 acres of Mauna Loa was included in the original bill, as well as, a strip of land that was to connect those two parcels. The final bill, as it was rewritten by December o 1916, also included Maui and later what we know as Haleakala. So the Park is established by an act of congress and was signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on August 1, 1016. The Park, although established, didn’t have a superintendent immediately and it wasn’t until 1921 that an official blessing ceremony on the rim of Halemaumau occurred where both Hawaiian and western blessings were offered. Funding eventually made its way to the Park but much of the infrastructure was provided by donations and that’s our Hawaii Pacific Parks Association that was their – began in these very early years of the National Park so... And this is our enabling legislation and I’ll share this again – this slide again a little later. But this was the original map – this is one of the very early maps – this was actually before it went to the 1915 Congress and this was done in 1910 and it doesn’t include any of the lands on Maui. This was just really the focus is Kilauea here and that was really what Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was about – it was actually Hawaii National Park and it was just Kilauea, primarily, with Mauna Loa as a secondary addition so in this sort of more modern view of the Park and the Park lands here – this is a familiar map for those that come to the park – from a bird’s eye view with Kilauea Volcano as the prominent feature and Mauna Loa draped in cloud cover. Here you can see that strip of land – here, I’ll see if I can – it’s somewhere right in here that goes straight up – it’s narrow by Bird Park area and it crosses up and goes up to the summit – or actually the road doesn’t go to the summit it goes to the 6,000 foot elevation. So here you can see the strip of land – so remember that Kilauea – the active volcano – was the primary focus of the Park development. The same volcano that was active – th 60% of the 19 century. 60% of the time there was activity in Kilauea – in the caldera Halemaumau and with what we know today – not - that 90% of its surface is covered every 1,000 years so it’s predictable, in a way, that we have these activities going on that we do have today in Puna. So these three rules came out of a letter between some of the Secretary of the Interior and the two – the Director of the National Park Service and these were sort of the operating principles for the acquisition of any lands and that must meet these three rules. So that National Park Service – so as many of you may or may not be familiar with federal government as much as a – say as an employee – where we do know the Department of Interior is our, sort of, umbrella agency 4