Comm No 0005.01 - GMAC Legislative HIstory - Sept 14 2018

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over flights is you know... helicopters, anything flying over National Parks, endangered critical habitats and so forth. Some of the biggest concerns is reproductive losses. And this is what's happening. The reason I'm talking about this is because in the past two years, they've increased aerial eradication to four time a year, two days. So that's about sixteen hours... you know, each time... to two days in a row and then a few months later again and again. And they're flying over the critical habitat at treetop level. So the birds... the disturbed birds... and they're flying away from the aircraft, they're leaving their eggs and young exposed. Birds that flush quickly are damaging the eggs, kicking the young off the nest... and just to give you and idea of what the helicopters sounds like... I got this from our guys in Kona. But it's... I can't find the darned cursor in here... where are you? Oh, shucks. Now this is from several hundred feet away now. They're flying thirty feet over. At higher elevation they have to rev the engines up because there's not enough air mass to keep the plane going so these are running balls out. They're bringing the carcasses down. And this is the muffled... sound right now. If any of you've been in the military you know. And you can see how high above the treetop. When they're looking for the... they're flushing the sheep out, they're flying at treetop level... blowing air horns. Because the sheep are hiding under the trees. So you're over a critical habitat of critically endangered species and you're blowing horns, the prop wash, everything. And this is what's happening. Habitat avoidment... right here. The animals are avoiding. They're... they're abandoning their nests and they're not coming back and the young are dying. And even they're alarmed at... observations by refugee (inaudible) suggest that endangered species in Hawai'i underutilize a sizeable portion of its critical habitat because of low altitude military aircrafts. This is old news. This is 1987. So it's funny how this data... it doesn't... it says palila birds are abandoning their nests at alarming rate. Population has dropped seventy percent... since 2008. And that's when they started flying four times a year. So my question for Chairman Willie Aila is that he may think that it's proper and effective, but I wonder if the Endangered Species Act thinks it's proper and effective. Okay... and here's over flights again. The manner which indirectly causes harm. Now this is the lawsuit. They were able to sue the State and get rid of the sheep because of this. The manner which indirectly causes the loss of an endangered bird over its time is so... so clearly a taking... Palila versus DLNR was the case. It makes it clear that no intent to cause harm to endangered species is needed. They didn't even have to prove that harm was being done to get the lawsuit to do that. The DLNR can be doing what they're doing right now, driving this species into extinction, and everybody supports it because it's an effective tool. Okay. Right here... Sierra Club and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife, they're criticizing the Army `cause the Army is doing... they want to do landing flights over Mauna Kea, which flies over the critical habitat. Okay... State workers concerned over the effects over flights will have on the palila critical habitat. So they're worried about the military flying two thousand feet over the critical habitat, but they're not concerned about aerial eradication flying thirty feet over it. So what is this have... impact is having? Well this is what's happening... extinction rate. As you can see as aerial... the increase in helicopters and the transition between the declining sheep, the... the palila bird is relatively steady from 1980's to 2000 or so. Fluctuated between five and three thousand. And after helicopter flights increased, even commercial helicopters... because they... when they're doing maneuvers... I checked at PTA, when they're doing maneuvers they 5