2019 01-29 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

Home

Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – January 29, 2019 right now on the State GMAC is to just get one done – get one road paved – get one wall built, I don’t know but... It is what it is so... SM: Stanley Mendes, You know what I’m afraid of is Puuwaawaa going mimic Mauna Kea pretty soon. What they did to Mauna Kea they’re doing to Puuwaawaa – cause if you look in the bird sanctuary – it’s like Mauna Kea, right? Everything is overgrown and everything so now when they plant – when they take the animals out from Henahena going look the same way – now next to the bird sanctuary on the Waimea side – and nice forest over there and they not fencing that place but the forest is way nicer than what’s in the sanctuary, you know what I mean, because the animals are there taking care of the, you know, the under growth... RK: You hit a key point. You know Mauna Kea became a federal court order because of an endangered species, because the State maybe was negligent in their endangered species duties. Now with Puuwaawaa having sheep present in the area there’s been some suggestions by key influential people that is if you don’t have a plan to mitigate or protect endangered species there in the presence of keeping the sheep for public hunting you are theoretically in violation of the endangered species act... So they try to promote this idea that you can’t have seasons, you can’t have bag limits, you can’t have all these things because all those things can be construed as game management and be construed as contrary to the Endangered Species Act – that you’re not following the law – however, I kind of said this earlier – the State – I feel and I think others along the commission – on the State Commission feel as well – that the State has prerogative to manage these things for the State of Hawaii for the public trust of the people – they’re just kinda not taking that prerogative – they’re letting the feds and whoever else tell them what to do – so it’s very political – it’s very difficult but I think there’s been little progress here – seeing the reality of the hunting community has taken the proper steps to get to this point and then getting a stonewall – so there is legislative attention on some of these things that plans aren’t moving forward that have been in the works forever so hopefully there’s some hope there. I don’t know... SM: Because they’ve been opening just the buffer zone all these years... They haven’t been opening all around. 14