2019 01-29 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – January 29, 2019 the report speculates that there’s possibly about 1,000 birds now and in 20 years or so – they’re likely to become extinct, so, you know, it’s kind of the definition of an insanity – you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result and the problem, you know, the unattended consequences that we’re getting this huge fuel load up on Mauna Kea – a lot of people, I think, would say, oh, so, you know, the mountain burns – so what? The problem is when you add wind to that and suddenly it’s a huge danger to the communities so we’re spending tax dollars that it’s not getting the job done and we’re risking the lives of people who live around the mountain. It’s not a problem that’s gonna be solved in the short term. My suggestion is let’s stop eradicating the sheep – let them start to come back – but it’s gonna be years before there are any kind of population to control the fire load – at that point we can start controlling the population of sheep so it doesn’t get out-of-hand. As far as the palila? The State is working on the Kaohe area, you know, my opinion is that they’re not doing a good enough job in Kaohe because I don’t think the native forest ever had that load of grass and it’s not just in spots – it’s through the whole restoration area that you’ve got that thick heavy pasture grass. They’re also starting to work on the Puu Mali Restoration Area and I’ve not been there but if they could focus their palila restoration efforts on those two areas and spend the money – instead of fencing the whole mountain and trying to shoot all the sheep – if they could focus on those areas – allow a controlled population of sheep to be back on the mountain to help control the fuel load, you know, we might get to a situation which is doable – right now I know that they don’t have the resources to do what they’re doing now – plus really do a good job in those restoration areas. They need to be mowed – they need to have the grasses cut. When you walk through those areas with heavy grass – you will not see any mamani seedlings. The seeds that are dropped off the trees can’t take hold because the grasses are so thick, so, you know, it’s defeating the purpose of eradicating the sheep because you’re really not helping the mamani. The only place you find mamani growing is small mamani is where the ground has been cleared by volunteers and then planted seedlings, so, anyway, I just wanted to present this information to say, hey, you know, as a State we’re spending money – making an effort that is not succeeding and as a by-product we’re creating a situation that is a danger to the community and don’t take this as criticism of the people working in DLNR here – I’ve worked with a lot of ‘em and they’re first class people – it’s an issue of the policy and the court decision and I think it’s gonna take the Governor saying, hey, we’ll go back to court or we’re gonna ignore those decisions because they’re not working, so, but anyway, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. NP: Thank you, so much, for coming, really appreciate you sharing that information. We had a meeting with Deputy Bob Matsuda in December and he told us that DOFAW plans to increase their efforts to maintain palila population with translocation and study but they don’t mention dealing with the fire fuel problem but they are gonna go full on ahead in increasing their 4