2019 01-29 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – January 29, 2019 BL: Brian Ley. I’m a horrible public speaker. Back to the about as far as the sheep go – if you’d like – Don was mentioning up on Saddle Road if you go – like I use that for a classic example – that you look on the right side of the road Hawaiian Homelands – overgrazed, no management on the sheep and where it goes, where it bumps up Hawaiian Homelands to the military base – six years ago was a beautiful hill, lots of brush – did a lot of bow hunting for sheep up there, I mean, there was just – it was just crazy. Turkeys – all sorts of birds and now cause no management on the sheep – it’s overgrazed, the brush is gone, there’s very little vegetation left so the sheep are obviously are way good on clearing everything out if there’s no food – it’s like everything else – they’ve got their preference but not – and as far as the water goes – these waters that we got all over the mountains for the game birds – if it’s not a critical habitat remove the fence and the sheep got access cause I’ve talked with some people and they said they’re only supposed to have the fence to keep the ungulates out of the critical habitat area. If it’s not a critical habitat why do we need a fence around the waters – we’ve got waters over on the Kona side for the goats – there’s no reason why we can’t do it on Mauna Kea when it’s not, you know, a critical high-density palila bird population. And as far as the \[unclear\] this year was dismal, I mean, it was just... And, you know, I’ve gone back, I’ve got – I was noticing going back through Go-Pro videos for the years you could see it, you know, when Don and I first hunted the last day of the season 25 birds and you can look at the video – open ground everywhere – this year same area same dog – two birds – that was it. The grass was so thick the only place you found birds was next to the road. If you go twenty, thirty feet off the road the grass is so thick they can’t get anywhere so if you get off the road you’re just trying to break a leg or kill your dog so, you know, it’s just basic 101 management, you know, where you’ve got the borderline – there is no borderline. It’s solid grass – whole Mauna Kea – last year where I would – Christmas and Thanksgiving limited out an urkel by 8:30 in the morning. Went back to the same place this year – all day long not one urkel – saw two turkeys – that was it, I mean, it was just – where places that were just historically for me have been hunting holes for birds – nothing. I’m acting like a newbie running around all over the mountain trying to find new spots where the birds are and the one place you can find birds – if you can see the dirt you’d find birds and I found a small herd of – I call them Mauna Kea unicorns cause you don’t see ‘em anymore anymore – but mouflon sheep in a little area – nice little trails – everything else - breaking the grass down, laying down eating it up – birds. That’s what we want \[unclear\] you find sheep you find the birds so, you know, they like the trails, they like the thing – same thing with the pigs – we’re getting rid of pigs – the pigs are the only thing that actually get in there root up the ground so there’s some dirt so some new growth and vegetation can happen, so, in my opinion – we need something. We got the dairy closing down – get all those dairy cows and turn ‘em lose up there and we can hunt ‘em in two years. You know – knock ‘em down. You know, we got, like you said, we’ve got it – there’s got to be a middle ground, you know, we can’t have Hawaiian Homelands where it’s just 8