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From: Alan Gottlieb [gottlieb @hawaii.rr.com]
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 11:56 AM
To: counciltestimony @co.hawaii.hi.us
Cc: 'Hawaii Cattlemen's Council'
Subject: Bill 112 to be Heard 1 pm, Tuesday Oct 4, in the Environmental Management Committee
Attachments: Bill 112 Hawaii County - Axis Deer.pdf
Please call if questions or comments
Alan Gottlieb
808 - 306 -7769
Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough.
Groucho Marx
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Comm. No. 3 0 . Z2i
Ref. To: P /
Ref. Date OCT 4 2011
10/3/2011
Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.
P 0 Box 437199 Kamuela HI 96743
Phone (808) 885 -5599 • Fax (808) 887 -1607
e -mail: HlCattlemens @hawaii.rr.com
Council of the County of Hawaii
Environmental Management Committee
Bill No. 112
Relating to restricting the transportation of Axis deer into the County of Hawaii.
Chair Dominic Yagong and Members of the Committee:
My name is Alan Gottlieb, and I am a rancher and the Government Affairs Chair for the Hawaii
Cattlemen's Council. The Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc. (HCC) is the Statewide umbrella
organization comprised of the five county level Cattlemen's Associations. Our 130+ member ranchers
represent over 60,000 head of beef cows; more than 75% of all the beef cows in the State. Ranchers are
the stewards of approximately 25% of the State's total land mass.
The Hawaii Cattlemen's Council strongly supports Bill 112 with a suggested change to also make it
unlawful to transport Axis Deer within Hawaii County.
Ranchers and others have spotted Axis Deer in Ka'u so they are already on the island, but we don't need
more of them illegally shipped over. _there _ from other Islands or moved to new locations on the Big
Island. With a concerted effort, the Deer can be eradicated before they become a nuisance, unless
people intentionally transport them to new locations.
Ranchers on Maui have lost significant carrying capacity in some paddocks due to deer grazing. Axis
Deer are preferentially grazers, not browsers, and will compete directly with cattle for the best grass.
Deer have caused significant crop loss even to sugar cane in central Maui in newly planted fields.
Several other crops on Maui and Molokai have experienced losses due to deer. A coffee grower on
Maui reports that he had his seedlings eaten by deer. There are crops grown on the Big Isle, and some
that could be in the future, that would require 10 ft tall fences to keep Deer out. Deer will be devastating
to agriculture on the Big Island.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify in favor of this very important issue.