HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0180.001 2012-2014 P/AWesc
comments on Comm. 180: presentation by Game Management Advisory Commission
for Hawai'i County Council Committee on Agriculture, Water& Energy Sustainabiilty
9:15 AM Wednesday, March 27, 2013, West Hawai'i Civic Center
by Cory Harden, PO Box 10265, Hilo, Occupied Hawai'i 96721 808-968-8965 mh @interpac.net
I expect the Commission to speak against aerial hunting, so I'm commenting on that.
I see aerial hunting by the State as a lesser evil than letting native species go extinct.
I agree with the Humane Society that aerial hunting should be done
• Only when necessary
• As humanely as possible
• Avoiding impacts to non-target animals
• Effectively, so animals don't survive and reproduce, requiring further eradication
State aerial hunting is required by a 1998 federal court order. The hunting must be done twice a year to
protect palila habitat. The hunting targets sheep and goats that destroy mamane trees that palila depend
on, at the only place on earth that palila live, Mauna Kea. In the last three decades, there have been three
court orders to stop the state's illegal "take" of the endangered palila by not removing the animals that
destroy their food and habitat.
In the last decade, there is a decline in palila population that is"unprecedented in 32 years of monitoring",
and they "could be extinct very soon" says a recent study.
[Response of palila and other subalpine Hawaiian forest bird species to prolonged drought and habitat
degradation by feral ungulates, Banko, Camp, Farmer, Brinck, Leonard, and Stephens,
1-1-13]
I do support one concern related to aerial hunting, raised by County Corporation Counsel Lincoln Ashida.
He said there should be a public involvement program, as required by a stipulated agreement from 1998
between the state and environmentalists. I support this.
On State aerial hunting-- if the Commission opposes it, please ask them propose an alternative, with
evidence that the alternative is equally effective.
Comm. No. "8°' /
Ref.To: P/AWESC.
Ref. Date MAR 2 7 7n13