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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-11-16 Game Management Advisory Commission MinutesHawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 2015 Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Meeting Date: Monday, November 16, 2015 Time: 6:31 p.m. Place: Hawaii County Building — Council Chambers I. CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order at 6:31 pm. 11. ROLL CALL: Per Bobby Command: Willie -Joe Camara, District 1 — on his way Dwayne "Ike" Yoshina, District 2 — here Ryan Kohatsu — here Naniloa Pogline - here Thomas H. Lodge, District 5 - here Kenneth "Kalani" DeCoito, District 6 — here District 7 Mark C. Bartell — District 8 — here Jonathan Bertsch — District 9 - here Quorum established Also present: Amy Self, Attorney of the Office of the Corporation Counsel Bobby Command, Deputy Planning Director Barbara Kossow, Mayor's Office Administrative Specialist Ill. Announcements and Introductions: Guest from DOWAF — Edith Adkins, Habitat Conservation Planner Kanalu Sproat, Wildlife Biologist Jim Cogswell, Wildlife Program Manager Scott Fretz, Branch Manager Steve Bergfield, Forestry Program Manager IV. Approval of Minutes: Deferred V. Budget Report: Action: D. Yoshina motion to accept report as circulated; Seconded by N. Pogline. Motion carried unanimously by voice vote. Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 V111. Discussion: Edith Adkins (DOFAW) presented (power -point) an overview of the Draft Habitat Conservation Plan for Game Management at Pu'u Wa'awa'a and Pu'u Anahulu that they have been working on for quite some time. A 260 -page document was available for folks to review. She welcomed and encouraged folks to review and contact her with any questions or concerns. Link on to the following to view the document. htti)://oege.doh .hawaii.p,ov/Sha.red%2ODocuments/EA and EIS Online Library/OTHE R%20CHAPTER%20343%20NOTICES/2015-1 I -08-HCP-Draft-NaPuu-Habitat- Conservation-Plan.pd Kanalu Sproat presented in draft form his plan s/goals/strategies to achieve goals for game management in Puuwaawaa and Puuanahulu to accompany the Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP). The goal is to provide annual sustainable public hunting opportunities for sheep and goats in the area. In Puuwaawaa there were permit control hunts in the area. One needed to apply for the hunt and a lottery was held. The most recent hunt were poled rams.—Participation rate was low, 230 applicants. Prior hunts numbers were approx. 400 for both of the hunts, mainly archery. The best example the state has is Lana'i. They have two species that are desirable to hunt there, Mouflon sheep and Axis Deer. Also, they allow rifle hunting. First goal to be able to provide these things is potentially combine the two hunting areas into one hunting unit, with a shared season and a shared bag limit across the whole area for goats and sheep and later pigs, to be able to support archery, muzzle loader and rifles seasons in the area. An example of what the seasons might look like: June to July archery August muzzle loader September to October rifle Hunting unit F and hunting unit E, there is no bag limit and no rules for Puuwaawaa mauka. Rules need to be changed to make it one unit or not and include hunting in that area and bag limits in a season. No rifle hunting there because the population especially of sheep does not support that type of hunting. Second goal: to increase wild sheep population to levels sufficient to support all of those seasons of hunting. To achieve that goal, research. A proposal in process with Fish & Wildlife Service to use PR funds to get 2 Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 16, 2015 GPS collars to put on sheep and goats, which has been approved. Placing those collars on the animals we provide the data on mortality rates and mortality causes, reproductive rates in home range will help determine the population growth. Develop partnerships with other agencies to receive animals that they don't want. Improve habitat, plant food plots — such as kukui trees in Puuanahulu that volunteers planted. Improve the quality of goat population. Provide mineral and forest supplementation to improve the quality of the animals that are being harvested. Maintaining, construct water units and then improve habitat. Draft a game mammal management plan that would be approved by the DLNR and update it every five years, that would go along with the HCP and to do that, form a hunter working group which would be a sub- committee that would work together with the Puuwaawaa Advisory Council that already exists. Questions by Comm issioners/members and Answers by DOFAW staff: • Do you have wild dog packs running in that area? How do you deal with that? SF: We would definitely implement a predator -control program and yes, there are wild dogs and it is a problem. • Do you have any theories of why the sheep population is so low? Could it be drought? SF: No idea, could be water or eating too much fireweed. The GPS collars provide updates two times a day and then if the animal dies it will send an email immediately with the GPS coordinate of where it died so the idea is that we will retrieve the animal quickly and be able to do a necropsy on it to find out why it died. • Have Rumen studies been done on sheep to suggest they actually are detriment to the endangered species on the list? SF: The study was done a few years ago by DOFAW staff working with partners. Data is available. Need to determine what is causing a low sheep population in Puuwaawaa. 0 What happens when a new endangered species is added to the HCP list? SF What we're trying to do is make sure we consider all the candidates so that we don't run into that problem. Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 • The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing 49 new species to be added to endangered species list — how is that gonna affect your management plan here? SF: None of those species will affect the HCP. • Is it realistic to assume that there's enough PR funds to accomplish what's listed in the HCP and then onward into game management? SF: Funding is a challenge and I don't think that anyone believes we're gonna rely solely on PR funds. We would prefer to direct PR funds to game management and there is a lot of other money out there for endangered species management so that's where we're gonna be looking to tap into — that means federal dollars would be a good source for that and state dollars as well, if we can get 'em. • When the HCP is adopted and it is in phases - when do you expect to begin the game management part of this? SF: We can begin the game management part once we obtain state board approval. We're at the point where we can put together a timeline for that. We do also need to get the approval — the incidental take permit or take approval on the federal side too, and we're working to get a firm timeline on that as well. When the board approves it on the state side — we can begin game management using state funds. Also, when the feds approve it on the federal side we can do game management using federal funds. In year one and two we can begin doing that. Hopefully, there no increments attached to the federal approval. We are trying to make sure we get an outright approval on day one— that's why we structured the implementation plan explicitly in that way. in general we are trying to do some of the avoidance and minimization measures first before we did any major population augmentation in specific areas and Kanalu Sproat and I (E. Adkins) have talked about this quite a bit trying to time things so we're not increasing. If we don't have a fence in place in a specific area we wouldn't want to increase the game populations in that area, but as fences go in, in specific areas, different management can happen. Are you wanting to bring the native plants back to pre -mammal native plants count? SF: No. There's two parts to that question. DLNR — part of DLNR's mission with regard to endangered species is to recover those endangered species so in terms of the public trust that is a broad goal that we have. That is not the goal of the HCR The goal of the HCPs are much narrower with regard to the plants so Edith skipped a lot of the details 'cause they're Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes - November 16, 2015 super technical but for every plant what we've done is gone out and done surveys. We figured out how many plants are being impacted by these operations and then what we do - what we do from there is re-create a net recovery benefit based on the amount of take. This HCP is not responsible for all-out recovery of all these species. It's responsible for a net benefit based on the amount of take and collateral to that we have to make sure that in the process we - these populations were making as a net benefit are stable. Based on the assumption that 800 animals or 1,000 animals are a historic number, I realize that animals move around and you know they do all these things but, there is a number of people who have hunted there that have seen a lot of animals in those area at one time. So the animals have declined as well and whether that's from hunting or from dogs or whatever it might be I don't know, but the fact that there were a lot more sheep there in the past and that you still have these plants that are in there - this net gain that you're talking about is from what you see there now, is that correct? SF: Yes. It's based on take estimates and, it's, the take estimates are done by surveying actual areas and then modeling suitable habitat to determine the additional numbers that were not actually counted and then you come up with an amount of plants that are being impacted. • The difference between avoidance and minimization versus mitigation. I know it's the exclosures are labeled differently - would it be safe to say that the mitigation exclosures are particularly areas where you think you can out -plant `ern but they may not exist in those areas? SF: Most of the units contain some in-situ population, so that's what they're designed for, but some of them may only have a few - a handful of individuals so those are kind of going in later on - they're later in the priority list as the units that are going in, which is why the avoidance and minimization is sooner but most of them are multi -function. We maybe have one unit we don't have documented species in there but they're modeled to be in there and highly likely to be in there. • When, you, say 75% is inside of the actual fences so considering take - say it's all done - you'd be considering 25% as well kind of unprotected in a sense, when out -planning and considering the net benefit in value is that 25% - are you held to some number that you have to out -plant or, some measure of success on that is maybe you can clarify that. EA: Two things, the first thing - the 25% that are not fenced - those are known plants, because we can't completely census the entire area we've had them model what is not in surveyed areas and that's all based on habitat Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 16, 2015 and plant range and our survey values, so our take estimates are built both on those plants that are outside of units that we know exist plus those that are modeled to be outside of the units. So that's how the take estimate is built. The benefit, like just putting say our mitigation for one individual species is 100 plants. Just throwing 100 plants on the ground and walking away is not success. So the goal is to have mature, reproducing individuals in the field — that is the goal for, if it's 100 plants we need 100 of those in the field so it may take 1,000 plants to get to that level. It may take 2,000 plants to get to that level, For some of the species it's going to be a huge concern. It will be a concerted effort 25 years to get to some of these population levels — there's no doubt about it that some of them are much more challenging than others. Comment period begins November 8, 2015 and ends March 7, 2016. The EA that's associated with the HCP has to go through that process as well (concurrently) and must be final before going to the board, The EA is separate from the HCP. It could take several months. What has to happen on the federal side? SF: One concern was critical habitat. They wanted to address plant recovery — adverse modification to a critical habitat in a way that we did not have written into our HCP and that we were not prepared to write in. The second was that there is critical habitat for listed plants that are not there. Since the plant is not there it was not written as part of our HCP. However, Feds requesting that be taken that into consideration. EA: We have plenty of space for mitigation for those unoccupied habitat — critical habitat — those species that they have issue with, it's just a matter of working that out in terms of agreeing with what the appropriate mitigation would be, but we definitely have ample space in terms of fencing units. 0 Who on the federal side actually gives us approval? SF: It is the U.S. Fish & Wildlife regional office. * Are these animals impacting those plants and do they know that for sure? SF: There's also an appendix in the HCP where they did some vegetation studies at Puuwaawaa to document fenced and unfenced individuals and the impacts that the game mammals had on those species. • Once approved, is there some monitoring process. Is that an annual or biennial process? How does that work? Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 SF Yes, we are required to submit an annual report. 0 How do you mitigate for something that doesn't exist there? EA: Technically, so you'll notice if you read through the HCP — we've used the species recovery guidelines for creating stable populations so in, for some of those species it may be that we just have to create x -amount of stable populations with a minimum number per species, based on the recovery guidelines for that species. • So what they'll do is essentially in say one of those mitigation fences or a fence that you'd think you could plant one in — it would go in there? Would it ever constitute as take if that thing somehow was outside of the fence and reproduces? SF Yes, I guess so, but that's not a good scenario. No comment. • How many of the fifteen covered plant species are currently located in the forest bird sanctuary? SF: All of fifteen. So the whole process of this HCP then is to mitigate for the (25%) plants that are outside of these exclosures? If you have all these exclosures and the plants are fenced off already and they're protected, right? SF: Right, there's two ways that we've come up but we cannot, say that there are areas that don't harbor plants, so that's why we've gone through this whole modeling exercise, so there are areas that we have a model project the plants are in and that's where we get those take estimates from — but we're trying to fence as many known plants as we can and that's with those avoidance and minimization exclosures are for. • Can the rest of the areas can be open for hunting — then why can't we enhance game in those areas? Is it because the plants are going to be protected in their own areas? SF: If the situation was that the animals — the plants were not in the areas where the animals were — we would not need to do this. It's just that they are. There are a few exclosures now and there are a few plants in those but across the rest of the area there are plants and the animals are impacting them. Its' part of the HCP — isn't part of the mitigation is to have these plants fenced and protected? Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes -- November 16, 2015 SF: There will be units and then plants will be propagated in those units and then that takes care of the mitigation, * So there's no animals that are going to eating those plants? SF: Correct. • So what are the animals going to be eating outside of the exclosures? SF: Outside of the exicosures we will be doing game management according to the game management plan that you guys will develop with. Why can't we enhance game in those areas? Didn't you say we can't increase the population of animals? SF: Once, the HCP is done and the mitigation is provided for in the conservation units, we can do game management and enhance game throughout the rest of the area. • As far as the Fish & Wildlife Service — now with all of this — like PTA — is there gonna be this biological opinion that they're gonna do of that area? Is that part of this HCP or is this gonna be some other over -encompassing decision that they can make? SF: No, I assume they will write a biological opinion for this. I believe that's the process. Then moving to the animals, so the sheep populations are down — can funds be used to make a determination on why? Could funds be currently used right now to figure out why the young are dying 'cause there's coccidiosis going around right now and that affects young lambs, that's something to check into. SF: Yes. Issues like, limits to the population and threats to the population are things that should be written into the management plan. Whatever research is needed or monitoring in order to explore questions that are related to enhancing game or maintaining populations or enhancing populations. As stated here under HRS 195D — for native species, you guys talk about genetic representation. But then we also have that with our game animals to have maintain a certain level of genetic representation otherwise you're going to end up with garbage. When it has the HRS 195D — it says, "must provide funding to implement the HCP and continue monitoring," Who provides the funding? Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 SF: No, most HCPs that gets done — the applicant is required to provide some kind of an assurance of funding and different instruments can do that but it's always been required. When we talked to the AG about this issue and we said the state really can't do that because the state and the feds, for that matter, fund things in bienniums and how are we supposed to do that? Actually we were having the discussion related to a different HCP altogether. So we need to work that out but, my discussions with the AG so far indicate to me that we'll figure out a way through that. • What is DLNR's plan for the 4,000 acres at Kukaiau recently being purchased, is game hunting or any type of game management gonna be considered for any of that? SF: We are not familiar with the details of that and I don't know where we're at on the acquisition. Your question is well taken and I'll get back to you with the information. • We need to manage game, plants and not other things that keep people out of the forest - it all needs to co -exist, right? We will be making comments on the HCP and EA. SF In the case of EAs, it's required under the law to record and acknowledge all of those comments and to provide some kind of response and so that should be in the EA. I'm not a lawyer but I believe there are ways that you — there are avenues by which you can challenge an EA if you don't like what was written in the end and I can't tell you anymore about how you would do that, you'd have to ask a lawyer, but there are ways to do it. With regard to the HCP — the board is the approving authority, so the staff's responsibility, as delegated by the board, is to represent all of those comments that were made to the board when it goes to the board for approval — the board needs to be made aware of them. So what we do is — cause I've done other HCPs before — we write it up in the board submittal and we say here's the kind of comments we had and try to represent them in an accurate manner — so we do that — if you do not feel that they're represented, you should tell the board that — so, you know, everybody — the board is the approving entity — it's a public meeting and the board is there to hear not just what the staff thinks but what everybody else there thinks, so, if you don't like it, you go to the board and you tell the board what you think. Suggestion was made that these hearings must be done here in the evenings for the hunting community is able to attend. Many cannot afford a trip over to Oahu. I-iawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 16, 2015 There is a procedure to request that the board hold hearings for topics on the island that they affect and they do that sometimes and it would be reasonable for you guys to include those in your comments if that's how you feel. « How do you measure success with all the federal dollars that are spent here? SF: You have to make decisions about how you want to allocate the limited amount of funds that you have so you're talking about management, surveys, monitoring, building roads, fire breaks. Could do monitoring, you can do surveys, you can track hunter success and that's an index of what's going on with the game resource. What I would recommend if you guys want to explore this is that five year plan lays out what actions we're doing everywhere on each of the areas we're managing to it identifies the questions you're asking in different areas what exactly is being done in terms of surveys and that sort of thing. You guys should get involved and give us feedback or bring this into your working group and work on that, if there's different kind of monitoring that you want to see in some areas — work with Kanalu for West Hawaii, work with Joey for East Hawaii, work on writing that in to the next five-year plan. It's seven or eight months out right now, so it's a good time to do it. Where is our game management plan for the Big Island? SF It is being reviewed by the field staff and they've given their comments and edits. It will be made available for public review/comments hopefully in December. Concern was raised regarding plantings in fenced areas that are dead, Please report the area so staff can check it out and determine why these plants have died. Bird hunters have been going up Mauna Kea and been going into Area A why must we drive all the way back down to Kilohana, check out — drive all the way back up and then, if you go around the mountain, you have to drive all the way back to Kilohana again. Why can't you check out one time? I mean, if you go in there, if you hunt Area A, it's noted — so you hunt in Area B —just note it. SF We do want our data to be accurate as far as area and so we do keep track of hunter trips and birds for hunter and all that stuff by area and so if you're checking in at the bottom of G and you want to check out the top of G, now you're asking us to go and find your names on both sheets and put it together and so for us, as far as the data management perspective it's much easier just to have one spot that you check in and check out and put 10 Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 all of your data on, that's why, that's pretty much the answer to your question. It does not work because folks do not record correctly. However, open to your suggestions. • What is your manpower — what is your budget for manpower to take care of close to 8,000 acres? Collectively, it was over your 25 year projection. What is your manpower in the first phase, second phase and third phase ... and what is your budget projecting? EA: There is an appendix at the back of the document that lays out year -by - year the costs for the HCP. (Printed copies were made available at the meeting or go to the link that was provided earlier). • What is your Hawaiian component in taking care of these endangered plants and what about the non -endangered plants? Is there an area that plants such as the uhiuhi, kokiae, lama, halapepe and animals co -exist presently? SF: These animals and those species of plants are found in areas — in various areas of dryland forest on the Big Island. They're co -existing but they are — the fact remains that the animals still are impacting the plants, which is what's driving this process. We committed to get you guys information how these animals impact these plants and better information on the history of areas where these animals are present with these plants, so, I understand the question, it's a good question — we'll get you better information. At least two public hearings will be held one on the East side and one on the West side, A suggestion was made to have the public meetings on a week night around 6:00pm and not on a Saturday. VIII. New Business: None IX. Committee Reports: None X. Commissioners Report by District: W. Camara: District 1 - Expressed a "thank you" to DOFAW (Joey, Steve and Scott who were in attendance) for continuing on with the cattle hunt up at Puuo which he believes is a success, a lot of meat for folks. Other districts share in this too. 11 Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 16, 2015 Folks are wondering, what is the status on the state purchasing a piece of Kakaiau Ranch. Suggest a report from David. There were some issues on opening day of bird season up on Mauna Kea, with some people up there hunting with high power way down on the fence line of Kimole — DOCARE was called. I'm yet to see a DOCARE officer up there especially when people call to report the incidents. Lastly, for the DLNR people here tonight — November 12, November 24tH December 4th, 11th, and 18" and this is not on our Island — this is on Maui, but, HRS 263-10, that's state law says that you cannot shoot from a aircraft. November 12th, 24, December 4th, 11th and 18th they're shooting again on Maui — deer, pigs, cattle, goats, I don't understand how the state is exempt from their own law, when we have proven that in our courts here in our county, but anyway, just something to think about. We haven't forgotten about that and we are continuing to watch that and that's not kosher. Thank you. D. "Ike" Yoshina: District 2. First of all I'd like to thank all you guys who showed up to share your knowledge and wisdom with us. I appreciate it, I would also echo Willie's comments about aerial shooting — I don't think it's the right way to do something like that, but, I guess your interpretation at DLNR is a little different. The bunch of rules that I suggest we adopt. There is another thing that I passed out here in Hilo, to forward copies to Kona, it has the public access room information and, a guide for Robert's Rules. And finally, if anybody in District 2 wants to contact me you can do so through the mayor's office at 323-4444. There were no other reports. Chair Lodge thanked DOFAW for their attendance and presentation. XI: Next Meeting Date: Tentatively, December 7, 2015. XII. Adjournment: Meeting ended at 8:57p.m. Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary ATTEST: Thomas H. Lodge 12