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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-03-16 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Meeting Date: Monday, March, 16, 2015 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: Hawaii County Building — Council Chambers, and via Video Conferencing to WHCC Mayor's Conference Rm I. CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order at 6:33pm. 11. ROLL CALL: Per B. Kossow: Willie-Joe Camara, District 1 - here Dwayne "Ike" Yoshina, District 2 - here Anthony "Tony" Sylvester, District 3 - present District 4 —Vacant Thomas H. Lodge, District 5 - here Kenneth "Kalani" DeCoito, District 6 -here District 7 -Vacant Mark C. Bartell — District 8 - present District 9 —Vacant Quorum established ALSO PRESENT: B. Hall, Attorney, Corporation Counsel B. Kossow, Administrative Specialist B. Command, Deputy Planning Director arrived before 7 p.m. GUESTS: • Brian Mabry and John Polhemus from Pohakuloa • David Penn from DLNR • Naniloa Pogline, new commissioner for GMAC representing District 4. IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Action: D. Yoshina moved to approve the minutes as circulated. Seconded by T. Sylvester, motion carried unanimously. V. BUDGET REPORT: None V1. PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS: (taken out of order) My name is Jason Imamura, I have a question. Correct me if I'm wrong if the PTA is state owned, majority, and they're proposing to the game biologist—there's a new game biologist and a new enforcement—we're talking about or they are talking about making a game management— how 1 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 can — I don't understand how they can do that there—which is awesome — I support it all the way—wouldn't they get shut down or come under jurisdiction straight from Fish and Wildlife like how it's always been? Is this really for nothing? Or— a suggestion — if they can do that there on state land why can't we take something like they're trying to do, which I support, on other state land maybe privatize it somehow, if that's the case, cause Pohakuloa is privatized, I guess, cause they lease state land. So this is all good what they're trying to do, but who's to say the Fish and Wildlife and these agencies won't just, you know, shut 'em down... VII. DISCUSSION: 1. Pohakuloa Training Area - Game Management Plan John Pohemus, program manager for the hunting program at Pohakuloa Training Area. John has lived in Hawaii for 40 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree, started his career with DOFAW in 1997 worked for the wildlife section on Oahu and on the Big Island for about 10 years and then had an opportunity to go out and do private consulting for 7 years before getting into the game management position at PTA. The program at Pohakuloa will take a different direction from where it's gone in the past. The view of the Command — a bit more formal and more regulated process for hunting access. There will be an opportunity for the hunting community to chime in. (Handout of presentation was circulated). Basic operating principals —two disclaimers - the military's mission comes first - hunting opportunities will always defer to the military training schedule. Hunting at PTA is a privilege, not a right. And PTA Command may suspend hunting access to maintain operational use of the facility. The program objectives are to develop a formal, regulated program addressing public hunting access on to PTA. Monitoring game populations and implementing management practices as permitted under the existing state, federal and military regulations. PTA is also bound by some of the rules and regulations that are out there. To develop a set of administrative rules which will define responsibilities and procedures for access to hunt at Pohakuloa Training Area and which also includes the Keeaumoku Maneuver Area of KMA. The rules will encompass roughly 45,000 acres. Produce an operations plan outlining infrastructure needs and field activities to support the program. 2 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 The main focus - 1) to develop the administrative rules - Researching other military facilities to see what they're doing and may incorporate some of those procedures here. PTA produced a public recreation SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) in 2008 with references to the 1964 state lease — so the state lease lands that are included in most of Areas 1 -16 and various Army regulations. For reason unknown the program was not implemented. To date the regulations that being worked on are basically a cut-and-paste edit job with the 2008 SOP -just a strictly hunting-specific set of regulations. Chapter One, is a general discussion outlining the purpose of the regulations. Who at PTA does what— it has a section on what the public hunters themselves are expected to bring to the table and it provides a list of regulatory references that go on and on. Chapter Two is hunting that occurs on state land or on Army land defers to the state regulations that, that land is in. Basically PTA is bound by HAR 13-122 and 13-123 — Rule Regulating Game Bird Hunting and Game Mammal Hunting. Anything additional would be more procedural — permits and things like that. Chapter Three outlines permits, requirements, processes to obtain and things of that nature. Chapter Four is access. Chapter Five is an enforcement chapter that outlines some of the suspensions or penalties for violations. Everything is 100% conceptual as PTA is in the process of drafting the set of regulations. The public will have the opportunity to comment. Timeline probably 2016 for the final draft to be ready for review by the Judge Advocate's Office, after which time PTA could actually implement the procedures and/or initiatives. Feedback requested in a number of initiatives that will be proposed. Administrative side —the rules and operational side— how PTA actually operates and treat access to the hunting areas. The establishment of a hunting permit to enter PTA and hunt. An annual permit for anything, a game bird season permit, a mammals only permit. 3 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes- March 16, 2015 Short-term (3-7 days) permit for visitors. Require a valid State of Hawaii hunting license. An Unexploded Ordinance at PTA (UXO) - a need to incorporate briefing procedures so that everyone who comes on to PTA can be safe. The application process in terms of is it a physically manned store front or is it an on line situation or a combination of the two. The second administrative initiative is an actual fee for that permit. Price not determined - fee to support the hunting program. Revenue 90% would stay at PTA, 10% for administrative costs like issuing permits, etc. PTA is looking at phasing out the Hunter Hotline and moving towards an all online information distribution system. Most feel the hotline is both antiquated and long winded. Goal is to either shorten that or phase it out altogether and go with a complete online schedule information. Part of the plan is to realign training areas into hunting units and that has more to do with sort of changing the way PTA thinks about how to open areas on Pohakuloa for hunting. Currently, if a designated training area is not occupied by a unit-then they've opened it- regardless if there are animals there or not. PTA wants to change their way of thinking to a more geographic based system. They are proposing to turn Training Areas I thru 4, for instance, into one unit and opening that unit - the training areas will still remain in effect for the military use but it's just changing the way that PTA open areas and so if Training Area 3 is occupied then they would not open that unit basically and so part of the feedback system that they are developing basically lays that out for the hunters to be able to take a look at and see if you like that or not. Installation of hunter checking stations at least four that would be specific to Pohakuloa Training Area would improve the reliance on the state checking stations and data collection. Possible stations Old Saddle Road gate, across from the Mauna Kea State Park and would serve as basically Training Areas 1 thru 6. AN Road currently used for construction access and has a nice open gravel area - it would serve Areas 7 thru 16 over by Puu Keekee The fenced units at Pohakuloa Training Area (which is completely outside John's program) PTA will be able to offer game bird hunting in those areas and so this AN Road checking station would also service those areas and it would also be the Hilo side checking station for Keeaumoku. 4 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16,2015 In addition, adding two more checking stations — one down at the new Saddle Road and Mamalahoa junction and the old Saddle Road and Mamalahoa junction instead of driving all the way from Waimea up to Kilohana then go back down to the bottom of Mamalahoa to go hunt. Limit interior vehicular access to some of the areas of PTA. In the process of identifying areas that can be used for unlocked parking areas basically around the outside areas the existing gates along Training Areas 1 thru 4 along the new Saddle Road. Operational initiatives basically an in-house data program —techies developed an online survey. It should be up and running first of April — ready to distribute. Basically seeking feedback on the initiatives that were discussed while in the program development—they want to make sure that the product is something that is amendable to the hunters. How do you folks utilize Pohakuloa for hunting, survey includes some interactive maps that you may click on —where do you like to hunt game birds on Pohakuloa and KIVIA, where do you like to hunt mammals and so forth. It will provide some basic demographic information like where folks are from. It will also help guide how permit revenue collected is spent. The Commander is looking for a community driven hunting club at Pohakuloa Training area and without community participation it probably won't happen. Brian and John will support but will not spearhead. The Commander is looking to create some legacy projects for his time here — the hunting program itself being one. Second, a skeet trap range, possibly adding archery to the footprint of that range. It will depend on who decides to step forward and lead that club. It can include creating a volunteer base for anything that happens at Pohakuloa. It would serve as a voice between Commander changes every two years or so. Having some stability from the hunting standpoint would be a wonderful idea. It has to stand on its own with community support. Questions for Brian and John Q. Would animal watering units be permitted in any of this? Cause as it currently stands right now we can't have watering units for animals anywhere other than game birds. Is that something that could be done in PTA? A. Not likely. 5 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 Q Chapter 183D allows DLNR to relocate game as it stands today, so I guess PTA wouldn't be able to utilize that? Do you know whose decision that would be? A. I would hope that we could, Decision will probably be the Commander's. Q. And then the fence between PTA and Department of Hawaiian Homes Land is that just stays the way it is? Whose fence is that? Is it Hawaiian Homes' Land or is it PTA. A. I don't know whose fence that is. Q: This fee money that's being collected — if that's not going to be able to be used for habitat improvement such as watering units —what do you see that money being used for, you know, just in your own brainstorming that you've done? A: Well that's one of the questions that we do have on the survey— so we'd like to get as much feedback on that and from the mammal side —the archery folks as possible. We are bound by a lot of the regulations that exist in terms of game mammals — nothing is completely off the table we can approach any of these things throughout this process - outfitting an archery range and things like that. A lot of the things that PTA is mandated now to do with respect to game animals — I will say that, inside the fence is one thing — but outside the fence there is no agenda, goal or aim to make things outside the fence the same as they need to be inside the fence for Fish &Wildlife Service mandates — so everything that I've been told to this point— we will have game animals to hunt on PTA— how many is gonna be down to, I think, habitat conditions and the way things are occurring naturally. Q. You said Areas 1 thru 16 are state land, right, state lease, is that correct? A. I believe so, yes, most of it. Q. Aren't you prohibited from spending federal dollars on game mammal enhancement but not necessarily state dollars? That's been the issue, I mean, if we use our own money —Wildlife Revolving Fund money for a watering unit in an area —there shouldn't be anything that precludes that so, if we're giving you the money in those areas outside the fences, let's say, that would be something that we would like to talk to you about because habitat improvement is what keeps game there— if the habitat goes down or becomes degraded, they will move into Hawaiian Homes and who knows what they might do with it. So if we can keep 'ern there and you can manage them it would seem that would make more sense, in my limited experience. A: No, that is something we can certainly address. And I've already started talking with a James Weller from DOCARE on a cooperative game management program. So what I need to do is get John in there—get him introduced to DOCARE and then we can start looking at where does 6 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes--March 16, 2015 DOFAW fall into that. And then working with Hans or his replacement on what units we might be able to put in place but it's something that we need to look at and we really need to start with that cooperative game management plan with the state. Q. How can the community be involved? How do you plan to engage the community in this process? A. Well, first and foremost is this online survey that we're putting out. The feedback that we get from that, I think, is gonna be valuable in tenfold. Aside from that, we've got Steve Hurtz folks coming up in a few weekends here to do a little maintenance work on some of the game bird guzzlers. I know that a lot of people have approached Brian over the last six month or so asking about volunteer opportunities and we'd like to outlay as many off the shelf projects as we can —to have those in place and ready to go if people step up and want to come out and help out. Basically just—your feedback during the process of developing this program is gonna be probably some of the most valuable input—from my standpoint, from my task at hand. Q: Do you anticipate having a work group with the community to draft up this stuff? A: Not a work group, utilizing the survey -the response is from the survey and categorizing responses and things like that. It's really general market research approach - like I said more of a business approach to the product that we're trying to develop. Q. What's your timetable? A. (JP) Hopefully the survey will be released to the public beginning of April — probably run it for about a month online to make sure that enough people have enough time. Survey takes about 10-15 minutes. Don't know exactly when the draft regulations will be completed. These initiatives on the administrative side probably roll out sometime in 2016. (BM): A lot of what's been going on out there is me talking to hunters or other persons in the public and then taking those ideas to the Commander. So a lot of what I presented to John are not my ideas —they come straight from the community. Are we able to use all of them? Probably not. Can we tweek 'em a little bit? Certainly, but a lot of what I've passed on as far as historical use of the land, where the hunters go, what's available, some of the animals patterns —those are coming from the community and they're — right now is a —we're at a tipping point where the community is gonna buy into this program as far as ownership —and I think that's what's really gonna move us forward and that survey I think is gonna get us, you know, a lot of bang for our buck. 7 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 Q.: When do you expect to have the survey tabulated and would it be available to us? A: Basically the results are tabulated as you go — and so once we close the survey period, it might take us a week or so to go over the numbers and analyze it. That feedback would be able to incorporate it straight into the development. The results will be posted online or we could report back during one of your meetings. If cleared, might be able to add to Facebook as well to disseminate information. If you do a basic Google search for Pohakuloa hunting, you come with the U.S. AG website and it's already utilized weekly to display, the weekly openings for Pohakuloa, you just click on the hunting link in the top corner, so we can disseminate the results for the survey through there as well. Q.: How are we gonna disseminate the survey that Pohakuloa is going to be distributing to us if those hunters that don't have computers? A. We will broadcast that link. Unfortunately, it is an online survey, one will need a computer. It does have limitations - not by any means to alienate anyone. Could discuss paper submissions it will add more time to the overall survey results. No telemarketing. Smartphone may be used. Q: Is that survey gonna be by hunter and hunting license number or anything specific like that or...? A. I'm in conversations with the state now to see if we can utilize a portion and only two bits of information out of the hunting license database - a hunting license and a zip code to use for validation. I'd like to make sure that we're targeting hunters— specifically Big Island hunters — or folks that come from neighbor islands that do hunt at Pohakuloa Training Area. I do want to keep it to licensed public hunters and so I'm —that's basically our biggest hang up at this point is trying to figure if we can actually utilize that or work out some system with the state to validate the responses that we get. Q: Would you accept paper submissions? A lot of us have some technical ability that if we could render information from a paper app, for example, if we could get that to you online or into your online survey somehow, or I mean ultimately we can always scan those things and email them to you also. A: We can discuss it. It's just basically it just adds up that much more time to data entry and data analysis and things like that. Q: If people out in the audience want to be actively involved in creating this plan — basically it's a survey, that's what you're saying...My question comes from the position of— if you're going to create something — if you're going to create a reality here—you gotta have the community involved in it, in my view - at more than a survey level. Engage folks to sit down with you and work through all of these things. It will be time consuming, but if 8 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March t 6,2015 you just create this survey— I don't know. I think if you —during a break you went out and talked to these guys about what all is involved here — you might get a different feel. I personally, I thought this was gonna be rather open-ended where you come in and you sit down and you create this reality, but it seems like you might be time-constrained and all of that so — I don't know. I like the concept. I think it's a great concept. And I think it has, possibilities — but I wonder if there could be more active participation by the communities. A.: I don't see why we can't explore that... Q. As far as game— if you can't begin to get water out there it almost seems like it's more of a hunter management program than an actual game management program, What are some of the ideas as far as trying to manage and help some of this game? Tony was suggesting on that 1 thru 4 Area where the sheep are all in the DHHL lands —those sheep are already targeted. They are on the chopping block. How quick is this fence gonna come up to protect some of those sheep before they are all gone? It's already happening —their plan —400 of 3000 sheep that they say is there now—only 400 left. What kind of actual game management are we talking about? Are we only talking about birds? Is there going to be some mammal management? Or, is it even a concern? A.: (JB): I think you're right in terms, yes, it is primarily a hunting management — a hunter management program...Someone told me once that 90% of managing wildlife is managing people. A lot of this is really just addressing how people access PTA. In terms of how we address the mammal issue— I would defer to Brian on the questions simply because he's got much more experience than I do... (BIVI): When John came on board, one of the first things he talked about was getting away from the Range Control Training Area 1 thru 16 and going to these hunting units and when the two of us started looking at the maps we're realizing half of 18 is fenced but we haven't hunted 18 in probably six years, so why aren't we using that area. So let's push that hunting unit all the way back to the fences. So what I'm looking at now is how many acres are we recovering? So we're looking at a number of areas —5 and 6 near the ammunition storage —we've got some room to work with there. I was showing John a map today where we could recover 800 acres in there for possible year- round use. 9 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16,2015 Now we have to go through the cultural people because there are some house foundations and things of that nature, but if we can go in there with the help of volunteers to go in there put markers out and let's incorporate those areas that haven't been hunted. That area right there probably what? Twenty years? Pretty close. And a lot of people think that that's a pot of gold but really what it has been is a corridor for the sheep coming up from the impact area to move to the Hilo side in 1 thru 4 or to move out into the flats 7 thru 9. And also, with the colonel's request to shut down the road hunting through the hunting areas is—we might see a calming effect. The military's gonna come in there and train from time-to-time. There's not a lot we can do to control animals, but if we can do everything that we can to calm these animals and a lot of these areas aren't used for active training, They're not even used for blank fire in most cases: 1, 4, is basically—we might have two training events a year so if we can calm the animals in that area — limit traffic—we may have to look at putting some hunting parking areas on the Mauna Loa side of those deeper areas, a point A to point B, but no hunt or drops in-between, so a lot of this stuff is just fresh for us. So we're looking at that, where are the sheep coming from? In the last two months we've been getting some sheep come up from the impact area up through the old Area 18. So they're coming through the puu from Mauna Loa side and this one herd had anywhere from three to four hundred and that herd, right now, is able to move from 7 to the quarry and even across over to the airfield. And this is the first time that we've actually had any, anything for them to feed on in probably the last three or four years due to drought. We're seeing a lot of change going on right now, we're getting trail cams out there. We're getting out there boots on the ground. I'll spend all weekend going out there and just see where the animals are. And then there's other environmental affects on the mammal population and that's feral dogs. And right now we're in the pupping season and the Areas 5 and 6 and the quarry Areas are big pupping Areas. So I've seen a reduction of the animals in that area so they're moving around and here in about two months we're gonna see if they're gonna repopulate those areas. There's a lot of things that we're looking at but I think that the biggest two things is if we can squeeze out every acre that's available for mammal and then to look at calming the animals and when we do open up hunting, let's say for example if we want to hunt the 14, 15, 16 Area— if we don't open up the mauka side of Keeaumoku —the animals are just going to move to Keaaumoku and the hunters are going to have to stop at that boundary. 10 f lawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16,2015 If we're going to hunt 15 and 16, well we might want to open up the mauka so that we can get everyone spread out. Everyone has an opportunity and the animals just don't go from one Area to the other. Q: John, under the process it has "produce draft regulations within house." Is that going to be your own environmental department there or is that U.S. Fish and Wildlife will be involved in this? Have they signed off on this? A: No, Fish and Wildlife is not involved in the process. Yes, that refers to our environmental folks — it refers to the Command. We are looking at using MWR to help us facilitate the permit process and things like that so they'll need to weigh in on their end as well —the public affairs office—who, you know, we're utilizing to distribute information and things like that, so that's the in-house... Q: Will point of contacts be provided at that time and who are the players in this? A: Yes Q: Why not form the PTA hunting club first to see how much interest is out there? A: That's a great point. Q.: My name is Jason Imamura. A few years back PTA—the designation was PTA— Pohakuloa Training Area and game management. We heard a lot of talk about game management— can we do it? Cooperative game management—what is the designation right now for Pohakuloa Training Area. Is it Pohakuloa Training or is it Pohakuloa Training Area and game management? Cause that's how it was a few years ago. I know the Board —the DLNR wanted to change that designation — I don't know if that's been done — but if it hasn't—shouldn't be any problem with game management, watering units, and so forth. They were in place at one time. The state did maintain these watering units. All of a sudden it stopped. So what's the designation as of now? A: (BM): As far as what the state can bring to the table— I haven't been approached by them — right now James Weller has been the only one that has shown interest. Now we know that 1 thru 16 is state. What James is also talking about is coming on board in Keaaumoku and some of the other Army home properties, whether it's down in 20 or 22. Why DOFAW hasn't been out there on some of the older units I don't know— but I do know that they have been working on some of the newer turkey guzzlers and Steve Hurt and I —we've discussed this at length —we did an assessment. Steve knows more about that than 1, because I never started this game warden position actually until October of last year. So a lot of this may have to go back to the NRO office to find out where that broken link is at. So did I answer your question, sir? Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 JB: I agree. As far as what's the new proposed regulations, I believe that PTA will be classified under Unit E, if I'm remembering that correctly, I don't have that with me tonight...Which I believe is along with Puuanahulu, which is a game management area, so to answer your question I do think "yes" it is considered a game management... There are a number of additional hoops and things that we need to get through. Like I said, it's not just the state but it's also federal and military rules that we need to abide by, I don't want to open up an amusement park where the rides don't work. That's not my intent. I want to explore to the extent possible what we can do. What I've been told by my supervisor is build this program the way you'd like to see it and if it's shot down in the review process, so be it. But build it the way you'd like to see it — so again — we're very early in the process — I wish I had a little bit more actually developed and ready to show you, to bring to you folks at this time — but this is where we are in the process. DP: David Penn, for the Division of Forestry and Wildlife provided update on the commission on the Kau Forest Reserve Access Initiative. Handout circulated - basically a series of maps that comes from our 2012 Kau Forest Reserve Management Plan and some of the other mapping that we've done over the course of these various projects that feed into this initiative. At the end of last month the Board of Land and Natural Resources approved DOFAW's request to go ahead and finalize the memorandum of agreement with Edmund Olson Trust—the landowner on what we call the Phase 1 — we're in the process of hoping to get Mr. Olson's signature on that Memorandum of Agreement as soon as possible and once that is done, we can go ahead and begin the construction of the fence line for Phase 1 — about a mile of fencing or so that goes across his property on both sides of the proposed access route. It's vehicular access to get up to the bottom boundary of the Kau Forest Reserve and since we got that board approval work started on Phase 2, which would go across a Department of Agriculture land that's leased to Mr. Galimba for pasture. That's about another three miles of fencing. On that one, what we're hoping to do is just to actually put the fence below the forest reserve boundary within the State Department of Ag land so that it's on the bottom side of the road, so we'd be fencing on one side and again retain that vehicle access all the way across the bottom of the forest reserve boundary until you pretty much reach the gulch on the other side. And then on the other side of that gulch is where the waterfall road comes up, which is the other access route that's shown on your maps there. So that's the current plan, we hope it's all gonna work out and that we can get going on this maybe even over the summer to get started putting things in. 12 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16,2015 Concerns were shared regarding specific terms of the memorandum of agreement. The agreement is for 20-years subject to termination. it's a private road that the public has a right to access. Concerns were shared by commissioners over the use of the road by Nature Conservancy and other groups which might affect the hunters. The understanding is that the road is for everyone and not one single group. The only restriction would be for commercial purpose and then they would have to have all the other permits lined up to do commercial activities in the forest reserve. Our forests are open access to everybody, the problem is that once these organizations start moving in and filtering into the area—they're the ones that have the protection. The hunting and gathering and other consumptive users of the resources —do not have a protected interest D. Penn offered to work with commissioners as this MOA is moving forward but not sure of the time frame, offered to help out with the concerns with John before everything actually get going on the ground. The commissioners were encouraged to read "Future of Hunting and Fishing in Hawaii." We need to look at ways to work together and do things such as fundraise, educate, outreach and partner with other organizations, Sportsmen Alliance, use of social media, i.e. Face Book, web-site. Q. Terry Napiae asked a question regarding the initiative with the hunting, farming and fishing association. How are you going to be connecting with our county, our home rule ideal and keep everyone here as hunters, fishermen on this island particularly informed? A: Develop a non-profit organization that allows lobbying at legislative level. Use hunting, fishing and farming to incorporate a voice statewide which will be challenging. The intention with this association is to have consuls on each island. And those consuls are meant to distribute and to pass on information to the main organization itself. That's one way to create solidarity and unity throughout the entire state. TN. Concerned that we don't have our county in solidarity and unity. And that's what I want to remind the Commission —that we, you know, in my perspective, if you're going to Oahu you're gonna give Oahu centric—that opportunity to have that voice. And forget about what we have here in 13 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 need of solidarity and unity. And that's just my concern along with home rule and the traditions. Why not have Palikapu Dedman who has the experience for many years in front of the Governor's legislation to be an advisory to some of the things GMAC is organizing? Why don't you ask people with expertise to be advisory to some of the things and initiatives that you have. One of the things that he wanted to do was home rule. There's a reason for that— because he's been to legislation and he's been through all the things that you've been through right now. Ask him for advice. And that's my question —why wouldn't you. Why wouldn't you support his litigation in the Kau fencing. TN asked that this be on the agenda maybe next time? TL: Agreed to add to next agenda. Volunteers needed to help when dealing with our own island senators and representatives educating them on GMAC issues before going to the legislature and talking to the other senators/rep. It is embarrassing to not have your islands support. We need to be more engaged. Polictics is strong and there is a power pull. You need to know who the key people are. And this brings up another thing —and this is education. When DLNR is able to get away with this idea that we have 700,000 acres here —yet we can't take any sheep and like you heard it tonight and put it even on one acre of state land —the public needs to know what the truth is and they're not getting the truth. And that's what an organization like this can do — cause they're talking about fundraising, outreach and you know these are things that, you know, you folks can help with. Anyway, with that, I'd like to move on to one more item and we're gonna close and we're late and I apologize for this but we have a committee right now— a legislative committee — and it's effective during the —well, the committee is effective during the legislative session and it needs to have a little more emphasis on government affairs — in other words so that the committee can respond to things like this — closing of Mauna Kea for two days — for the turkey season, you know, to do an aerial eradication. As that turned out—that did get resolved and thanks to Steve here and this thing was deferred until next month. So I would like to change the scope of the legislative committee to include all government affairs that has to do with hunting and the other things that we're engaged in. TS: From counsel is there any issue with that, other than us making a motion to do that. Is that OK to include government affairs? Number four— clarifying or renaming legislative committee do this —to include government affairs and administrative issues. 14 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16,2015 Action: W. Camara moved to include government affairs and administrative with the legislative committee and change the name to Government Affairs and Administrative Issues. Seconded by T. Sylvester, motion carried unanimously. DY: This is Ike. I'm on the public access sub-committee and I did talk to the executive who staffs the PONC committee and she clarified a few things for me. There are two avenues of approach on this 1) one is as it relates to the Finance Factors property—she suggested that we go through that nomination process and nominate the parcels for inclusion on the PONC list. So I've begun that—filling out the nomination papers and I will bring it back to you guys prior to action. 2) second is as it relates to that access to the Pepeekeo Area —the Hilo Forest Reserve —this person was super helpful and a day or two after I talked to her she took a group of guys up to the area and walked the trail and basically she had told me that surveying of the trail etc. that's what they were supposed to be doing. So she's following up on that for us. And, she was invited to attend our April 20th meeting. The other area I mentioned was the Honomu access and evidently the Na Ala Hele Commission has talked about drafting a letter to the County to do something. I'm not real clear on that. But the Na Ala Hele crew said that the County had to do something before they would be able to do what they needed to do. So I don't know if that letter has been drafted or where that is — but it seems like they're moving from their side as it relates to that Honomu access. So those are the two things that I worked on, TS: [Unclear] nomination papers must be in by the end of June. WC: District 1 —We had met again on our Laupahoehoe management plan — that thing is kinda rolling through — I think the final —one of the most final drafts is kinda out and they're gonna have it at their next LAC meeting. One thing that had kinda got me little bit by surprise was some critical habitat designations in Laupahoehoe and beyond area. I was hoping that maybe — not April, maybe further— May meeting — if we could maybe get the Fish &Wildlife people here to try— maybe explain the process at which these areas get designated as critical habitat. BC: I have a letter drafted for that particular purpose. I think that the main thing we're gonna have to do is the logistical part of that, which is how we get the person over here, right? I know their budget is a little bit limited but the main thing is we invite them and hopefully, we can find a date where they can get here. Ideally it would be in the May meeting, like you were talking about, but we may have to work with them a little — but I have a letter drafted out to disseminate it to you guys. 15 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes—March 16, 2015 WJ: Yeah, that would be great. Thanks. Cause it would be nice to understand how these things happen without anybody knowing, you know, from the public. I mean it - internally people know but the public doesn't know that this classifications are happening, so that's all I have... KD: I get one. I know Tony asked about the— putting our Kau fencing on the agenda. To be more clear— it's the fencing that is done in the forest reserve, well, and the road, but it seems, you know, that we have Mr. Penn here—there good to have that— I request that we could have that because it's like— it's moving forward already. I don't know if we can — cause I know there's a court case pending that too—what is our legal rights on this—where we stand — if we in support or what have you — if that's what it looks like I just... TL: All right. I want to get this thing wrapped up here and I apologize for keeping you folks here tonight. Brian had a very interesting time with these people and with David and with Brian and —there is one other thing too — I don't know if we should do it here but we need a communications committee for the commission so that we can get what's going on here out to the public. The public doesn't know what we're doing and I think that's part of the —why the alliance is helpful — but we need to help ourselves too. Action: T. Sylvester moved to form a communications sub- committee that would be responsible to report back to the commission on any communication made to the public such as an article in the newspaper. Seconded by Ike Yoshina. Motion carried unanimously. TL: Our next meeting is April 20, 2015, 1 thank you all for being here tonight. I appreciate the guests that were here this evening and the input that we got from folks. These are things that we will follow up on and feel free to call any of the commissioners between now and the next commission hearing with any questions that we can work on for you. Action: T. Sylvester moved to adjourn. Seconded by Ike Yoshina. Motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary ATTEST: Tom Lodge 16