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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022_08_16 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawai’i Minutes Meeting Date: August 16, 2022 Time: 6:010 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Place: 25 Aupuni Ctr., Suite 2603, Hilo HI, 96720 and nd West Hawai’i Civic Center, Bldg. C, 2 Floor Conference Room 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy., Kailua-Kona, HI 96740 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: The meeting was called to order at 6:01 pm. District 1 – Vacant District 2 - Kean Umeda, excused District 3 – Rhon Leomana Turalde, Present, in-person (Hilo) District 4 – Brian Ley – Present, in-person (Hilo) District 5 - Abraham Antonio, Present, in person (Hilo) District 6 – Austin Griffey – Present, in-person (Kona) District 7 - Vacant District 8 – Cortney Okumura – Present via Zoom District 9 - George Donev, Present via Zoom Quorum Established STAFF: Sylvia Wan, Deputy Attorney, Corp Counsel (Zoom) Barett Otani, Executive Assistant to Mayor Roth, in-person (Hilo) Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist, in person (Kona) th AA: OK. What you need? Ah, welcome to our August 16 Game Management Advisory Commission meeting – right now it’s 6:01p. This meeting is being held at the WHCC and also on Zoom. Barbara would you like to take roll call please. BK: Can you hear me? AA: Yeah. BK: OK. District 2 has been excused. District 3 – Leomana? LT: ‘E’o… BK: District 4 – Brian? 1 BL: I’m here… BK: District 5 – Chair? AA: Here… BK: District 6 – here AG: Here… BK: District 7 is vacant. District 8 – Cortney? CO: I’m here. BK: District 9 – George? GD: Hello. Sorry. BK: So that is 6 in attendance. We have quorum. Thank you, Chair. AA: Thank you, Barbara. OK. Just little bit housekeeping rules – please make sure cell phones are turned off or on silent mode. To the guys in the Kona office and also the people in the Hilo office, please remember to speak clearly into the microphones. Anybody on Zoom and also in person – please state your names if you guys are on Zoom, please make your guys name clear so we can interpret it later. OK. We’ll move on to the minutes. Everybody got a copy of the last meeting minutes, Commissioners? \[Group says yeah\] SW: So I just, I’m sorry, Chair. My understanding was that the draft minutes were provided prior to the meeting within the appropriate time but I’m not sure if the final minutes were provided with enough notice. So it might need to push approval of the minutes to next meeting. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Deferred AA: OK. I don’t think had enough time like you said, so we can move approval of the minutes to next month’s meeting. OK. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: Chair Abraham Antonio, welcomes anyone that may want to say something regarding an agenda item may do so anytime throughout the meeting. AA: Ah, statements from the public on the agenda items? Any statements from the public? OK. No statements from the public. Moving on. So we go moving on to our first presentation which going be OHA’s land manager… 4. PRESENTATION: 2 a. OHA Land Manager Representative Kalena Blakemore will give a presentation on the history and OHA activities in the low land wet forest of Wao Kele O Puna. AA: …. representative, Kalena Blakemore. She’s gonna give a presentation of Wao Kele O Puna and the history. Hi, Kalena, you’re on Zoom… KB: OK. Hi, everyone. \[Unclear\] ..Oh, now I gotta share my screen somehow. I should have done that before I put up. Hold on a second while I figure out how to… Abraham, tell me how to share my screen… SW: I can probably help you. So in the Zoom feature, down at the bottom there’s a bar that says “share screen” it’s green. KB: OK. Just go there… \[Unclear\] PowerPoint… SW: Yes. And then it’s best if you pick the PowerPoint program so it doesn’t share your entire desktop. KB: OK. You might see my entire desktop. Thank you, Corporation Counsel. And then I want to turn my video off but I don’t see my video anymore. SW: If you have audio, you wanna make sure that you click the little box to share audio with the PowerPoint. KB: Can you hear me as I speak right now and I’ll just go through the PowerPoint? SW: Yes, I’m just saying if your PowerPoint had any audio features… KB: Oh, no, it doesn’t… If you guys don’t mind I’m going to be reading from my paper as you look at these slides. Aloha mai kakou, mahalo, Abraham, for inviting me to present tonight to your advisory commission. As he said \[unclear\] Kalena Blakemore, I’m the land agent for Wao Kele O Puna working for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. You guys see my slide changing? AA: Ah, no, not yet. We just have you yet on it. SW: ….then a new window will open. Select your PowerPoint so that it’s blue all the way around and then click the button share. KB: OK. I’m not seeing any PowerPoint window. SW: You would need to have it open. KB: It was open… This is so frustrating, sorry… 3 SW: Oh, there we go. Hopefully, that worked. KB: You see something now? BL: Yeah. KB: OK. As long as you guys can see this that’s OK. That’s great. Anyway, per my introduction, my name – Kalena Blakemore for Office of Hawaiian Affairs – I was just out in the field with Abraham a couple of weeks ago and he serves on our Ala Kaiaulu working group council and so he asked me to come tonight and share some – what’s been going on at Wao Kele O Puna. So, I’m not a hunter, but, so I’m sharing from what I understand and what I know. Hopefully, if there’s any questions that you folks have I can try to answer them. So Wao Kele O Puna is not a traditional, historical Hawaiian place name but it’s more of a description of the area. The forest is located in the ahupuaa of Waiakahiula and Kaohe in Puna on our Island here. It lies between the ahupuaa of Kamoamoa and Keonepoko and sits in the East Rift Zone of Kilauea Volcano. It’s approximately 10 miles from Hilo and 10 miles from Halemaumau with Puu Oo just 2 ½ miles upslope. The area encompasses just under 26,000 acres – roughly the size of the Island of Kahoolawe. Wao Kele is designated as a State Forest Reserve, State Conservation protective subzone. This is the highest level for protection by the Land Use Commission. Wao Kele is recognized as the first ceded lands to return to Hawaiian hands since the overthrow of the Kingdom in 1893. It is also recognized as the largest intact tropical lowland forest in the United States. Our elevation ranges from 1000-2280 feet. Rainfall is approximately 110-150 inches per year with no standing surface water. Lava flows range with oldest from 3,000 years – last large flow in 2007 impacting 1500 acres – with the most recent in 2014. The property was acquired in 2006 by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs – they paid $300,000 dollars of the 3.65 million purchase price leaving the remaining balance that was paid by the federal Forestry Legacy Program. The property was managed under an MOA by DLNR from 2006-2016 when the MOA expired OHA took full management of this conservation land. Acquisition objectives are to protect natural and cultural resources, protect traditional and customary rights of Native Hawaiians on the parcels and assure that the land will pass to the Lahui. The Wao Kele O Puna Natural Area Forest Reserve is part of 1.5 million acres of Crown and Hawaiian Kingdom lands that were first confiscated from Native Hawaiians and then ceded to the US Government in 1898. Once Hawaii became a state, the lands became part of the Ceded Public Lands Trust managed by DLNR on behalf of Native Hawaiians and the general public. Prior to being opened up for geothermal energy development, Wao Kele O Puna rain forest was a natural reserve set aside to protect native plants and animals. As part of the Ceded Public Lands Trust it was legally dedicated to the use of the Hawaiian people in “perpetuity.” In 1985 this land was approved for development through a 4 state-organized land swap with Campbell Estate. More than 27,000 acres of “public trust” land in Puna forest reserve were traded by the DLNR for 25,000 acres of adjacent private land in Kahaualea. In March 1990, approximately 1500 people peacefully demonstrated and opposed the geothermal project and land trade for many reasons. One hundred and forty-one people were arrested. In Pele Defense Fund v Paty (1992) PDF primarily argues that the exchange constitutes a breach of the trust created under Section § 5(f) of the Hawaii Admissions Act and article XII, § 4 of the Hawaii Constitution. The §5(f) claim is brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 – anyway, I’m not going to read this stuff – you can go onto a link later – a PDF – Findings v Paty and look into the details ‘cause I know a lot of hunters want to know the details about this property and how they can access it. Let’s see here – some of the unique features – what makes Wao Kele special is it’s one of the few remaining tracts of lowland rainforest in Hawaii and the U. The reserve is a watershed recharge – Wao Kele lies over 20% of the largest aquifer in the state – the Pahoa Aquifer – it provides habitat for endangered species and a seed bank kipuka. Wao Kele O Puna is a sacred place to Native Hawaiians for traditional and customary practices and is home to the Goddess Pele and an intersecting point with Kāne, the God of water. This forest is home to several moolelo affiliated with Pele, Hiiaka, Kamapuaa, and Ailaau. Cultural resources found here include extensive lava tubes with sensitive archaeological sites and burials. In 2015 our first community working group was assembled to inform the Comprehensive Management Plan. We have met for monthly meetings for two years. The Plan is our guide to forest management and was approved in 2017. The group was composed of cultural practitioners, educators, scientists and conservation/restoration activists. The abbreviated CMP is approximately 250 pages and can be found on the OHA website under Aina-WKOP link. Pre-pandemic from 2017-2020 we have hosted monthly community engagement days with private & public school groups – Ke Kula o Nawahiokalaniopuu – Kamehameha’s Summer School Programs – Keaʻau-Pahoa Complex. The students practice natural and cultural management protocols and are exposed to Hawaiian place-based learning to moolelo, kilo (observations) aloha aina, weeding, out-planting, seed collection and propagation. I feel like I must have skipped something. Yep. Due to the conservation protected subzone designation that we have at Wao Kele – we need to seek exemptions from SHPD - the State Historic Preservation Department and the Office of Coastal Conservation Lands for any projects that we want to accomplish and that includes small fenced units, installations and signs – pretty much anything that we need to do we have to go to OCCL and SHPD for approval. 5 In 2020, the DLNR provided OHA right-of-entry from the Kalapana Black Sands Subdivision allowing us access to a remote point in the reserve that is home to rare plants and possible birds and bats. The highlight of 2020, in support of rare and endangered plant and animal species is a large grant – an award we received from Fish and Wildlife Service. The grant includes funding for 2 years to install a 17-acre fenced unit and ungulate removal within the unit. Also, rare plant collection, propagation and restoration within the fenced unit. This spring, DOFAW installed song meters to survey for the Newell’s Shearwater ‘A’o and the Ope’ape’a. They will be collecting the instruments next week for analysis. In 1990 a survey was conducted at Pu’u Heiheiahulu and ‘A’o were recorded nesting there. We hope that we can find them again nesting when we study our data. We have plans to conduct a comprehensive plant survey to inventory and collect for propagation with DOFAW PEPP staff and with the Volcano Rare Plant Facility assisting in the handling and propagation of the plants. In 2020, after approval from OCCL we installed a 3-acre fenced enclosure – it’s adjacent to the former geothermal well site for easy access. The unit is invaded with waiwi and we’re looking at utilizing the hybrid eco-system novel forestry model designed by Liko na Pilina Project – this is Susan Cordell with Becky Ostertag. This unit will also be used for rare plant restorations \[unclear\] Wao Kele O Puna. This past legislative session our House Representative Greggor Ilagan put us in a CIP for Puna projects. We didn’t get the funding but this is what we want, need and envision: an environmental toilet, a small green house, an open pavilion and a small gravel parking area to serve our community during stewardship and educational engagement days. Above is a site plan map of the 5-acre clearing that you can see. This is kind of a small map. The major challenge we encounter with Wao Kele O Puna is access. The size of the reserve, the vast amount of invasive species and unpredictable volcanic activity – this map depicts the various forest management units categorized by how invaded or not according to our CMP map that we produced. You can see the difficulty in reaching the high conservation units in green. So this is just an overlay of the Forest Management Units – the yellow being invasive – the red highly invasive and the green high conservation areas. So getting into these areas is really difficult. Currently, we have two pedestrian access points and one vehicle access road for this 26,000 acres. The upper north access is approached from Eden Rock and Fern Forest – terrain is difficult and trails are being created to access the deeper forest to remove miconia. This area is also dangerous for our contractor at times due to neighborhood community that have concerns with outsiders and 6 contractors. The middle road from Kaohe Homestead provides access to the 5- acre clearing or former geothermal drill site – this area is easy for community to enter but heavily invaded and the terrain outside of the road is extremely hazardous. There is also a locked gate requiring a formal request for the gate key and liability waivers to be signed before access can be granted. There is a pedestrian entrance for day hikers and hunters that you can just walk through. The last access is through a DLNR parcel on the Upper Puna Road which puts us very near to Puu Heiheiahulu for management purposes. We strive to maintain our networks and relationships with various agencies to assist with managing the Reserve and serving our beneficiaries. 3-Mountain Alliance, DOFAW/PEPP, the Nature Conservancy, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Hawaii Volcanos National Park, UH Hilo, US Forest Service –Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry (IPIF) and our new Aha Kaiaulu Working Group, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaii Academy of Arts & Science, Keonepoko Elementary. We have MOUs with USGS-HVO and US Forest Service for access and research. This April/May the Estria Foundation sponsored a Mele Mural Project at Keonepoko Elementary School and we got a call from an Aha Kaiaulu member asking if they could bring the haumana to Wao Kele for inspiration. This was our first group we hosted after the pandemic closed our forest to community engagement events. We had 29 haumana, school staff and two artists from Estria Foundation, one of which is talented \[unclear\] artist Nainoa Rosehill born and raised in Puna. The keiki spent time in kilo/observations on a lava flow, painted signs for the forest, out-planted and cleared weeds. Before their lunch, they were led in meditation to reflect and develop their theme for the mural. Pele and her brothers were predominant in the reflections of migration to Hawaii from Kahiki. The theme echoes their personal experiences of Puna embracing people from all regions and is home to everyone. We have formed a new Aha Kaiaula working group for Wao Kele O Puna – a couple weeks ago we met for the first time – not all could attend – this small group consisted of subject matter experts and various management activities in natural and cultural resources. We have cultural practitioners, educators, botainists, hunters and hula practitioners. This working group will assist with community input for projects and management at the reserve. These here are just links for the Pele Defense Fund v. Paty 1992 and their findings that you can look up and below is also a link to our Comprehensive Management Plan on our \[OHA\] website. So I just want to mahalo to Forest Solutions who’s our contractor that manages, ah, does our forest management operations, DLNR Land, DOFAW, TNC, 3- Mountain Alliance, Fish & Wildlife Service, our Puna community for sharing Aloha Aina at Wai Kele O Puna and the Game Management Advisory Commission for 7 inviting us to share updates tonight. Thank you. If you all have any questions – I know that was a quick one – just giving you guys a quick overview. AA: Yeah, that’s fine. Thank you, Kalena. Anybody have any questions for Kalena. BL: Brian – District 4. I get a question. How many acres are you guys planning on fencing and eradicating? KB: Right now we don’t have enough funding so you’re looking at our 3-acre enclosure and a 17-acre enclosure that we just got a grant funding for – otherwise that’s the only really fenced units we have. BL: You have plans for future fencing or anything like that. KB: Ah, not right at the moment ‘cause of funding. BL: But you guys would have no problem fencing he whole thing and eradicating everything out of there? KB: No, that would be impractical. I think the property is too large. I think if we’re going to fence and we have funding – we would fence those green units – let me go back to that map. You see these green units here? BL: Yeah. KB: But they’re also connected to lava flows so we have to be mindful of our money so we don’t really want to invest a huge amount of money in areas that are gonna get flowed over again. I’d say it’s the puu – we have a Puu Kauka and a Puu Heiheiahulu – those are high – higher up and we could probably surround those and use our money wisely – but mostly it’s the green areas. Even \[unclear\] exposure is bright in a very invaded area but we want a place that we can work with our volunteers and reach so that’s why we just fenced a 3-acre area there. BL: OK. I just, you know, I have some concerns – everyone says, you know, we’re doing this so we can continue our cultural practice and gathering but then we put fences up – keep people out and eradicate everything in there so there’s nothing to gather so… The end result is we’d have fenced properties with noboby accessing it, nobody can, ah, you know, sustainability and everything else, you know, I’m all for, you know, fencing and protecting critical habitat and plants but this large scale fencing and eradication is like we’re seeing on the Kona side, I know Puna’s not a bad idea cause it’s so wet – but on the dry side where we’ve got all the invasive grasses that are just burning all of our dry forest right now ‘cause, you know, we have no game management – we fenced and eradicated and let the weeds get out of control and now we’re paying the consequences so, you know I just – this is just my concern, like I said, the little 3, 5 acres, you know, I like that – replanting and having a base where the seeds can move on 8 and see how we can do but that was my big concern is just fencing and eradication. KB: Yeah, we don’t really have a game management plan or anything – that’s been – since our CMP was finalized in 2027 it’s been on my bucket list for five years to reach out to the hunters – I tried to – thankfully, Abraham, came forward and we have another local hunter and I’m hoping we can gather a few more that can help us create policy for hunting and, um, you know the hunters also network as volunteers to help get into the areas of forest that are more suitable for hunting. Right now just to come in through our one road - to the middle road in Pahoa and it’s not that great, I mean, I’m not a hunter but I understand that these are the best hunting grounds for pigs. It’s better to go up – approach from the northern part and, yeah, as long as we don’t have funding and we have a lava flow we’re probably, we’re not in a position to fence our entire \[unclear\]. It wouldn’t be practical. BL: OK. Maybe on a couple days or something I can reach out to you – you’re in my district so I would like to – if you’re OK with it – maybe we can meet in person and discuss a lot of these things and I can get a better idea – like you said – this was just a brief overlay – so I would like to get more information from you. BK: Sure. Yeah, we can even have Abraham join too, if he would like, ‘cause I would to have him – as my subject matter expert since he’s in my working group and I just want to point out to you, Brian, that we have like cultural practitioners are gathering and so part of fencing areas is also for like hula practitioners or medicinal healers that want to grow plants that they know will be kept safe from being eaten \[unclear\] are destroyed, but as you can see it’s still a minimum area that we’d be getting fenced – nothing extreme. BL: OK. I look forward to talking to you later. Thank you. BK: Yeah, thanks for the question. AA: Any other questions for Kalena? NP: Ah, Nani Pogline here. I have a question. Um, when you, if you apply for grants for a native forest designation - do you know – do most all the grants require fencing? KB: We \[unclear\] were approached by Fish & Wildlife Service because of some of the unique, rare and endangered species we have. We didn’t even go looking for it - it’s our first grant that we’ve gotten, I mean, short of our purchasing grant from the Legacy Program and the grant is specifically to fence off this area that has the rare plants and probably, hopefully, some rare and endangered nesting birds and the bat. And it’s just a small 17-acre area that includes two skylights and the pit crater so the answer to that question is we’ve only received one grant 9 \[unclear\] 541 and it’s only going to be 17 acres out of about 26,000 acres so… I don’t know if it’s \[unclear\] I guess it depends on how big the grant is and what it’s specifically for. NP: Oh, OK, I have just one more question. So you’d mentioned that Kamapuaa is one of the deities that is part of the Hawaiian history of this area – so it seems to be that there should be some recognition of that \[unclear\] you know, Kamapuaa that \[unclear\] plans \[unclear\] game is. KB: Oh, yeah. Actually, there’s another scientist that works at Forest Service \[USFS\] to his client Kealoha Kinney and he’s approached us and we want to work together with him putting together a bio cultural project that would incorporate Kamapuaa and our cultural practices into also managing our forest so we haven’t put it together yet – it’s more of a brain storm think tank right now, but, yes, you’re right. And he’s already approaching us on that aspect of incorporating our forest conservation/restoration along with the moolelo that we have in the culture. NP: Thank you. That’s encouraging. Thank you. KB: Um-hum. AA: OK. Abraham – District 5. Hey, Kalena. I’d just like to say, you know, thanks for the invitation to, ah, going up to Wao Kele a few weeks ago and, ah, we did some native species planting within the fenced area – I took my son, my nephews and there’s some other adults that were there and everybody pretty much had a good time. Um, I’m looking forward to doing it again in the future – just now that you’re introduced to GMAC, um, you’re going to be introduced to some other hunters probably that’s gonna want to join the conversation about some kind of game management plan in the future, so… KB: We need, ah, it’s a long time coming… I think with COVID it could have, you know, we had so much happening on our Island, the eruption, Mauna Kea, it’s just like one big event each year – so we haven’t been able to focus but \[unclear\] now and another and you guys know I need more of you to help us design and work on our policy for game management for Wao Kele’s. Thank you for coming forward and bringing things out so Abraham, I really appreciate it. AA: OK. Thanks, again, Kalena. BL: Quick, one more questions, Brian Ley – District 4. Hey, speaking about the endangered bats – are you guys putting bat houses in the native reserve to help the bats along? Is anybody doing anything like that to enhance the bats? KB: We haven’t yet but we’re going to be going out next week their experts from DOFAW and, um, that can be something I can ask if we could do that, especially 10 if we put it a fenced area, so, um, you know, you’ve doubled your stake – in our small puu that our unit that we’re gonna be putting… ?: \[Unclear\] BL: It would be nice if somebody could monitor it and see if they’re using it and get an idea if they were expanding or not it would be nice. Alright, thank you – that’s enough out of me. Thank you. KB: No, I’ll mention it next week. Thank you, Brian. BL: Thank you. KB: OK. Is there anything more? AA: Nope, that’s good. You’re good, Kalena, thank you. KB: All right, you guys, have a good night, thank you. LT: Mahalo. BL: Aloha. SW: Kalena, can you share the links either in the Chat with Barbara so that it can be posted – I just want to make sure that it’s included in the minutes. KB: Sure, I’ll stick it in the Chat as soon as I get – figure out how to get out of here. OK. I will \[unclear\] myself and then I will go give Barbara – I’ll put it in the Chat. OK. Thanks you guys, aloha… 5. OLD BUSINESS a. GMAC District 9 Commissioner George Donev will lead in a motion/discussion regarding a GMAC advisory letter to the government agencies in support of the Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp and seawall reconstruction. AA: You too… Ah, Old Business… Ah, we’ll go to GMAC District 9 – Commissioner George Donev – he going lead in a motion and discussion regarding a GMAC advisory letter to the government agencies in support of the Laupahoehoe Boat Ramp and seawall reconstruction. Hey, George… GD: Hi, thanks, Abraham. So just some information for the Commission – Abraham and I talked about – right after our last meeting about some ideas to basically get the Commission involved with the boat ramp endeavor and so I’m \[unclear\] with Maurice to get this into some sort of framework for like community testimony 11 letters so that we can both – each individual commissioner should submit one as well as like any of our friends or family that are – have some sort of stakeholder relationship with that place. And as well as actually getting the community involved and doing it – making – the Commissioners in the place to advocate for it and to help facilitate that to get as many letters as possible to the Army Corps of Engineers and so that can become part of the Congressional testimony so that’s pretty much my update on it – that’s in progress – I’m still working with Maurice to coordinate that and so hopefully, we can also adopt a letter next meeting for like maybe the Commissions Act tool testimony on the matter as well so, I think, all three of those things would be fantastic to do, ah, the community drive, the individual commissioners, as well as individual commissioners’ efforts to get the word out and to get other people write letters as well as the Commission actually adopting some \[unclear\] testimony –so that’s my update on that. If anyone has questions or for discussions, I’d be happy to \[unclear\]. AA: Abraham – District 5. George, so do you want to make a motion to draft up that letter already or you want to hold on to it next month in order to make the motion for the letter because we have it on our agenda for you to make a motion to draft a letter so at least you will have the letter ready by next month then we can accept the letter. Am I right Sylvia? SW: Yes, so, we’ll need to hear a motion first on drafting the letter and you need to make sure you have a second and, ah, the board needs to vote. GD: OK. Donev – District 9. I move to make a draft letter in support of the boat ramp and testimony thereof. CO: This is Cortney – District 8. Second the motion. AA: Open for discussion. Is there any discussion from the Commissioners on the draft letter? Let’s just talk about what you guys feel should be in that letter – if you guys have any comments to help George along. Noboby? OK. SW: So this is Sylvia from Corporation Counsel. I just want to know that the discussion would be for the board members, if any of the board members have any discussion or input for – just because this is discussion of Commissioner Donev’s motion. AA: Yup, I guess there’s no discussion, so. No just, ah… SW: OK. AA: I guess just draft up the letter, um, we’re gonna do… SW: No. 12 AA: Not yet? SW: Now you need to vote. AA: Yeah, yeah. SW: Sorry… AA: We’re still discussion, still discussion… SW: OK. AA: So just draft up, I guess, you can just draft up the letter after we make a roll call vote and then just run it by the Commission again and then we’ll probably pass it along for it. Ah, Barbara, can you make a roll call vote please? BK: OK. District – 3, Leomana? LT: Aye. BK: District – 4, Brian? BL: Aye. BK: District 5 – Chair? AA: Aye. BK: District 6 – Austin? AG: Aye. BK: District 8 – Cortney? CO: Aye. BK: District 9 – George? GD: Aye. BK: Chair, we have six ayes. Motion passes. AA: OK. Thank you. LT: I think that’s the first time any Hawaii County board says aye and congratulations everyone. 13 ?: \[Unclear\] AA: We done hand being raised in the Zoom? Go ahead, Jaerick… JMG: OK. So where is the community, Abraham, where’s the community on this brah? You guys this needs to be put back on the schedule – before you – this going through – man, there’s no Sunshine Law \[unclear\] by you yourself. ?: OK. JMG: We know what you ask for – for give our testimony and our mana’o. AA: Jaerick, this only one motion to create the letter. If you get something to say you can come. If you get something to say you can come to the next one and then we can have discussion at our next meeting. JMG: Well, you’ll create one letter when you guys never went do one EIS on this thing, Brah? You guys… AA: They already – Jaerick – they already doing the EIS through the Parks & Recreation. JMG: Give mine – my time to talk. Eh, you know what – you guys better think about the fishery, Brah. You guys go open a boat – they going fricking rape our reefs. They going catch our ahi. You guys not doing nothing about the longline fisherman, Brah? The ahi? You guys need to think about this, Brah. Before moving on with one letter – you know what I mean, Abraham – you’re supposed to be looking out for our fishery, Brah. Our resources. Not you guys’ personal thoughts, Brah. You guys just went lock us out of the room, Brah. We were there, we’re here. We’re off in the parking lot. This bull, Brah. AA: OK, Jaerick. We get your opinion on… JMG: You’re the Chair – act chairman. AA: Well… GD: I’d like to clarify real quick, if I may. AA: Go ahead, George. GD: I believe like most of what we’re talking about the requires federal funds to complete and Abraham correct me if I’m wrong – is the shore break right – not the boat ramp itself. The boat ramp would be mostly in state jurisdiction and then the specific effort is very limited to just talking about the part that is owned by the federal government – that the Army Corps of Engineers needs to complete so I 14 think those are two distinct things that have to happen in parallel but I think our – this specific letter with the focus strictly on that federal aspect of it, basically, cause I, what I believe we could have looked into the last meeting was that the boat ramp is happening and the state’s gone through with it and we need, you know, we’d also like to generally improve that shore break for that federal part and so the Army Corps needs \[unclear\] testimony to complete that project, I guess, Jaerick thinks with the counterpoint – maybe that’s not in the best interests in some aspects but, um, like we’d be happy to talk about that and I think next meeting we can go over it more. This is more about just the execution of getting federal support along with the state thing so… JMG: That is, that is, high tide mark three miles out that’s state. You guys doing reach out to the federal – you guys are putting Hawaii in jeopardy. Of the illegal occupation that you guys all forgetting about all of a sudden. OK? The state – go to the legislation you guys like \[unclear\]. The county said they put in 6 million. You guys 78.9 million from the federal, from Congress? That’s not the way to go Brah, and what the military going use ‘em more than us? Is that what it is? AA: The federal money, again, is just to rebuild the sea wall – it’s nothing about the boat ramp. The boat ramp is owned by the county. It’s the county’s money that they’re getting it from and the county getting money from the state. But as far as the seawall – that is getting money from the federal government – so that’s two different things. And you cannot say that, that boat ramp was in there for many for many years – how old is that boat ramp Jaerick? JMG: That boat ramp is old, man, tidal waves took that but \[unclear\] now… AA: OK, so it’s… JMG: The wrong angle. You guys go fix up that… AA: How many meetings have you’ve been down at Laupahoeohe and how many community members down there have been in support of this boat ramp? JMG: I don’t blow cold air but I get something \[unclear\]… AA: Thank you Jaerick, thank you Jaerick, we going move on… JMG: Yeah, yeah, run away, sorry you ran, I know about you Braddah… AA: OK. Right on… NP: May I say something, this is Nani Pogline, about this boat ramp… AA: Go ahead, Nani… 15 NP: It’s not gonna be enlarged – it’s just restoring a historical boat ramp, it’s not gonna become a big commercial venue – it’s just gonna be what it was, right? AA: Try ask that question again, Nani… NP: This is just a restoration of a historical boat ramp, it’s not that they enlarged or made commercial or anything like that, right, it’s just a restoration of a historical boat ramp… AA: Right. NP: Right, yeah, yeah… That’s – I just wanted to verify that. AA: Thank you, Nani… JMG: You don’t have that clarification – you don’t have clarification that they don’t know. Go talk to the boaters, not the fishermen for the throw line. SW: Sylvia Wong, Deputy Corporation Counsel, I’m sorry Mr. Jaerick but at this time the Chair has moved on and you have had your chance to speak, um, please let the meeting go forward, thank you. b. GMAC draft rules discussion and finalization AA: So we got to move on to the GMAC draft rules discussion and finalization. Apparently, the draft rules also wasn’t given out in due time – everybody pretty much received it today. So without having it within a six day notice we going have – we going move the – this item to next month’s meeting. c. Update on the Volcano Transfer Station Forest Reserve access blockage and hunter parking issue AA: Ah, moving on to Old Business, Section C – update on the Volcano Transfer Station Forest Reserve access blockage and hunter parking issues. So, two meetings ago we had a discussion with the Mayor right over here in our meeting room, um, we brought it up to him – he went to check it out with Corp Counsel – he made a suggestion to the Solid Waste Division, Department of Environmental Management and they actually moved the boulders to the back of the property but where they put the boulders still not sufficient enough parking – like they should have put it more towards the back of the facility where there’s more accessible parking – right now you just parking along the fence line where is only one vehicle if they move it like just around the corner there’ a big – I had pictures but Ike you guys kinda handling something else right now. Um, but there’s like a two vehicle parking area if they just moved it just a little bit more so I’m gonna contact DEM and try see what they can do for that – for the hunter access or for 16 the gathering access up in Volcano Transfer Station. So, um, it’s a plus, we’re moving forward with that, ah, anybody got any questions or comments for that? SW: Hi, Sylvia Wang – Deputy Corporation Counsel – I do have one comment. I know at the last meeting you had mentioned wanting to pursue potential separate access through the state and wanting the hunters who are going up there to continue to login. Is that still your request? AA: Um… That’s on hold for now. I guess we’ll just try leave it the way it is for a little while and that’s what I’m gonna bring up to DEM if they can just leave it like this for maybe six months and if there’s not bad tactics or vandalism to the facility that maybe they can, you know, just move the boulders more towards the back or just getting \[unclear\] altogether. SW: That’s you \[unclear\] and are you still asking the hunters to sign in? Is there still the sign in sheet? AA: Yeah. There’s still a hunter check in station over there, so, yeah, it doesn’t matter if you’re hunting in that specific area or any part of the Island – just please do you guys sign in, check ins. Do you guys, yeah, sign in sheets because like we said in our other meeting – the more people that sign up in that area or just any area it shows hunter usage and you know it’s a plus for – so you can actually sign in via paper, hard copy, that’s at all check in stations or now there’s like – I said before – there’s the outer special app that’s much more better, convenient. NP: Ah, Nani Pogline here… AA: Hey, Nani… NP: \[Unclear\] Sonoda, the chair of Na Ala Hele Council, recommended that GMAC also seek alternatives, um, because he said that when there’s change of guard, you know, the boulders could be put back again and that actually happened when Tom Lodge was Chair a few years back – he did have the boulders moved and then they were put back but, um, he said that’s it’s good to have an alternative \[unclear\] like DOFAW making an alternative route. AA: Right, so that’s why when I go and talk to DEM that’s what I’m gonna try have them, you know, write something up as best as can – but, like I said, it’s just – let’s just try the six-month period if there’s no vandalism or anything that happens then we can kinda use that as evidence that they can just either remove it more far back or just get rid of it altogether, right? Are there any other questions, comments? AA: Thank you, um, New Business - I go move down to Committee Reports, a real quick one. Under Committee Reports we have cancellation of the 2022 GMAC Hunting/Fishing Expo. So we’re gonna cancel that whole expo because we came 17 up with some technical difficulties that unforeseen issues that came up so we just gonna cancel that. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. GMAC June 2023 Hunting/Fishing Expo discussion and motion to draft a letter for Mayor Roth’s approval AA: Um, so now we gonna move back up to New Business, um, GMAC June – so we gonna start a new event in June 2023. It says Hunting/Fishing Expo but technically, we’re gonna call it Outdoors Day – the reason why choose June is because June is technically – the whole month of June is outdoors, you know, get outdoors month, yeah, summer time, it’s get outdoors month so and we have more than sufficient enough time to get all the technical stuff done so at this time if you guys interested in doing that then ah, if someone could make a motion to draft a letter to the Mayor ‘cause we need – the first step is we need approval from the Mayor’s Office. SW: Sorry… I’m sorry I think you need a vote from the board to approve exploring this idea and then you can go on to a motion for a letter to the Mayor... AA: OK. SW: ….in support of the idea. AA: So, can I have a motion to accept the idea of Outdoors’ Men Day in June 2023? LT: Leomana – District 3. I’d like to make a motion to discuss the idea and potential of Outdoors’ Day during June 2023. GD: Donev – District 9. Second. AA: OK. Thank you, open for discussion. Commissioners? Anybody want to have a discussion about the Outdoorsmen Day? LT: Leomana – District 3. I think Outdoors’ Day is I think – I think because we are the Big Island and we have more animals than everyone this is kind of our kuleana, responsibility for the state. I don’t see any other island having some sort of Outdoor/Nature Day that would be as impactful as ours and so I think this is one of our kuleana and all of us on this board should dedicate a lot of effort to making it happen for the Island and for all the animals, so, yeah, I \[unclear\]. AA: Yeah, so, with that we getting away from the Hunter/Fishing expo name cause the Outdoors’ Day we can carry a broader principal of events that we can or knowledge that we can bring in to this event that day as far as vendors like we had a team up on Oahu was like private search and rescue like let’s say a hunter or hiker gets lost in the forest then you know private individuals can take these 18 classes and go out and search for the lost party. There’s also – we already had support from DOFAW, DOCARE – Boys and Girls Club – we had support from – then they was all looking forward to coming to our events but like I say we just had technical difficulties – unforeseen circumstances. Um, any other comments from the Commissioners, discussion? No? OK. Barbara can you make roll call? BK: Sure. District – 3, Leomana? LT: Aye. BK: District – 4, Brian? BL: Aye. BK: District – 5, Chair? AA: Aye. BK: District – 6, Austin? AG: Aye. BK: District 8 – Cortney? CO: Aye. BK: District – 9, George? DG: Aye. BK: We have six ayes, Chair. No nays. Motion passes. AA: Thank you, Barbara, um, next can we have a motion to ask the Mayor for support for our event? So I need a motion to draft the letter for the Mayor’s approval. BL: Brian – District 4. I make a motion that we draft a letter asking for the Mayor’s approval to have Outdoors Day in June. LT: Leomana – District 3. I second that motion. AA: Ah, discussion on the letter? No discussion on the letter. OK. Um, Barbara can you make another roll call vote please? BK: Sure. District – 3, Leomana? LT: I just wanted to say one thing – in the letter can we use the word kuleana? 19 SW: Are you asking the Deputy Corporation Counsel? LT: Well, I guess I’m asking whoever can write the letter. I’d like to start implementing some Hawaiian verbiage inside of the letters that come out of our Commission, if possible, in these letters ‘cause kuleana is a big cultural practice and so I just wanted to see if we can start using these words and language, um, drafting… SW: OK. So I think that’s appropriate for discussion. LT: Yeah, OK. SW: Um, is there any other discussion as to the proposed contents of this letter by the Commissioners? LT: No. SW: No? OK. Do you want to set aside, I’m sorry, I’m getting out of myself? I guess next is vote. OK. Shall we go ahead? BK: District -3, Leomana? LT: Aye. BK: District – 4, Brian? BL: Aye. BK: District – 5, Chair? AA: Aye. BK: District – 6, Austin? AG: Aye. BK: District – 8, Cortney? CO: Aye. BK: District – 9, George? GD: Aye. BK: That’s six ayes, Chair. Motion passes. AA: Thank you, Barbara. Motion passed. 20 SW: And at this point, um - Deputy Corporation Counsel – you can try to assign any individual commissioner or even a couple of commissioners to help drafting this procedural letter. AA: Um, I’m going to request or I’m going to ask Leomana get ahold of Auntie Teresa Nakama and you guys can work together on drafting up the letter. SW: Can you please make sure that the draft is forwarded to Corporation Counsel so that I can \[unclear\]. LT: Aye. AA: Yeah, so send ‘em to me – tag her – like cc me and Sylvia. BK: And don’t forget \[unclear\]. AA: And Barbara. Sorry Barbara. SW: The only other thing is it’s does the Commission want to have final say on the contents of the letter or does the Commission give me authorization for whatever letter that’s drafted to be signed? ?: We can read it… AA: Well, I think that the letters gonna be – got to get approved next month’s meeting right too? SW: I think that’s the best forum. I just wanted to leave that open – if you wanted to try to address that in a motion now but if you want to leave it to next meeting, I think that’s the most appropriate. AA: Yeah, we going leave ‘em to next meeting ‘cause they gonna draft up a letter already and then we can fine tune it or whatever at the next meeting. SW: That’s fine. AA: Thank you, Sylvia. Announcements? Any announcements from Commissioners? OK. Committee Reports: GD: Oh, um, Donev – District 9. I have a quick update, so JoJo got back to me and he was saying that the fishing derby in Kawaihae last month was very successful and 60 keiki and six or seven adults attended on the coastline, so… AA: Thanks, George. 21 GD: ….an update. 7. ANNOUNCEMENTS: AA: Oh, announcements is, ah, actually I go one – Robert Duerr – he’s gonna be in County Council tomorrow – tomorrow they have meetings to approve his Commission ship so, ah, he might be joining us in our next GMAC meeting. 8. COMMITTEE REPORTS: a. Cancellation of the 2022 GMAC Hunting/Fishing Expo on September 24, 2022: b. Reassessment of GMAC committees, discussion. AA: OK. Committee Reports – reassessment of GMAC Committees and then it’s open for discussion also, so, you guys all got our committees: we got a Shooting Range Committee, which is held by Stanley Mendes, Kean Umeda, Tom Lodge, Jim O’Keefe. Next Committee is Cultural Practices: which is Leomana Turalde, as the Chair Teresa Nakama, ah Legislative Committee which is Grayson Hashida, Chair, George Donev, Brian Ley, and Cortney Okumura, Nani Pogline. Outdoors Day October 2022 – that’s just been cancelled but we also had Brian Ley, Stanley Mendes, Leomana and myself. My idea with this is to cancel all these committees and because we have no real use for them at this time. For one, the Shooting Range – that’s a whole topic and we got that bill passed SB 3298 – last legislative season – so when the time comes that we need to look into that then we need to create a new committee because Stanley, Tom Lodge and Jim O’Keefe – they’re all members of the public – they still can be involved if they want to in the future but there’s nothing at this point that we can be looking at Shooting Range until next administration takes over I’m assuming… As far as the Legislative Committee – legislative season is actually done. At this time Grayson is also a member of the public and so is Nani and no problem with them coming back into the Legislative Committee once we create another one but at this time we’re not working on legislative issues so… BL: I’ve got a legislative thing… AA: Yeah? So that one can be disbanded also. Outdoor Day Committee that one can just be disbanded until we get a motion to create another one with the next – probably by next meeting or something. As far as Cultural Practices, um, up to Leomana and Teresa is they still like keep that one open. LT: Yeah, I mean, I can just do stuff on that. AA: OK. So, Corp Counsel do we need a motion to close these committees or? 22 TN: Excuse me, Abraham, Teresa. AA: Hey, Teresa? TN: I thought I was part of the Outdoor Day Event also. AA: Um, I think you came on after we created this list, so, yeah, you was on it too, um, but I think you came in after – this list wasn’t updated. TN: So it needs to be updated. AA: Well, we going cancel ‘em anyway. We gotta create a new one. TN: OK. OK. Thanks. SW: OK, so two things. Ah, yes, you can do a motion and say cancel the previous ones. If you’re keeping, if the plan is to keep the cultural practices you might need to provide a scope – because the point of each committee is supposed to have a particular purpose, so it needs to have a defined role – so you might want to redo the Cultural Practices role. So two different things, two different motions. LT: OK. Leomana – District 3. Um we can get rid of the Committee on that one and I can just present during my district reports. AA: Is that good? SW: However, which way you want to do it but, um, either way you do have to put up two different motions and it’s gotta \[unclear\] condition. BL: Brian – District 4. I make a motion to disband all the current GMAC Committees for 2022 until we have reason to start another committee at a later date. LT: Leomana – District 3. I second that motion. AA: OK. Open for discussion from any of the Commissioners about the closure or disbanding of our committees. Any discussion from the Commissioners? GD: Donev – District 9. The next Legislative Session – how will we do like committees for that going forward would it be on topic or for a bill or would there also be a blanket – Legislative Committee – any thoughts or ideas on it before we disband the existing one? 23 AA: This Legislative Committee was actually a blanket – it covered pretty much everything so would be – we’ll be drafting up or opening up another Committee basically blanketing the whole thing so it can cover every aspect of it. SW: So, I would say technically for the rules, ah, once you’re disbanded these committees – if you’re going to reform the committees you can by motion and there should be a discussion as to the scope and specificity which can be determined at that time. So irrespective of what your Legislative Committee had covered previously, it does not inhibit or limit what you can do later – it’s just you guys should have the motion and discussion and vote as to what that committee is going to do at the time when it becomes appropriate. Does that answer your question Commissioner Donev? GD: Yeah. SW: OK. AA: Thank you. Any other discussion from the Commissioners? OK. Barbara can you make a roll call vote please? BK: Sure. District – 3? LT: ‘E’o… BK: District 4? BL: Aye. BK: District 5, Chair? AA: Aye. BK: District 6 – Austin? AG: Aye. BK: District 8 – Cortney? CO: Aye. BK: District 9 – George? GD: Aye. BK: Six ayes, no nays. Motion passed. 24 9. COMMISSIONERS REPORT BY DISTRICT: AA: Thank you, Barbara. Ah, Section 9 – Commissioner Reports by District. Ah, District – 1, vacant. District – 2, Leomana? LT: Ah, aloha, District 3. Leomana Turalde. Um, I guess the only concerning thing about my district is the Department of Land and Natural Resources or the board is voting on water rights – having to do with Hilo – and holding meetings on Kauai. Ah, yeah, that just, ah, I don’t know, that – the water in Hilo feeds all the animals in Hilo and given the Wailoa State Park – the pond – I think this past six months they’ve been doing construction if you guys saw inside they’re capping off a couple of the wells to Wailoa. I don’t know how that affects our wildlife but I know it does. Ah, yeah, that’s my report for this month. AA: So is that something you want to put on to the agenda? You want to look into that so we can put ‘em onto the agenda and maybe we can have more… LT: Oh, can we do that? Yeah, I mean, I don’t, I’m trying to think of how to get more information. Can we get someone from the Department of Water for, um, give a… AA: Yeah. OK. Shoots. LT: Leomana – District 3. I’d like to put a discussion about water on the agenda for next month. AA: Ah, District – 4, Brian Ley. BL: Brian – District 4. District 4 has been pretty busy. I had a chance to talk to Helen Tupai – she’s running for Senate District 1 and Holly Osborne, she’s running for Senate District 2, and Junior Tupai who’s running for Lt. Governor. I had a chance to talk to all three of these individuals about GMAC, what we stand for, what we want to do and we got a lot of strong support and they were really excited with what we were doing and, you know, like everybody else there’s a lot of people, I always assume it’s just tribal knowledge but, ah, you know, a lot of people have no idea what’s going on on Mauna Kea and other places so they were all excited and everything else like that so, you know, they made a pass at Primary – so if they make it we have some good friends in the Legislative season if they can get past November so – we’ve got a foot in the door and made some good progress with them. And also, Abraham and I – we had a Zoom meeting with Hawaiian Shores about the pig problem. We discussed some issues and everything else and that turned into number 2 – Abraham and I met with the DLNR and Hawaiian Shores and we went about checking access to the hunting area from Hawaiian Shores cause we figure if we can get some better access for the hunters to get in there we can keep the pigs down and they won’t be wandering into Hawaiian Shores and from that Abraham and I had a lot of 25 community talks and everything and we ended up putting together a quick TikTok at that Paoa Community Center and we had about 25/30 people showed up. We had a nice discussion – we talked about some of the ideas that GMAC is looking forward to push for the next Legislative season – got some input from the residents and everything else, so it was a good meeting and August – and the final one – August 27 at the Eagle’s in Keaau – I will be doing another pulled pork free lunch giveaways so there’ll be some fliers for everybody in the Puna area, keep an eye out for the fliers in the social media so we can let everybody know that these aren’t just Brucellosis infected pigs that need to be hauled off to the side of the road and covered in lime – that they’re actually very good eating and we can use them at these times so that’s it for District – 4, mahalo. AA: Ah, District – 5, myself. Yup, did a bunch of leg work – me and Brian – not really a district report but just an open discussion about GMAC needs to – we need to put GMAC we’re out there – more people we talk to more people don’t even know what GMAC is, so, if other Commissioners want to put together their own public meetings, that’s fine. I’ll try my best to get out there, um, and assist you guys as best as I can. Um, District – 6, Austin? AG: District – 6, Austin Griffey. Um, lots going on in South Kona outside there is this new development that’s been going on in Opihihale – they calling themselves – the Kona Investments – the Kona Estates – they are gonna be building $60 million dollar homes, which is for colonials not for natives or residents \[unclear\]. It’s not going to be affordable, really, and, um, where they’re doing it is slap dab right in the middle of one of the main nesting areas for our ahi birds which is what the native Hawaiians have used to find schools of tunas for generations and pretty much it’s gonna be a devastation down in South Kona. It’s gonna ruin the coastline. It’s gonna be a lot of issues going on down there and, um, there’s a hui going around of all the South Kona people that trying to get together to stop this thing and, yeah, I’d like to see if we can do something to help stop it cause, I mean, it’s my home town right there, I’ve seen that lava flow from day one and now it’s changed, it’s different, it’s not like how it used to be and for our boat ramp, Honaunau Boat Ramp, we need to make a no swim zone cause the boaters that are coming in and out they’re constantly having to yell at tourists to get out of the way – people are almost getting hurt, run over, um, cars being parked on the side of the boat ramp, fishermen can’t even pull in and pull out without taking off mirrors from people’s cars. It’s like something needs to be done with that as well and, um, big population is booming, as always but everything else is pretty normal besides those two major things – the boat ramp, traffic and the million investment thing going on, oh, yeah, and NARS, NARS just acquired 15,000 acres from McCandless Ranch which is what I was told is that they’re planning to fence and eradicate all the wild pipi, pigs, sheep, bull frogs and all that stuff. SW: So is there any matter of what you discussed that you would want to put on the agenda? 26 AG: I would like to put most of those things on the agenda – the boat ramp issue and colonial investment. SW: Which, I’m sorry. I think you would need to clarify. AG: Ah, Honaunau Boat Ramp – no swim zone would be one of them. And then, um, the Kona Estate Investment Subdivision that they’re trying to put in. SW: OK. So, I’m sorry, and I keep forgetting to say my name, it’s Sylvia Wang, Deputy Corporation Counsel, I think you need to clarify how it’s a subject matter for GMAC. So if you could read it back to I think it was the birds? AG: Yeah, so, it’s, the ahi birds they like to nest on cliff side and big structures – puus – and stuff like that. There is one big crack going right down the middle of that Estate that they’re trying to build on and it’s been a home for years for the birds. I mean all the fishermen in South Kona know it cause we all see the white bids circling and landing and that’s their main nesting and resting area is on that lava flow right there and that main puu. There’s one big crack there. SW: OK. I understand but just so that it can be still to be put on the agenda so what you want to discuss is the habitat of the birds in that area… AG: Yes… SW: ….the potential impact. AG: Yes. Also the marine life impact as well due to that new subdivision going in. But it’s all lava rock so the drainage is gonna seep more into the ground than it would in the more – like the upland areas. SW: Right so… I’m sorry, again, this is Sylvia Wang, Deputy Corporation Counsel. Do you want to enquire as to whether there was an environmental impact statement done for that? AG: Yes, yes… That would be awesome. SW: OK. AA: Abraham – District 5. Eh, Austin, do you know if – how’s the mammals in that area – is there any goats, pigs? AG: Ah, it’s heavily goat action in there, for sure. Lots of \[unclear\] pigs in that lava area on the northern side of their property is all pigs but mostly it’s all makai, yeah, so it’s all goat. 27 AA: And what land designation is that? That area, land area? AG: It’s lava zone 2. It’s ag land, agricultural land. It’s 326 acres I believe. AA: OK. AG: And that’s the Opihihale Arch where everybody would ulua fish and fish for years at that fishing area, ulua fishing area. AA: So gonna affect the fishing on that shoreline area, right? AG: Yes… AA: Yeah, so we should be looking into the effects of the shoreline fishing and also, you know, the native species, you know, the bird population and also our game resources in that area. AG: Correct. AA: OK. Does that sound about right, Sylvia? SW: It seems that it would all go back to the environmental impact statement if any was done. AA: OK, yeah, so I guess, Austin, we can start - well next, next meeting we’ll put it on the agenda but in the meantime if you can go research on that, um, that EIS. As far as the boat ramp, I think before next meeting investigate who owns that boat ramp so we know who to contact… AG: It’s a state boat ramp… AA: OK. Yeah, see cause if Honaunau is a state boat ramp, Laupahoehoe is a county boat ramp, so, that’s where we need to see who owns it so we know who to bring into the meeting and have an open discussion with them, right? AG: OK. OK. Perfect. AA: And then even the – it’s affecting the fishermen from going out and using that boat ramp by having the swimmers in the water and also having everybody parking along the roadway, right, so it’s affecting their time line or just their scope of going out and going fishing. LT: Leomana – District 3. Austin, I just wanted to check in – what’s up with that mountain lion on that thing? AG: \[Unclear\] nobody ever gets a good picture. 28 LT: Yeah. AG: \[Unclear\] always nowadays I could have zoomed in on that thing’s eyeball like what kind of \[unclear\]. LT: Yeah, so, it’s like, is it real? It could have been just a big cat, yeah, and it’s far away. You just… AG: I have no idea. It kinda looked like one mountain lion, one bobcat or something, but being Holualoa get so much hunters up there, but there is in that area there’s some ghost pigs is what the locals they say, ah, when I run into those pigs that thing went burn my dogs every time so maybe it’s a cat, you never know… LT: Oh, maybe… AA: Yeah, so, Abraham – District 5. So just for everybody’s information there’s a picture going around on social media that there’s this mountain lion up in the Holualoa area so for those that didn’t know that – that’s what the quick discussion is about. LT: If you go look at the map, Leomana – District 3, if you go look at the map and you guys kind of just gauge by the surrounding neighborhoods that people have money, they have huge compounds with exotic animals, cause in Hilo I grew up, my neighbor had monkey, we have ibex over here. I saw black bucks, ah, you know, I saw all the animals growing up, so, I mean, bobcat isn’t too far out there. AG: I know my brother when we was like 15, 16, he was hunting South Kona Forest Reserve and he claims he saw one black panther in the forest, but that was years ago. Who knows. LT: \[Unclear\] enough. Thank you. SW: Sylvia Wang, Deputy Corporation Counsel, I’m sorry this conversation is very interesting but it has strayed from the agenda. \[Unclear\] please return to the agenda. AA: Sorry, we were just looking at – the discussion was the \[unclear\]. Ah, District – 7, vacant. District – 8, Cortney? CO: Hello everyone, I was hoping to have an update for you on the Kailua Pier being reopened but I have not heard anything from them so hopefully next time I’ll have something to report. And Barbara actually brought to my attention, I’m not sure exactly if this is in my district or if it’s further south but she sent me a note about the opening of new management area called Waiea Natural Area Reserve, um, it’s a 1269-acre plot of land in South Kona known as the Waiea Tract. So 29 anyway, it’s been designated as a Natural Area Reserve and there’s currently no access to this area except through these – nearby US Fish & Wildlife Refuge so anyway, I hadn’t heard of it till Barbara sent it to – so I just wanted to bring that to everyone’s attention and questions – let me know if you’d like me to look further into it. Of course, don’t want to encroach – if this is actually in Austin’s territory – I just don’t know where – I was trying to look on them map but I’m not exactly sure so… Anyway, I just wanted to bring that up. AG: Yeah, well, Waiea is above… AA: Kealia… AG: The transfer station – that’s McCandless Ranch – that’s the NARS land – 15,000 acres? Is that what it is? CO: Well, this one said it’s only 1269 acres \[unclear\] so maybe the full area is the one you’re talking about. AG: I have a map and it outlines 15,000 acres they’re acquiring or they have acquired and there’s two squares that’s cut out of it which is what McCandless Ranch has kept, um, their only access is through McCandless Ranch it’s right there up above, across the street from the rubbish dump. That’s where the first Vancouver bipi came to this Island were released was up in there and they were brought in through Napoopoo Bay so there’s a lot of history up there too and they’re gonna try and wipe out those animals but it is a pretty harsh land up there – pretty rugged animals. AA: Thanks, Austin. Abraham – District 5, ah, Cortney, get couple other things coming up in your district and I going forward you the information but there’s an archery club in Kona run by Mark Loando – he was in office last meeting and I talked to him and he wants to start he wants to try and make an archery range out in Kona so I’m in contact between him and Maurice Messina and talking to Maurice he’s in support of it so I’m gonna \[unclear\] so you can jump in at that conversation and join in with them. CO: Thank you. AA: The other one is you and George – I sent you guys contact information to Steve Bergfeld which is the head of DOFAW and he’s gonna be asking you guys’ opinions on some rule changes in your guy’s areas. CO: Thank you. AA: You guys share the borderline. OK. District – 9, George? GD: Ah, nothing further than the update from JoJo for the success of the fishing derby. 30 10.ADJOURNMENT: (8:00 pm) AA: OK. Thank you very much. Ah, it’s 7:26p. Anybody want to make an adjournment motion. LT: Leomana – District 3. I’d like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting at 7:26p. BL: Brian – District 4. Second the motion. AA: Ah, discussion? TN: Abraham, Teresa… Just FYI, um, are we supposed to have gone over the powers and duties of the draft of Game Management Advisory Commission? AA: Yeah, Teresa, we were supposed to but the draft rules wasn’t out within the six days prior to this meeting for public testimony or public awareness. TN: OK. All right… AA: So, yeah, we’ll wait until next month’s meeting. TN: Thank you, thank you for the clarification. AA: Thank you. SW: Oh, actually, so that’s, that should have been calls – so do you want to call address that now. But, I mean, I guess you’ve already talked about it. You need to put it on the record that it’s gonna be passed to next month’s agenda. AA: Yeah, I said that right? TL: Yeah. SW: Yeah, I think so… AA: Yeah. SW: OK. Then you’re fine. AA: OK. Thank you. OK. Leomana made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Did anybody make a second? BL: Me… 31 AA: Oh, Brian made a second – there’s no discussion, um, Barbara you want to make a roll call please? BK: Sure. District – 3, Leomana? LT: ‘E’o. BK: District – 4, Brian? BL: Aye. BK: District – 5, Chair. AA: Aye. BK: District 6 – Austin? AG: Aye. BK: District 8 – Cortney? CO: Aye. BK: District 9 – George? GD: Aye. BK: We’ve got six ayes and no nays so… motion passes. AA: The meeting adjourned at 7:20p – thank you, thank you everyone for showing up. Next Meeting: September 20, 2022 Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary 32