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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGMAC Minutes 2.18.25 Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawai’i Minutes – Draft Final Meeting Date: February 18, 2025 Time: 9:00 am to 11:00 pm Place: Zoom and In-Person 25 Aupuni Ctr., Ste. #1501, Hilo HI 1. CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL: District 1 - Robert Duerr, Present, in person District 2 – Taysen Wong Chong, Present, in person District 3 – Rhon Leomana Turalde, Present, in person District 4 – Brian Ley – Present, in person District 5 - Vacant District 6 – Vacant District 7 – Vacant District 8 – Cortney Okumura – Present via Zoom District 9 – Justin Ackerman – Present via Zoom Quorum Established with 6 in attendance. STAFF: Inha Kandatsu-Kang Deputy Attorney, Corporation Counsel – in person Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist – via Zoom 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: January 21, 2025 Action: A motion was made by T. Wong Chong and seconded by B. Ley to accept the January 21, 2025 minutes. The motion passed unanimously by voice poll vote with 6 yes, and 0 excused. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: None. 4. COMMISSIONER REPORT BY DISTRICT: RD: Robert Duerr, District 1, The big news in district 1 was a sea snake that was found in Honoli’i. It was found under a log. Sea snakes are one of the most poisonous snake in the world but they have small mouths so they’re difficult to bite, though if you really caress them or you think it’s cool to handle them you could get bit and death is really a possibility - with that being said that’s pretty neat, pretty unusual and it was a beautiful animal. The Makahanaloa fishing association had their annual meeting and a number of East Hawaii Fishing working group. I went myself and actually joined the group and a couple of issues they have going on that group is really together. 1 The memberships are over a hundred and approaching two hundred. They were able to get a foundation grant to have a coordinator working part time. Their big issue is preserving the tradition of the ability to access the ocean. Along those lines they’re just not talking. They have a kauanui project which is 80 acres total 40 acres on either side of the stream that they’re looking to purchase. The County has given preliminary approval. They went to the State Legacy Land Board and the land board said they will give them a million dollar matching grant for the county to come up. That vote will be coming up to the county soon through the PONC commission (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Commission). Part of the land has been planted in traditional Hawaiian forest trees so they think that they maybe in the future, will be able to have access to some kind of cash flow. The other issue that they talked about was the access. And this is an issue that we may want to look into next year which is essentially, the planning commission granted access, deeded access with recorded access. The developer has not been performing, and it’s been kind of a dog and pony show with the last planning director. It’s something that this commission may want to take a look at and if there’s legal rights to access why aren’t those legal rights for access not put in place? With that being said, a boat sank during the last north swell, the big issue, north swells really make Hilo Bay dangerous. The good news about that was, unlike the boat that crashed on the Honolii pali it was not secured and became wreckage and the wreckage including diesel fuel which was strong enough to have people’s eyes water that nothing was done by Coast Guard of DOBOR board. DOBOR this time moved in three days and was able to salvage the boat, bring it to shore and have it crushed. So that’s primarily Monica, that’s primarily the District Director Jeremy in Honokohau and Monica who’s the new harbor agenda in Wailoa who jumped on it and, she acted in a real professional manner and it’s a pleasure to have her working in the harbor. That’s it for District 1. LT: Mahalo for that strong update. How far the district 1 from Makahanaloa RD: Makahanaloa district 1 is all of Hamakua kind of wrapped up in Waimea. LT: Leomana, District 3. Just thinking about Makahanaloa and I hear it in the association come up so many times I did one out there couple times to deliver and help plant some plants on the coast line but, yeah, just thinking about the PONC commission and the vote coming up maybe we should put this maybe like a discussion and we can kind of write a letter of support or something or send a representative officially from the commission to support that vote that they got to do on the land. Yeah. Okay, District 2? TWC: District 2, Taysen Wong Chong. Basically, it’s the same issues from the last time. I still walk my dog that’s down by Liliokalani. The main issue is the threatening of the nene from the feral cats right on Banyan drive Liliokalani gardens towards Wailoa. Sometimes I feel like I cannot even get my walk in with my dog without being asked because now that they know who I am, right? Anyway, but, when I see who in… I was thinking… I don’t know how I can question this but I always spoke with nene.org what is the steps that we could take towards, like, try and resolve that situation with the feral cat on feeding. I know it’s in a lot of talks with that, but, it’s just that a lot of the elders are very concerned, yeah, about the situation especially how I mentioned the last time with the limu growing in the pond and how it’s affected how the depths of the pond. 2 They wanna see what angles and steps that can be taken on to the dredging possibilities getting rid of the invasive limu. I’m still hearing, I didn’t see pictures this time but I’m still hearing jaws (pigs) being ripped off in Kulani, yeah, from random pigs being killed and jaws being ripped off, animal still left there. I know this is not the jurisdiction area – also happening at Mauna Loa Mac as well. That’s what I’m hearing. That’s it for district 2. LT: Alright, thank you very much, update for district 2. Moving on district 3. Leomana district 3. My update for this month is super excited, the last two years my fight to get some attention towards our wastewater treatment facility in Keaukaha that bleeds out over 2.5 million of gallons of raw sewage right into Keaukaha every year during the north swells. Last week we had a meeting with the Mayor and he told me three hundred and thirty million dollars. I mean, that’s not his project, he just got hired so he was just giving me the information that they gave him. We don’t know what systems they’re putting in or where the exhaust pipes would be. I’m trying to get the exhaust pipes out of Puhi bay because the reef that we have for a fishing village started in Hilo only bay front and it extends all the way around to the back of what we call Shipman now. But hopefully we’re moving the pipe either, farther out to the first drop off behind Shipman. because the first drop off in the ocean is a mile and half behind Shipman. There’s a small little island that pops up and after that is the big drop off to like three hundred four hundred feet but in Keaukaha is a shallow reef all the way out and so majority of our reef fish in Keaukaha all disappeared and hopefully this project will allow us, uh, there’s a lot of small groups in Keaukaha trying to bring our fish back. So, I was super excited about that. The chicken numbers again, people are dropping off game birds, I mean you know they’re fighting chickens but also the egg laying roosters, so we get the small little fighting chicken hens running around because people just let them go and then we got the Rhode Island red roosters. Somebody is coming into Keaukaha and just dropping them off at the beach. Last week we got 5 more. I’m still trying to figure out if the mobile slaughter house or any slaughter house is in District 3. District 3 is from Keaukaha all the way to Kaloli. I’ve been trying to figure out if in this district or even in District 5 where the new slaughter houses are or if they moved them because I don’t actually know where the property is that they keep these things. You know we hear stories, “oh we have a slaughter house here”, “we have a mobile one” but, let me see one picture, I don’t even know what it looks like, right? You guys ever used it? I’m just trying to figure out, ok we’ve had them on the books, where is it at? What kind it is, I’m just interested in what it looks like and where it is as a community member. Another big one, in the back of Panaewa where majority of our animals in District 3 are a lot of game animals. I saw 2 days ago department of Hawaiian Homelands is hosting a meeting because they want to build a renewal energy. Something.. I don’t know, I don’t what it is, but Hawaiian Homelands want to put it another power plant in Panaewa. Some kind of renewable energy. Maybe it’s hydrogen, maybe it’s biogas off of the sewer, right? Because I think… the whole… the new sewer plant they’re gonna try and get some energy out of the vent thing coming off. So Hawaiian Homelands want to put an energy station connected to the waste water treatment facility, So, just be aware of that because it’s in the back of Shipman, Panaewa, 3 Keaukaha and that’s where all of the game animals exist in District 3. Other than that, that’s my update for this month. Mahalo. Any discussions? Nope? We can move on to District 4. nd BL: District 4, Brian Ley. February 22 is the latest I heard from the Pohiki (unclear) that’s supposed to start which I thought was kind of weird being a Saturday, I didn’t think nobody started on a Saturday but, who knows, maybe they were just bringing stuff but that’s the latest I heard on the Pohiki. And I apologize for SB31 B315 that originated in my district. That was the legislation I expedited procedures for getting permits which doesn’t exist so we tried to advise these individuals on some effective things, but the good news is there is no effective legislation to control the pigs this season. Everything is just buried (unclear) feel good things as usual from our politicians and begin to feel good worthless thing HB150 I think maybe Justin can expound it off if I get the right number this is the bill that you can only lend your gun for twelve hours and you gotta have all the permits and all these other process it’s another worthless feel good thing. I wrote a testimony and said there’s a lot of people, especially veterans, people are going through a rough time they need some place to put the guns until they get through their rough times. You know, I recently had a couple, she decided to step out of their marriage and when he came home told him that she had an affair, divorce. I was holding the guns for a couple of weeks until he got over the shock. These are the kinds of things that we need, and it should be allowed. We should be able to say, “I’m going through an ugly divorce, I’m not feeling real good, hold my guns” There shouldn’t be any consequences with stuff like this. Hopefully you can get on the website and, I think its HB150 being heard on Wednesday so… and that is it for me, Thank you. LT: Thank you for that update we can move forward. District 8 if you got something, you got something if not no worries. CO: Thanks Chair. I’ve got an announcement that there’s a Pu’uwawai volunteer day coming up this nd weekend, Saturday February 22 at 8am in the hua’aina restoration unit. It starts at 8am and I’ll go ahead and send the link to sign up if you want to join, they are going to be out planting native plants, and I don’t think their doing any removal just planting of new native plants so they will provide gloves and tools. I’ll send that to Barbara to pass out to everyone. I just wanted to mention too, David Okumura, a member of the public also in District 8 is on the call and he has applied to fill the vacancy left by my resignation, so I just wanted to introduce him. LT: Aloha David, Thank you, for being interested and jumping in. DO: My pleasure. LT: Ok, Thank you. If that’s it for your update then we can move forward, Mahalo. CO: Thank you, Mahalo. LT: Alright Sir, District 9, Justin Ackermann. 4 JA: The Puako boat ramp is still closed due to that large west swell they’ve been unable to repair it and the continued large west swells are not helping matters at all. And the public service announcement that went out through all the guns stores has helped. The shooting range up on mile marker 16 has been cleaned up so kudo’s to all. It looks good, so, well done, and that is it. LT: Yessah, Alright, thank you Sir. I had a meeting with the mayor and his team on Monday and I guess the last couple of months, talking about cleaning up the range, policing your brass and picking everything up. They got the word. They’re willing to even help us sometimes. I was even talking to Micah about sending a dump truck up there maybe once every six months. Because they know that some people dump their washing machines and bring their fridge, you know, they can hide behind bunkers and play around shoot like that so, thank you very much. I know you talked a lot about that. Moving forward with the next agenda item. You know our most exciting part of the day, agenda item number 5, presentations. We have our expert wildlife biologist Joshua Pang-Ching. Thank you for showing up. One of the things we’ve talked about every single meeting is having an expert come in to answer our general questions about the feeders about the tide about how we can help and stuff like that so thank you for coming in today. 5. PRESENATIONS: a. Joshua Pang-Ching, Wildlife Biologist, Game Section Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife presenting and discussing:  Review of 2024-2025 general game bird season at Kapāpala Ranch CGMA  Game bird water units, updates  Game bird rearing and release program updates  Discussion with hunters about improving hunter access in the Kūlani/Waiākea/Puʻu Makaʻala areas  Lapse of adaptive management rules for Hawaii Island  Kapāpala ranch transfer update  2025 spring bearded turkey season JPC: Aloha everyone. For those that don’t know, my name is Joshua Pang-Ching. I’m a wildlife biologist with DLNR division of Forestry and Wildlife based out of Hilo. My kuleana is with the Game section programs. The ranch is under our East Hawaii jurisdiction and that’s one of our main hunting areas for our game birds. Circulated statistics report. A dramatic increase from 320 hunters to 458. Where it states number of hunts, it means number of individual license hunters that came out, whether they are by themselves or in a group. The reason for the increase is due to more work being done mainly game bird releases such as pheasants and chuckers. We feel this created some buzz, we saw a lot of new names coming out to hunt that we normally don’t see. Kapapala is real unique, there are hunters that only hunt at Kapapala. Some guys from Volcano shoot, even guys that usually hunt Mauna Kea come out to Kapapala. 5 With 458 hunters a total of 401 birds were harvested which equates to a slight drop in hunters’ success measured at birds per hunter. We went from point eight, point nine one to point eight seven. But we think that’s due to a lot of the new hunters who came out and didn’t have much success. One needs to know the area to hunt Kapapala it’s not uniformed throughout the ranch. You can go from one area with guava thickets, and then you drive a mile north and it’s different not very wide. A lot of the core hunters know where to go, where the new guys, who must figure it out to be successful. We had ten hybrid pheasants, and we had twenty-four chucker’s a hundred and fifty-eight (unclear) and most of the chucker’s and the, in fact, most of the pheasants and chucker’s were release birds. Some birds harvested from the release two years ago, so that’s good evidence that a lot of these birds are surviving. We saw some of the released birds from previous seasons in areas where releases are safety zones from hunting areas. We still see a lot of surviving. They are individually banded and color coded for years that we have released and when we are out there working, we see them surviving out there. So that’s a good sign for us. We had one hundred fifty Erckel’s Francolin. We had four (unclear) hens, and four turkeys get harvested. So, we had a pretty good season out there. Hunters are pretty excited for the releases. We have a bunch of new hunters, kids that just made of age in their hunting they got to share in the harvest. In our release efforts, our main target is to try and stop breeding birds out there. Breeding a lot of our releases in areas where hunters can hunt (unclear) in portions of the ranch. Ranch managers closed off the hunting for ranch purposes for safety reasons we closed off some because of high Nene traffic activities. We usually come from the highway so we focus our releases in those areas to try and make sure that birds can survive without any help. There’s a lot of water resources at the ranch so that helps with all the beautiful forage. Last year we released two hundred and twenty-one pheasants at Kapapala and we had a hundred and seventy-nine chuckers released in Kapapala. We also released two hundred and twenty-four pheasants up Mauna Kea and then they released eighty-five pheasants up Puuwaawaa. So that’s kind of it for our release efforts for last year. And those numbers include hens. We probably released half, if not a little more hens than we do roosters. As a summary, hens can be harvested during the inbreed season of pheasants. 6 We don’t ban the hens because (unclear) but that’ll offset, that set up allows them to survive hunting season. A lot of hunters in Kapapala reported and even Mauna Kea reported seeing a lot of hens and hens in Kapapala are (unclear) out birds, so, they survive the season they survive the winter and now going into the spring and survivors start breeding. Last year we observed a handful of pheasant hens within Kapapala and some within Mauna Kea at newer released birds with chicks so that’s a good sign too, that it'll be a great success story- keeping the gas on that project which I guess leads into our plans for this year. We’re still going to be maintaining the release program not bringing any birds from the mainland. We’re sticking to the birds that we have to collect eggs keep being hatched. Our bird program is to work with schools that have FFA agriculture natural resource programs, Kohala High School, Kanu O’ Ka Aina school in Waimea and Kea’au Highschool here in Kea’au. We work with them to help us raise birds. We take the kids out there as part of our release program. The main thing is that relationship already given Kohala High School chucker eggs starting to (unclear)lay earlier than expected so we’ve been getting some eggs something to collect eggs and give them to the school so they can have the smaller batches where we’re gonna stick to the bigger batches we’re waiting for the birds to start pumping more eggs (unclear) start firing up our incubators. st The 2025 spring turkey season is soon to begin March 1 we’ve been getting plenty of calls from people in the mainland. Usually calls in February late January from people who are interested in logistics of spring turkey hunting. The mainland has a real big culture of spring turkey seasonal bearded season bearded turkey seasons in the mainland big culture. There’s been an increase in it now, there’s this thing called, “Chasing 49” in 49 states. Alaska being the only state missing from the list. It’s funny because there’s a lot of the folks, these guys are trying to come to Hawaii and hunt. Piggy backing off a spring vacation with their families so we end up being a vacation planner fielding questions about our beaches and so forth. The number of phone calls have increased. The announcement for the hunt is coming out on Friday. Pretty standard announcing of the rules. Open areas, Unit A – Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and GMA, Unit C – upper Piha and upper Kilohaina Laupahoehoe Forest Reserves, which the area was added to the spring turkey season which is part of our adaptive management rules strategies. Last year was the first time it got added to the spring turkey season. This will be the second year that’ll be part of the season. Unit F – Puuwaawaa Forest Reserve, Unit G – Kaohe GMA Regarding the transfer or to recap the Kapapala Ranch lease. The land itself is being tracked. It’s part of track 99. It’s being transferred from DLNR to Department of Ag. It’s a huge process the land is being given back and then will become part of the forest reserve. There’s a lot going on with it. The main thing that has been done probably since the last time I talked about it is, we’re working… we finished some of the major survey work with surveyors that DLNR contracted to survey because they’re subdividing portions that are being kept in the ranch portion that will 7 come back to Dept. of Ag as it being an extension of the Kapapala Forest Reserve, mainly seven thousand acre plus or minus couple acres strip across the top of the ranch. Yeah, at some point (unclear) added to the Kapapala Ranch Reserve out there the forest reserve that was hunting area (unclear) by those acreages. Not much said, it’s slowly moving along. There’s a lot of contract work that needs to be done, more survey stuff needs to get finished.This is the ranch that we’ve been actively in pursuit for a long time, and we want to make sure that it goes smoothly and gets done. One other point I wanted to talk about… we met with some hunters, Abraham, Antonio, Jason couple other hunters a few weeks ago about prioritizing improving hunter access in Kulani in Waikea Forest areas off the Steinback. So, we met with them a couple of weeks ago prioritizing - hunt some routes for those that area. Waiakea Timber Management Area is always a huge network so talking with the hunters to prioritize, they felt it was necessary to open and maintain roads. We kind of have the same roads that we maintain throughout the year by herbicide machines, hand clearing and stuff. Met with them to prioritize which ones. Look for ways to bring in more machines to start to open the roads including some of the side roads. Tree planting (Uncle ?) (unclear) that access has had a lot of backing over the years (unclear)… that group (unclear). The last of the adaptive management rules for Hawaii Island – just to briefly recap this thing that came out of our public input and board approval we can help adapt rules from ongoing management strategies it is mainly to open up more opportunities for hunters. So, the first of the one that got implemented for Hawaii Island two years ago was increase of hunting days in lower Puna, Nanawale forest (unclear) Malama (unclear) Keaau ohana forest reserve. They were normally opened up for weekends and holidays, but we opened them up for seven days a week and we increased the bag limits. A lot of that part being driven by increase of pigs in peoples yards trying to do our little part faster with changing the rules to include a lot more hunting opportunity but those rules are lasting because the initial when you go to approve these rules their effective for two years with one year extensions upon board approval after demonstrating providing data to demonstrate to the board that they should be renewed but we don’t have a lot of data from those that the rule change data being and the data for that come from hunter check in data and harvest data. There’s not a lot of hunters that check in on there. We notice there’s a lot hunting activity, but there’s not a lot that check in. So that’s hard for us to use to rely on that data to demonstrate that there was an increase in pig harvest, increase in hunting activity, so instead of trying to extend those rules we just try to get it approve (unclear) so keeping the same rules but then instead of extending the hunt proves that (unclear) that data to get those one year extension instead of just re-do it, that’s our bigger (unclear) should be more effective instead of getting a one year extension we get two years. Water use is always a big topic on Mauna Kea. For those that don’t know water units on Mauna Kea mainly is for providing supplemental water for game birds. Mauna Kea (unclear) in Kapapala (unclear) forester, (unclear) Mauna Kea has most, (unclear) The Mauna Kea ones were built in 8 the nineties and anywhere from then to two thousand. Early two thousand so some of the older ones are showing their age the gutters are failing a good portion still functional, tanks are full water is coming out but super (unclear) but we’re trying to improve the checking range with the staff out in West Hawaii, checking those water units more regularly especially coming in to the bird breeding season in the spring making sure the birds can get more water. We started putting out these things that they call them flock blocks they’re like a mineral block for game birds. They are seeds in casing like this molasses block with calcium stuff (unclear) nesting birds (unclear) production (unclear) refurbishing a lot of the water issues unclear) we got some that were going to change ropes on putting in new gutters change the wood on some of the older ones just the ones (unclear) like uphill on Mauna Kea aside. That one is a cool one. It’s unique because it gets fed by a stream diversion. The stream diversion has been clogged over the years. Improving maintenance of the ones that’s up there as well as building, filled with new ones. The gaps where there aren’t on the mountain. We may build a lot in Pu’umali restoration area. Their water units out there in (unclear) last year. We have three plans where we started on one. We have sites for 2 others remain unbuilt sometime in March, April. So just putting more water out in the landscape (unclear) game bird population management. And I ask any hunters out there that - we get calls on water units that A, B and C’s (unclear) to report which ones they are. Most of them have and they’re not always visible but most of them have the name on the top left. One of the main (unclear) K to M1 (unclear) which one to go to so but think that’s about it does anybody have questions. LT: Thank you for that update, everybody excited especially for those of us that are here. Whoever wants to start if you guys have questions. BL: Brian, District 4. I got a bunch of questions here if we can just run through them here real quick. I appreciate you coming in. I know sometimes you guys feel like you’re in the hot seat. JPC: No, I enjoy the conversations. BL: Any issues with the zipties? I noticed I got one bandon bird this year and I noticed you guys are using zipties. Are there any issues with the zipties down the road causing problems with the bird? JPC: No, I don’t believe… some of the zipties we use they just look like regular zipties but we buy them from (unclear) the poultry suppliers and when I started using the zipties I contacted (unclear) do you guys have any issues with (unclear) they’re not using a lot of pigeons. A lot of pigeon guys they use a lot of (unclear) but they use (unclear) no, never had any issues, mainly like, (unclear) control things like (unclear) it is pretty standard with branding that we do branding like for experience and stuff (unclear) enough gap making sure that it’s not too big where you know it slides off the foot, a lot like it fold in on itself where it slides on and become a problem. Not too big where it would slide off and it gets stuck further up on its leg and the mobility and cutting it nice and flush and not a sharp edge. The only issue we have with the zipties is more (unclear) where we’re actually losing the zipties we go and release a bunch of birds, and we go to clean out our (unclear) fall off… the retention has been subpar… I mean, we probably lost about four or five (unclear) was enough that where this year we’re going to actually switch to. We work with this company to get a custom made aluminum bands. They’re 9 pretty cheap. They’ll say (unclear) wildlife (unclear)… One to five thousand, every year we will document ok this year we release band numbers one to five hundred (unclear). We’re trying to get five hundred birds released this year but (unclear) this year is (unclear) BL: What’s your guy’s survival rate? Because I know the mainland survival rates for release birds is like one to two percent. JPC: Yeah we don’t know how many numbers are on them because you know what’s pretty unique especially in a place like Kapapali even in Mauna Kea too (unclear) how far these birds flew so, we get the harvest data that comes back. We get our average totals of observations we feel that we see (unclear) I was down in Kapapala last week and I saw eight released pheasants bills (unclear) so what was cool they’re starting to show their breeding cycle (unclear) on there what we call it (unclear) rock where they’re postured up all and their face kind of gets inflamed and their waddles and their comb if you call it that tail erect postured up trying to court the females. I saw some of the females usually they’re in their breeding season (unclear) from the males, so we see some of that. Survivability we don’t have much hard data on it but we’ve been pretty happy with the reports we get back from the hunters that have seen many of the hen’s out in the fields and various places. We know we’re not going to get a 100% success rate. We’re hoping through trial methods to see survival by putting transmitters on some of our released birds via (unclear) transmitters. We may want to; we’re going to focus on hens to try and track individual hens to see if they start breeding, surviving breeding, see if they survive to see if they nest. Chuckers, what’s unique with chuckers is chuckers are cubby birds they will hang around in their cubbys. (unclear) if you track one you track the (unclear) that it hangs out with so you can use one transmitter to track (unclear) we’re going to try that potentially this year with the transmitters (unclear) there’s various companies out there where you can cheaper VHF. VHF ones are the cheapest. You can get fancier tags, CTT tags that are selling cheap GPS tags. There are tags that will take the GPS data and will upload it through the cellular network (unclear) that are more expensive (unclear) VHF that require (unclear) we don’t have enough to dedicate to tracking all these birds all the time, so we weigh the benefits on each side. BL: Just a suggestion, maybe we can release the hen after the season. I know you’re not supposed to shoot them, but you know accidents do happen and I think everybody’s being out there as a (unclear) JPC: Yeah, yeah, like a redneck hen can really look like a small francolin with (unclear) with a (unclear) long tail. BL: I have (unclear) the joke is all I got, I accidentally shot a long tailed urkle… because brown urkle, you know, when you get the thing and you can’t see that long tail ones are (unclear) it’d be hard, I was just suggesting they move and release the hens at the end of season so there is more hens than there are in (unclear) JPC: We did a version of that this year with roosters. We kept fifty roosters behind to put back in what we call our core release areas being (unclear) parts of (unclear) where we find it more productive for game birds. We kept a bunch of roosters we put back there after what gets hunted (unclear) again, because the hens don’t get harvested (unclear) we put them back 10 (unclear) you would think that (unclear) there are more hens in this area and that’s where we harvested these roosters and we would take the roosters out and put them back in there in theory a place for breeding male potential is harvested. BL: You know, the big thing with all of us is any suggestion on habitat reform, because that would go a long way towards not just the release birds, but also the (unclear) the class interval. We have some quality habitat for these. Any idea when we're going to do some habitat reform? JPC: We started mapping out areas in the Kaoi (sp) restoration area, and working with the program that's under artificial smoke management out there, South of Mauna Kea forest restoration project to map out areas using either staff mowing, either the staff regular mowing that happens areas extend that into all into the landscape to bring the grass down, create more habitat to see that big grass. It's good when it gets molded. Formally, it was great. But, you know, it's molded it promotes, some of those game birds like and it provides, from a safety side, it provides more like safe parking areas and stuff it can allow us to go and provide, once we get the pigs out, we can go and provide food plots. You know, doing like food plots and stuff, in those plant restoration areas so we can go and plant stuff over (unclear) We've been trying planting some of these mainland clover (unclear) with some of our water units (unclear) some of the stuffs that I follow like turkey (unclear) BL: Yeah, it's like I said, you know how many (unclear) and then complaining about, you know, Hawaii could be both renowned if we actually pushed our hunting and like you were saying, people bring the family, and they drop them off in Kona. They go shopping. When they go out, they would be killing all of our animals. And who could do that? Quick question on the left side note, you brought up, what was the success rate on the Mauna Kea dog hunting for pigs. JPC: Mauna Kea dog hunting for pigs, yes, so that hunt is still ongoing in the summer. For those that don't know, we put out this special hunt in Kaohe Restoration Area and Puu Mali Restoration Area opened it up for pig hunting with the use of dogs. It's ongoing. It ends the last day of February, so we got between two more weeks of that hunt. We've had good feedback from hunters, good turnout at the peak, we're getting about almost, like at one point, there was like 10 pigs a week were taken out of Kaohe. We don't have a final number yet, because we're still adding those numbers. So maybe, a meeting or two from now, I can, we can share that, but it's been on going. It was well received. Some little parts about it, was like, well, this is something we'll probably do every year, at least. Next year, for sure, it was well received, and we'll change it a little bit next year. I underestimated how few people knew exactly where these two areas were. So, we had a little bit of confusion with some hunters, luckily, most of them would just call our office and navigate to get to some of these areas. But, yeah, we're probably doing the same version, but probably we're going to open up a little bit more area next year. BL: Yeah, because the downside I saw in the Kaohe is the pigs were the only thing that were rooting the grass and making trails for the game birds. And, getting in this area and wiping out all the pigs, I was just seeing a detriment to the game birds. Because, like I said, the pigs were the only thing that we're creating open ground for the birds, which, yeah, birds need open ground and trails to get through that five-foot grass, since there's no void or anything like that. On the downside, I know that some pigs predate on game bird nests and stuff like that, but, you know, it's kind of a feed off. (unclear) 11 ??: the problem with that, before they eradicated all the sheep, it was good hunting for bird that did because the sheep kept the grass down, birds could flourish. The bird hunting in Kaohe was really very good. BL: Oh, this is the worst year I've had. I actually had one day where I did put up one bird. Never - didn't happen. And, for a couple days we only got, like one or two birds. You know, eight years ago I would limit out by eight birds in the morning with one dog. I had one dog and five guys that could get 13 birds just working with little scratch now Mauna Kea it's just become a desert. As far as game birds and non-native tweeters, I call them just, it's scary up there. I mean, you go up there and you don't see very much wildlife whatsoever. I think we really need to relook the eradication of the sheep and fire hazard and game management and everything else. We wouldn't have to be spending all that (unclear) hour. Oh, we just started the sheep once again. It's just management levels, but anyways, that’s enough. That’s great. Oh, maybe some more waters and Kaohe, because I know inside the fence there's, like, only one really up and on the back end. JPC: Yeah, we looked at there's a couple old, but still functional tanks that are in Kaohe that we're going to build a roof over plum the tank feed that, you know, one less tank we gotta go haul up the mountain. There's one poly tank, plastic tank, and then there's one, like core fishing tank, and it just held tank position. I think there's three you know, capitalized, for that sustaining infrastructure… BL: Do you guys have any plans that's (unclear) The big tires ones… There you get used to the (unclear) JPC: Big tire ones, yeah, BL: But there's stack of tires and, JPC: Yeah there’s just one core area (unclear) BL: (unclear) taking care of the aina when you go up there (unclear) stack of old tires (unclear) I think there's three, you know, capitalized, for that existing infrastructure that's JPC: Yeah. BL: Thank you. (Question from a non-commissioner). ??: One question about Kapapala - to hunt bird, I know for years, is up. Why are there no sheep hunting there? JPC: The ranch, they've tried working with the back and forth. It’s mainly ranch overlap with the hunting. Again, the ranch is, it's a leased, its Kapapala Ranch leases that area, right? And they allow for a game bird hunting, but the sheep hunting adds is a different type of approach. You know, a lot of the sheep are in areas where the ranch is actively managing for cattle. The overlap of mammal hunting on the ranch. I think it's tough to navigate. So… 12 ??: Can't be that tough, because I hear when you let people or their friends go in there and hunt them, and you let the workers, they help them on the ranch go in there and hunt the sheep. So, I mean, if you can do that, but can you do it when the rest of the public can they leasing the land from the state? JPC: I'm not sure. We'll see if that changes, when, if the land when the land transfer happens, if there's something written in the documents or right now it might endanger hunting, but I don't think it's something that's fully off the table. I think it's just finding the right program that doesn't affect matching operations, but helps with the sheep you know, detriment to the ranching operations in a lot of areas, but they are, they graze (unclear) ??: Well the sheep is where closer towards the volcano boundary? JPC: Yeah, that's where they actively graze on Mauna Kea a (unclear) So, you know, they're using grass that repeat that (unclear) ??: So, it will benefit the hunter. Go ahead and cut the population down on the sheep. JPC right ??: We'll get more grazing for the cattle, JPC: Yeah, providing hunting resources. So, I don't think it's fully off the table. I think again, just finding what the ranch is comfortable with. You know, what helps them reduce population, what helps us get legal hunting pressure in there? So, see where it's a conversation that we'll probably have, again, with finding something at least. ??: (Unclear) LT: Sorry, you gotta fill out on the paper. There's the way we run commission. ??: Okay, yeah, LT: Before (unclear) reunite the community speaker interacting as we fill out the paper again. Sorry for interrupting. Okay, we can move on… TWC: Taysen Wong Chong district 2. My favorite subject Mauna Kea. So, speaking of that, this is a bit on touching of a bird. What is the time frame on the whole watering system? JPC: Like, buildings and stuff. I mean, we're gonna get after some of the ones in Pumali, probably mid-March into April, potentially, that time period. So building, you know, two or three new ones in there, renovating some of the ones. We're going to start with this one down on Kino’ole, and then, we're going back down is one of the firmest ones. That's what four of us go out there and get after. It gotta be down there. The (unclear) the tanks are here, all for the waterworks. It's just making it last the next 20 years. The roof is still there, but it's changing the dry rot wood, changing from the plastic gutters to metal seamless gutters that will last way longer. So, throughout this next spring season, actually work our way down on this priority water units. TWC: Oh, my next question is, I know it's a bit off the subject, but how you know Dawn Chang is interested in hearing on game management layout from probably the US and the public and whatever. I know the area shooting is federal regulated, but is there a step that we can take? As 13 far as commissioners, your guys side, what would have to be drafted? I know it's again the Sierra Club, but how can we make up the plans where today's (unclear) and everything like that, to maybe amend the situation, possibly, because it's like example, right? Let's say nothing to do with game works a couple, goes to court, right? Children that are, you get one, one, whole layout. Things change in the future. You can always amend that, per se, right? So, I'm pretty sure when it comes to game management, something can be amended. So, is there, like, any, like, I don't know if that's in your area, to where it be like, what would be the steps in order to having something like that happen? You know, maybe not like any, slow it down, or potentially, what would I know the number is, they want to see zero, right? But with the decrease of the birds, to me, she being shot. And I always talk about this for the amount of decreasing the birds since the 70s, they're being shot for nothing. So, it's like, what would the Sierra Club or the federal agencies need to have it amended? You know, with the whole devastation of the increase in foundational donation… JPC: Short answer, I don't know what legally would be needed. I know it's been (unclear), but and like court hearings, but there's been entities that have tried to take what's the state, or, you know, trying to, in short, amend those unfortunately, without success, to basically, I think what you're saying is to halt the federal mandate to sheep on the market for the sake of the Palila. I wish I could offer an answer, but I think in the process, that's all legal stuff, I think it'll be ongoing, and a lot of it is not just, I mean, the main at the forefront is to benefit Palila right, but it's also restore the rest of the Mountain, you know, to the health of the mountain in general. The main goal is to provide for habitat for Palila, but also, if it comes, you know, habitat for, you know, (unclear) and other forest birds that are out there, as well as the plants and insects. You know, there's argument on both sides. I mean, I've, you know, there'll be 37 and I've hunted up there, throughout my whole life. And, yeah, there's no hiding that the sheep are nowhere near what they used to be, but I've seen the forest change for the good and more difficult, right? The grass is taller. There's more to be seen. We've had rough droughts. That usually helps weed grow. You know, when you get veins after a drought, minus the sheep, but you know, on the other side the body, in most cases have been the healthiest I've ever seen it. You see a lot of regrowth of some of the other native plants that are out there. Nao, unfortunately, keeps getting hit by the insects that people call it. So, areas in (unclear) because the (unclear) are all dying, but yeah, finding the balance, I think, legally and environmentally, is difficult with sheep that are on Mauna Kea forest. But Yeah, it's tough because there's so many, so many people, so many levels involved. Yeah, TWC: You deal with Mauna Loa by chance? JPC: Do I deal with Mauna Loa? Yeah… TWC: My question on went off topic on this as well. But just to put it out there, do you think it would be an idea? Because you know how it's archery now, right? Do you think it'd be a good idea? Because I think of it is, like, for example, hunters, or whatever, you know, for 1942 flow, roads and stuff like that. Do you think it'd be a good idea to be like, open up those roads, to potentially have it for disabled hunters, or at least, like, when a season for hunting up in Mauna Loa for sheep? 14 JPC: Wouldn't be something that we didn't leave out. But, yeah. Yeah, that would be an idea that you could entertain. I think technically, it's where you get close to vehicle access for Kulani buffers, you can drive it, or keep doing or any (unclear) of the DHHL, portion of DHHL upfront, but yeah, opening it for, like, disabled ready (unclear) Yeah, crossbow… TWC: You know what I mean, this situation is out there where it's like a normal summarizing with the crossbow, they're still getting hard time. That's per se, especially guys that are having walk right, for (unclear) and be treated the same as any other day can. We don't want to shoot an animal, but then bring on colleagues along with them, and they go and get the animal for that person. JPC: Yeah. I mean, that was something you'd have to probably, you know, hear from input from like the areas that each person represents. Because one thing I could see people not like, with our dedicated arch you guys, I go back there. I want to see the legal right for being displayed probably happening already. TWC: I wouldn't want it to intertwine. Maybe, like, right? JPC: Yeah, wouldn't overlap, safety wise, yeah, over that. But like, you know, dedicated arch you guys would want to see, you know, increase, like, one week.. TWC: As an archer hunt. To myself, though, they gotta give it some time, because the rightful guys is losing, it's not like they're trying to give the (unclear) for rifle, because I know not everybody can walk the walk. So that's what. That's why discussing later… JPC: Yeah, okay, BL: Just one more quick question regarding the ranch? Where do they pay? What's their lease? What do they pay the state for the running cattle on? No idea what. I've heard scandalous things on some of these things got ridiculously low prices and stuff like that. Like I said, it's basically our land without ceiling and sheep's food, not the other way around. JPC: Yeah, I'm not sure on the dollar. BL: Okay, I'm just curious if we're getting to get back for our money, TL: Leomana, District 3. Do you know who we can call to get that number? JPC: That would be a land division thing. Whether or not it's public information, I'm not sure, but that would be ??: It should be public information, because if I could be okay, it has to be public yeah, sometimes JPC: Yeah, which is another division within DLNR RD: Thanks for coming forward with the data. That's awesome. Couple quick questions, is there a report for Mauna Kea like you did for a Kapapala follow up? JPC: I believe they weren't going to have it. It wasn't going to be ready by today. Our West Hawaii staff manages the Mauna Kea data. RD: Okay. In your experience, how often do bird waters need to be checked? 15 JPC: Moving forward, we want to check them monthly, especially during the green season, and outside that, every once a quarter. With my new experience with building these and just kind of monitoring them, especially the ones that I've been building and have added level of connection between because I built them. But I'm also surprised at how little water use, like gets not gets used, but, like, it just drives out. How much water gets wasted anyway? How slow the water. We're checking on monthly in the beginning, because watching them fill up, you know, these new tanks, you have to be built up. We want to check in February, March, maybe like March going into the summer, check out monthly. A lot of them are in this core area in Mauna Kea. And there's several here and there quarterly, outside of the breeding season, which is spring into the fall, to make sure that there is one supplement of water from when you know, the ends are the females are starting mass, the chase of brown and getting over that threshold, you know, I think monthly. LT: Thank you. Leomana District 3. I just got one question to end it out. Is Hawaii and Maui just starting their mosquito release? I just wanted to check if we had anything like that in the pipeline for either mosquito using (unclear) or else maybe CRV. I was just listening to meetings yesterday where the mosquito on the (unclear) via was brought up, having to do with the release and then kind of bio control for CMP. JPC: I can't speak too much about the CRB, as far as bio control with CRB, whole department banks looking into that. But with little I know about the (unclear) stuff. Yeah, Kauai, so it's been in the newspaper. Kauai is starting to release the battle mosquitos on Kauai and Maui. So, in a rough order, it's Kauai Maui and Hawaii on the table for that same approach after Maui. LT: Okay, thank you. And then last one, who can I call? Who can we all call to get the latest update on Bird counts having to do with the native birds because I asked, I know they had a native bird count last month with the Hawaii RAM birds organization. I don't know what their names are. The big island group last month, it did their whole island. Very tough for Palila and the other one. So, I was checking if you know the numbers to that. JPC: I don't know the numbers, but right now they're in the heart of what's called our count season. So, I think this weekend, ah Kulani last week previously, was probably on surveys. And then there's various other places on the island that have these annual bird surveys. And then there's some leases that get surveyed every five years, some are every 10 years. There's a biologist within our office. My counterpart is Liana. She deals with forest bird stuff. LT: Can you guys just speak up they cannot hear… TWC: Taysen Wong Chong district two. One more question on a Kapapala. During a transfer area in the future where Department of Ag could take, probably take over, I guess, or whatever. How does that leave? Is it a good thing or a bad thing with hunting situation? Because, you know how Department of Ag needs to actually take and not give back accountability? Whats the standpoint… JPC: Overall, I don't know how, like a Department of Ag standpoint, (unclear) approach on hunting the Kapapala specific. I mean, we wrote what the documents are, got approved to allow the process to move forward. We made sure to write into it that hunting, mainly at the forefront 16 game bird hunting, was going to continue because we wanted to make sure that, because Kapapala Ranch, the people who are ranching now might not always be there, right? Like this. This is like planning, like the guy is going to replace me, you know, when I'm retired to make sure that hunting was there and even past that. So, we made sure that hunting thing. We made sure that written things would basically stay the same, as well as making sure that it’s still on the table for potentially things like making sure that the language was still in there for hunting in general (unclear). LT: Yeah, Leomana, District 3, last month, we went to Oahu, and then we met the chair of, well, the department. Imagine the chair, and we're talking about hunting on the Department of Ag properties. And there's absolutely zero hunting on Department of Ag properties, unless you are a lineal descendant of the Ahupuaa of that area. So, unless you are covered by Article 12, section seven, you cannot hunt period, you cannot hunt at all, hunting on the Department of Ag land, right? And so, all of those properties are being transferred to Department of Ag. And so I don't know, I just heard you say that they put it in writing that we still can hunt in the Department of Ag property, but the meeting, when we met the chair last month on Oahu, she said, No hunting period, no weapons, and it's just strict eradication. So, I guess it's kind of like… I forget her name… That was it for my question I just want to thank you very much. Thank you very much for spending an hour just kind of going through this with us (unclear) mahalo very much. You guys are good up there? Maka’I ok so we can move on to agenda item #6 unfinished business. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS: a. Election of Officers for 2025. Action: A motion was made by R. Duerr to go into an Executive Meeting. Seconded by L. Turalde. Motion carried by voice vote. b. GMAC’s “Mana Aina Award”: Continue discussion and/or finalizing the nomination form, and other related materials, to honor outstanding individuals or groups who have demonstrated exceptional dedication to support the hunter-gatherer community and protecting our natural resources. This award recognizes efforts that embody the spirit of stewardship and respect for the land and community. Draft forms were circulated by Chair Leomana. Discussion followed to amend the number of signatures from 25 to 15 to support the nomination. Action: L. Turalde motioned to amend the number of signatures from 25 to 15 to support a Mana Aina Award nomination. Seconded by T. Wong-Chong. Motion passed by voice poll vote with 6 ayes and no nays. 7. NEW BUSINESS: 17 a. Reports and discussion on feral pigs and goats issue, create a game management plan and a permitted interactions group. Mayor Alameda asked that GMAC come up with a plan on the feral goats based on JoJo Tanimoto’s request. Action: L. Turalde motioned to defer creating a PIG group. Second, B. Ley., Motion passed by a voice poll voice with 6 ayes and 0 nays. b. Discussion on GMAC’s Draft 2024 Third Quarter Report to Mayor and County Council, Commissioner Leomana Turalde. This was covered in a prior meeting. c. Discussion on GMAC’s Draft 2024 Fourth Quarter Report to Mayor and County Council, Commissioner Robert Duerr. This was covered in a prior meeting. 8. ANNOUNCEMENTS: a. Next Meeting: March 18, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. b. Reminder: If anyone is interested in discussing a topic of concern, please submit a request to Barbara.Kossow@hawaiicounty.gov. 9. ADJOURNMENT: Action: T. Wong-Chong motioned to adjourn the meeting at 11:01 am. Second by L. Turalde. Motion carried. Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary 18