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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-02-24 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Meeting Date: February 24, 2014 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: CALL TO ORDER; At 6:38 pm by Chair Sylvester Anthony “Tony” Sylvester. Quorum established. ROLL CALL: Per Barbara Kossow: Willie-Joe Camara, District 1 Dwayne “Ike” Yoshina, District 2 Anthony “Tony” Sylvester, District 3 Paul Bueltmann, District 4 Thomas H. Lodge, District 5 Kenneth “Kalani” DeCoito, District 6 Robert P. White – District 7 - missing Mark C. Bartell – District 8 District 9 – Vacant Quorum established with seven in attendance. ALSO PRESENT : Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist EXCUSED: Bobby Command, Deputy Planning Director Lincoln Ashida, Corporation Counsel GUESTS: Chair Sylvester welcomedLisa Hadway, Division of Forestry & Wildlife Administrator (DOFAW) and staff. The meeting was held in the County Council Chambers. A total of 63 people attended the meeting in Hilo with one in Kona. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES OF November 25, 2013 Action: T. Lodge moved to accept the minutes as circulated; second by W. Camara, and carried unanimously by voice vote. Chair Sylvester noted that the minutes of September 23, 2013 will continue to be deferred due to incompleteness. V. PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS: None 1 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 VI. REPORTS/SPECIAL COMMITTEE/PRESENTATION: 1. Lisa Hadway is the new DOFAW Administrator. She worked on Hawaii Island for 13 years and served lastly as the branch manager before being promoted. Her office is in Honolulu and she now oversees the entire state. Chair Sylvester: Because of GMAC’s responsibility to advise various governmental agencies on sustainable subsistence hunting and fishing, as well as protect traditional cultural gathering rights, GMAC is particularly interested in learning the status of: The proposed amendment changes to Hawaii Administrative Rules, Title 13, Subtitle 5, Part 2, Chapter 124, Indigenous Wildlife, Endangered and Threatened Wildlife, and Introduced Wild Birds. a) GMAC has especial interest in knowing more about the purpose of the proposed amendments listed below and what is the status of these changes? Amend section 12-124-2 "definitions" to provide definitions for the terms "Introduce" and "Release" and amend the definitions of Introduced wildlife" "Injurious" and "Wildlife". Amend Section 13-124-3 "prohibited activities" to prohibit the transport and release of introduced wildlife. Power presentation begins. L. Hadway: Every set of administrative rules – there’s several sections and in that section – one of the first sections that we have is a definition section. So and the 124 rules had some differences in how things were defined compared to other rules in the department. So the changes of those definitions are actually to bring our definitions consistent across our rules. So in the 183D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, release is already defined there, so we wanted to make sure that the word “release” was defined consistently in the 124 rules. So that’s why the change happened. Chair Sylvester: Anyone (board) have any questions? L. Hadway: So it’s kind of an administrative change \[unclear\] M. Bartell: I have a question and in – if you can interpret it than just say you need a lawyer to do it but you know as I read this – so if – let me give you an example that happened to me last year. Right. My neighbor had a sow and I don’t know 3 or 4 piglets in his coffee farm, right, and asked me to remove the pigs. So what I 2 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 did is I caught the sow and the pigs, I put them in my truck in dog kennels, I took ‘em up to part of the forest and I released them. L. Hadway: Um-hum. M. Bartell: Under this definition – Have I broken the law? L. Hadway: Well, and that takes us to the prohibited activities, the second part of the question that was posed to me by you folks…And so you know this rules making process went through its public hearing and then we have all of those comments and we’re integrating in the comments to the 124 rules. As it stands now, based on public comments we received during the process – both at the public hearings and written comments – we’re proposing to modify this section in the current draft to – as it stands now it was written to transport and release wild animals or wildlife – if now we’re just gonna have it prohibit release. So you can transport those animals and bring them home and confine them but if you were to release them in the forest then, yes, that would be, you would have broken the rule. M. Bartell: So, Lisa, that’s a pretty common practice used by pig hunters, if I’m not, and I’m not a pig hunter, but as far as I understand it and the guys that I represent here on this side of the island, that is a fairly common practice given that our landscape is so broken up by development and you’ve got public land and private land and housing developments and people move pigs around to keep the – the quality of the animal high – or try to make it higher. It’s a practice that’s been going on for generations, frankly. I don’t understand, after all the public comment that occurred why don’t we just – I mean I understand the purpose for the law, right, I mean coqui frogs and whatever, nobody has any benefit in those things, right, but why don’t we just exclude game animals, and you can be very specific about it, right? Sheep, pigs, goats, and just be done with this. Yet…This process is still ongoing and those comments are still getting integrated and then what happens is this goes to our lawyers, the Attorney General’s office, they review, and they determine whether we need to go back to a public hearing or if we move the package forward to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. And there’s gonna be more opportunity to comment at that point as well on the 124 package, but it’s still, still several probably a few months away from moving towards that – that opportunity for public comment again. I think you’d get a lot less comment from the hunting community specifically the guys I represent if we just made this change now and when it came out we wouldn’t go through this hoopla again. Chair Sylvester: So Lisa what happens if this law does pass or, you know, this rule, and like I mean in residential areas now if pigs come in people’s yards is there a permit process that…And how involved is that and – would that being – cause right now like, you know, animals coming down into people’s yards and you know people kinda just \[unclear\] they go and catch it but you know what do 3 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 you start doing with these pigs? Do we have to destroy them? I mean that’s what the law is lending towards, right, because we can’t take them somewhere else and just let them go. J. Mello (DOFAW Staff): Right now we generally waive the permit requirement for people to take pigs if they can do so safely on their private property – as long as they can so legally cause otherwise it would be a mind boggling experience for our department to be issuing that many permits, but beyond that I can answer until, you know, whatever the rules come out with – just gonna have to take our Attorney General’s interpretation to follow that. L. Hadway: And I think part of the other concern had been things like pseudo rabies and other diseases moving across the island with some of those released animals that were transported long distances cause there’s certain reservoirs and certain diseases in populations say on Hualalai but now they’ve spread as I understand it. Chair Sylvester: Does anybody have pseudo rabies? W. Camara: I see maybe one or 2 a year at work. I mean, it’s there. The odds – that is the whole pseudo rabies process is difficult. I mean you got to be really unlucky to have your dog get it. I mean it’s not so \[unclear\] people. Pigs are pretty much \[unclear\] except for the dogs. Lot of the pigs are positive but your dog can only get in it – that couple of – that one week period that they’re actually shedding the virus and it’s kind of complex. In other words you really have to be unlucky. The odds are really against getting it, you know, your dogs getting it, but what happens most of the time is when you do catch that one pig \[unclear\] majority of the time you have your pack of good dogs with you. Chair Sylvester: So consuming cooked meat is not a problem? W. Camara: Oh, no. Not a problem. Not even the dogs. I mean you cook ‘em. That’s fine. Chair Sylvester: Any further questions? Kalani? K. DeCoito: \[unclear\] release. So in other words if you \[unclear\] needs to be so called \[unclear\] so we cannot get one permit to relocate it (pigs) to areas the public hunters can’t get to? I mean, can’t we work out some kind of agreement on that? \[Silence\] K. DeCoito: OK the second question get into the disease part. Is there any documents for \[unclear\] we can review. Any type of data that was taken throughout \[unclear\] then is it a public access when we can get to it information and read about it – whether it’s Oahu – how many cases were found – I mean is there research done? Because, you know, you cannot come out and say 4 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 something like that if there isn’t any data or any type of research on it. It’s like your word against mine. You know, I going doubt you, you going doubt me. I can hearing only one case, I not hearing it’s an epidemic or whatever. You know justification the causes, you know, it has to be really what I mean the word, yeah, OK, fine; \[unclear\] but is there data to it? Is there proof that it’s an ongoing thing? That’s what I’m getting at. L. Hadway: There is one study that I’m aware of, of pseudo rabies on Hualalai. And we can get – look into that documentation \[unclear\] older and \[unclear\] Willie-Joe (Camara) is very knowledgeable about the disease but that… K. DeCoito: I mean you can be knowledgeable for \[unclear\] but the whole thing is, is getting a cause of justification. There are reasons why \[unclear\]. That’s what \[unclear\] the data. Chair Sylvester: OK. And I think the USDA did a study a while back too so that might be available somewhere. OK. Let’s move to next item. Item b is the update on the DOFAW Game Management Program Development: draft conceptual plan that I believe Jordan Jokiel and Scott Fritz was working on that. b) Update on the DOFAW Game Management Program Development: DRAFT CONCEPTUAL PLAN. L. Hadway: One of the items that’s happening this legislative session is we have made a request based on one of our past GMAC meetings when Esther Kiaaina – it was a few months back – and we made an additional request to the – actually to the governor – for an additional $750,000 dollars to go towards a game program. So in that we’ve developed some conceptual planning. We’ve put together a real kind of brief 2 page, basically document to help communicate to legislators what we’d like to do and I’m getting zoomed down through this and show you another document as well, but basically it’s to build the program through staffing and also infrastructure support – implementing planning, operations, so this plan is in a conceptual stage – it shows what a branch So one of the – just so you folks know – so Pittman-Robertson right now we generally get $1.5 million dollars every year from the federal government. This number is actually not accurate right now, hunting licensing fees we used to get $400,000 a year when we had the stamp fee associated with hunting licenses. We’re hoping to get that restored, so this number is actually more like $80,000 a year. And in the new budget request to $750,000 so our hopeful budget for the Game Wildlife Program would be $2.6 million and in FY16, $3.4 million. And this actually brings the budgeting on par with some of the other programs that are running in DOFAW. So one of my objectives in my new role is to try and kind of raise the resources available to the wildlife program and in particular the game program and if any of you heard Esther (Kiaaina) speak our deputy director or were at the hearing – Friday – you know this is a priority for us and our original 5 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 request that went to the governor was $1.5 million and it got cut to $750,000 but it’s still viewed as a priority for the governor and we’re actually, potentially using another avenue to ask for the additional $750,000. So along with personnel, like I mentioned, some of the other kinds of items we’d like to improve – it’s affected this island recently when we did the lottery for the cattle hunt. We’d like to do that much more efficiently and better and also for Lanai we have a lottery program there so we look to improve that and modernize some of that process. So this, I mean, there’s only so much I can show you, but these are the kinds of things that we’ve been putting effort into planning. I have a shorted document as well. And one of the people that I don’t know if many of you got to meet him but Jordan Jokiel our Access and Acquisition Coordinator that was specifically for the game wildlife program recently moved on and we would really like to replace him and we would actually like to augment that program on each of the islands. So this is just a much shorter version of it – again kind of highlighting the need for planning, the budgets associated with it and how that would look. Chair Sylvester: So Lisa what would it cost to or estimate to have a statewide plan like this – cause I think this was just for Maui. I mean… L. Hadway: No, no, no! This would – the $1.5 million would augment the Pittman- Robertson so we would have a statewide program that would be initially $2.6 million and then $3.4 million. So it’s not just planning, it’s actually implementing enhanced wildlife management statewide. So every county would get a position at least initially and then we’d like to build out additional positions and wildlife biologists, and as I mentioned also work on modernizing some of the issues at the admin level such as the lottery system. Chair Sylvester: Tom? Tom: Hey, Lisa, when you talk about augmenting this plan – what qualifications of the person who’s going to be running this program are you looking for? L. Hadway: Well, of course, we at the state game system there’s minimum qualifications for wildlife biologists but most definitely the game biologist we would like them to have experience working with game mammals and birds and the ability to do census and actually be able to supervise people – run a program. And so that’s my goal, is to build the infrastructure to help be a more accountable, more responsible game and wildlife program. Chair Sylvester: Their task will be strictly for game \[unclear\] management. L. Hadway: Associated with these funds, yes. Chair Sylvester: Yes, OK. 6 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 D. Yoshina: I have a question. Under Pittman-Robertson you have certain strictures there, right, of use of matching funds? L. Hadway: Yes. So right now we are supposed to be matching Pittman Robertson with state funds. D. Yoshina: So are those limited to say conservation programs or something like that? L. Hadway: No. They’re not limited to conservation. D. Yoshina: (Unclear) or game management? L. Hadway: Well and there is some portion of the Pittman-Robertson funds that goes to known games such as the nene management maybe, but there are cross benefits. For example, predator control – that might benefit nene and it would also benefit game birds. D. Yoshida: So the question I have is – in the past – when you had monies in this program and my experience has been that there has been little or no game management. So, the explanation I got was that we couldn’t use that money for actual game management. Is that a true or false statement? L. Hadway: Well, I think what you know it’s related to using federal funds associated with endangered species and the complexities associated with that… And I believe that if the state were able to ramp up and provide appropriate matching funds that, that, we shouldn’t be afraid necessarily of that and if we can actually proceed with solid planning that allows for us to consider those endangered species aspects and potentially mitigate elsewhere that we would actually be able to do some solid game management planning. And yet, and not only at a landscape level but also get some site specific game management plans. That would be my hope and my goals for this. D. Yoshina: OK. So what you’re saying is that you have the political weal to do that. L. Hadway: I’ll do my best. D. Yoshina: OK. How about the other guys in the bureaucracy? L. Hadway: Well I think there’s a strong sentiment that we want to do a better job at this and put more resources behind it and I think that there’s a ground swell of folks hitting the ground. I just sat beside a guy on the plane today from Molokai who’s got a masters degree – grew up there hunting and is looking for a job – and so I think that if we could get some of the success that we’ve seen in some of our other program – also build within the wildlife program – then I think we’d be able to do a better job and that, you know, like I said it’s my hope. It’s not going 7 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 to happen overnight and it takes funding to make things happen and it takes us going through planning processes in dealing with some of these issues such as the Endangered Species Act. D. Yoshina: OK. I think it would really help me to get over some of my cynicism if you could, or the department could put down some real tangible targets that you’re moving towards and if you can report back to us – well maybe not to us but to everybody – to the public generally – to show that you’re really serious about this, because in 30 or 40 years that I’ve had relationships with DLNR it’s been a lot of talk but not much action. So I’d like to see that, you know, so it’s not that I doubt you, but I just think that the department needs to have these real tangible kind of action things that go on so that users of the resources can start seeing it. Thank you. L. Hadway: Thank you. Chair Sylvester: Thank you, Ike (Yoshina). Kalani? K. DeCoito: So basically this is a draft, not implemented… L. Hadway: This, when you request funds from the legislature you constantly get questions on how it might be spent. And so this was a way of helping to communicate that kind of overall picture. This was just put together like in the last month, month and a half, to help us communicate, as we mentioned when Esther Kiaaina– I think you were at that meeting when Esther (Kiaaina) was there when we initially said we would be asking for the $1.5 million – so the initial hope was that we would have the full suite of the funds – you know this is for $750,000 in the first FY15 – FY16 we’re hopeful, but like I said, we’re already looking for an avenue to ask for an additional amount of funding at the legislature through House Bill1902. K. DeCoito: What I getting at is not the financial part that you know we’re going to have to play politics on – it’s more in the concerns of who has the capabilities of helping you form this. I mean, yeah, the public interest is the biggest, you know, that’s where \[unclear\]. And to have someone else out of that – you know people like us recommend something – to draft this kind of things and to say oh what’s good for one island is good for all islands is – it’s not right. You know like forming one commission under you, to help you, for each island, you know, that’s what I looking at. It’s not just environmentalists saying that this is what it is – game management – this is how it’s gonna go and shove it down everybody’s throat. \[Unclear\] It’s more like people that we know that will speak out on our behalf and say, eh, wait, this is what we on our island like or what they want on their island and this is how the outlook should be and not, you know, emphasize oh this is what it is, take it or let it ‘cause power so called environmentalists say that’s the best thing or biologists say that’s the best thing. OK. 8 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 Chair Sylvester: Thank you, Kalani. OK. I’ll just wrap this one up. The money that we put into the wildlife revolving fund is not enough to maximize that PR funds, right? So where does the rest of the money come from? L. Hadway: That’s correct. We have to match it with staff time and/or if by chance we get other, you know, the revolving fund can take in funds from other types of things – Joe, I don’t know if you have any other examples but for the most part it’s just the license sales. So that account is actually running I think around $80,000. So it barely pays for half a position and a lot of the effort… Chair Sylvester: But is there other, I mean, to maximize the match right now – aren’t we maximizing the match already with money from other programs or other… L. Hadway: It’s not cash, it’s basically a staff that is non-federally funded, which is sometimes hard to find – staff wages. So it’s not operating funds. So it really actually limits your ability to implement things when you’re working with not as much cash, but it’s just staff time. Chair Sylvester: Thank you. D. Yoshina: Can I make a suggestion here. \[Unclear\] look at matching using volunteer kind stuff? L. Hadway: Yeah. There’s opportunities for volunteers. Volunteers come in at a certain price range and we’ve run into the past where sometimes we love to bring kids out to help us with volunteer projects but it’s viewed as unacceptable in some cases by some of the federal programs, so we would have to look into that. But, yeah, volunteer time is, is… Chair Sylvester: OK. Thank you. Tom, wrap it up. T. Lodge: Lisa, also you know in section 183D 10.5 Wildlife Revolving Fund – the mandate of the revolving fund is to use the wildlife revolving fund money for any matching Pittman-Robertson funds. Yet, when you do that Pittman-Robertson I know that money is un-able to be used for game mammal enhancement. Is there any way that you propose any way to increase or to bring in additional funds in there that would be free from that responsibility? For game animal enhancement, basically, cause when you match it, it can’t be done for that. L. Hadway: I’m just trying to get to the section (on power point presentation). Here we are. This is Wildlife Revolving Funds at 183 D 10.5 that you were talking about. And if any of you folks want to know how to navigate what I just got to so you can all see these Hawaii Revised Statutes and everything I can show you the website where all of this is on cause it’s not easy to find but it’s good information to have – Again, we would certainly be in a situation where we would need to be 9 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 mindful of how the federal funds are being used, at the same time it’s not something that I think we can continue to avoid forever because there are so many complex endangered species issues – that would actually rather see us try and work out agreements that we can kind of look at a higher level of where endangered species activities and preservation can happen and where game management can happen to the highest, best use. T. Lodge: My question more is the use of the money in the Wildlife Revolving Fund and I agree with you as far as working out ways to get things done with the Endangered Species Act, but Wildlife Revolving Fund is mandated to use those monies, if there’s a match to be used, comes out of the Wildlife Revolving Fund first and any of that money that comes out of there has to be used for something other than game mammal enhancement. Is there any way to get additional monies that are not bound to that restriction, is what we’re saying and would you be amenable to that for changing the Wildlife Revolving Fund to remove that restriction? L. Hadway: Sure. We could look at that in more detail and point to the \[unclear\]. J. Mello: I’m not sure, Tom, I haven‘t read it in years, but I’m not sure that, that isn’t already in there – you might want to go into – see about changing the law and making it stronger. I know the case that you’re asking for – but we do already – we’ve all the biologists decided several years ago when it was determined that we cannot use federal funds to fund Lanai, we decided that Lanai is the main statewide hunting area that everybody, you know from all around the state can partake, in fact even from all around the country for that matter. And Wildlife Revolving Fund the top, I may be wrong, don’t quote me, but I think the first $45,000 of the Wildlife Revolving Fund goes straight to pay for the Lanai lease which has nothing to do with Pittman Robertson funds at all. So that may – I haven’t read it like I said in years, but that may already be in there. Chair Sylvester: Thank you. OK let’s move on to… D. Yoshina: Just to make sure that there’s an understanding – I also share that understanding, that’s why I asked the question. There is a question about that and it needs to be clarified because if your $750,000 and you’re prevented from using that money for mammal programs, what good is it? J. Mello: I believe it can’t be used for enhancement, so if you wanted to put in watering units or things like that that’s going to enhance the game, I don’t think money could be used for that. L. Hadway: Right. But if we back ourselves up on some of that – you know where I was saying where if we do solid planning that allows us to deal with those issues – then I think we will be able to move ahead with programs that do have those kinds of activities in them. But we have to satisfy certain… 10 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 Chair Sylvester: Is there any way to streamline a plan like that? \[Unclear\] get to do that in a year or two and for game it’s gonna have 10 years. L. Hadway: The Windmill projects Kauai HCP is extremely complex but it is definitely something we want to work on and actually I’ve chosen to work at some national level state wildlife program agencies across the country have faced similar issues with endangered species and working with Fish & Wildlife Service, so I chose to prioritize my time to understand the national level policies so we can move forward with better relations with Fish & Wildlife Service on these endangered species issues. Chair Sylvester: OK. Thank you. Let’s go to item D right now. OK. So this is kind of changing gears. d) Actual locations and total acreage to be fenced and ungulates are to be removed per the Watershed Protection Plan. Chair Sylvester: D is actual locations and total acreage to be fenced and ungulates are to be removed per the Watershed Protection Plan and that would be the Rain Follows the Forest. I think we need to see what the actual area is and how it’s scattered – what areas is considered like with Mauna Kea because that area is, being fenced and eradicated, is that part of the total acreage of doubling the watershed initiative. That would be my question. L. Hadway: \[Discussion\] \[Tape gap\] c) Time frame for DLNR Chairperson William Aila to return to Hawaii County and speak with our resource users. Chair Sylvester: Since we don’t need that for now – let’s go back to C and do a time frame for DLNR Chair person William Aila to return to Hawaii County and speak with our resource users. At our last meeting in September Aila committed to come back and talk to other users, I guess fishermen also and… L. Hadway: He was very hopeful to try and make this meeting but he just came back from Washington, D.C. So I mentioned to Tony (Sylvester) that if, as early as possible that we know the date of the next meeting… th Chair Sylvester: March 24. \[Discussion} 11 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 \[Delay with power point presentation due to computer\] e) DLNR’s recent press release: Can you explain the difference between “doubling the acreage of protected watershed forests in a decade” to the 140,000 acres now being managed to conserve Hawaii’s forest which will be increased to more then 480,000 acres by the time projects currently funded are completed? Chair Sylvester: OK, maybe we can go to E right now because that’s more of an explanation. There’s a recent press release that came out that the you know the Rainfalls at the Watershed said that the whole idea of that project was to double the size of protected areas and then one of my questions is when does that area start because if that plan came out in 2011 does that include the land size at that time and it was 92,000 acres in 2011 – you double that so it would be 184,000 acres cause every year more and more gets fenced and then you just keep saying you want to double that, then you’re gonna double that then, I mean, there’s nothing left, and when I read this, you know, it’s, it says there are 140,000 acres now being managed to conserve Hawaii’s forest. What does managed mean versus being priority one and two which was to fence and eradicate. Cause I’m getting mixed up with projected, managed… L. Hadway: Yup. And I understand that it’s confusing and part of these maps will help demonstrate that. So one of the important things to understand – cause it says 480,000 acres as well, so the funding from the Rain follows the Forest comes in a couple of ways. It comes in general funds and it also comes in capital improvement funds. And it goes to fund activities, not just of fencing, but it also funds things like invasive species control, out-planting plants – those kinds of things. So some of the funds have gone to the watershed partnerships that include work on other jurisdictions of land and other private landowners – so that approximate 90,000 acres includes all lands, no matter whose jurisdiction it is within the state. The goal is to double that and it would be on multiple jurisdictions and multiple landowners land. So that’s where the 480,000 acres comes in as well – because as I mentioned there’s other activities and my maps show very clearly what the DOFAQ lands are. Because I think that’s one of the most important things to cover for you folks because we manage the public hunting areas and I wanted to be sure that that’s communicated very clearly. Chair Sylvester: OK. That has percentages and actual acreage of DOFAW of public hunting areas that will be… L. Hadway: Yes. Chair Sylvester: ….priority one. L. Hadway: You want me to… This one… 12 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 T. Lodge: Just one question while you’re getting the thing going there – the large areas include – incorporated into all of that acreage. L. Hadway: Yeah. T. Lodge: OK. L. Hadway: \[Power-point back on\] So one thing I wanted to do was to just give an opportunity cause a lot of people often don’t get to see our work chart of how we’re organized and so it’s important to know that the Board of Land and Natural Resources – you often hear BLNR – they’re actually the decision making body appointed by the governor that oversees the entire department. So Rob Pacheco is our Hawaii Island representative. Chairman William Aila is the Chair of the department. So under the Department of Land and Natural Resources there are several divisions. It’s the Office of Coastal and Conservation Lands, State Historic Preservation, Bureau of Conveyances, State Parks, Division of Aquatic Resources, DOCARE, Land Division, Engineering, and Boating and Ocean Recreation. Just so you know how Division of Forestry and Wildlife is cut up – I put up our main programs over there – particularly pertaining to the Hawaii Island branch – which is cut into Forestry, Na Ala Hele, Wildlife and the Natural Area Reserves system. So I just wanted everybody to see that – how we’re organized – it helps me. So Division of Forestry and Wildlife – we’re the largest line division within DLNR. We have 200 civil service employees and there’s 200 other kind of contract employees that we oversee. We are actually the oldest forest management agency in the United States. We were found in 1903 and amazingly th we’re the 11 largest in the US. We manage the most state acres in forestry in the country – which is we manage nearly 1 million acres in forest reserve, NARS, wildlife sanctuaries, plant sanctuaries, game management areas and I also wanted to mention the endangered species component there – because in Hawaii – like it or not we have nearly 1/3 of all the listed species in the US and when you consider we’re only 2/10s of 1 percent of the land area – that makes up the United States – that’s pretty substantial statistic. So on Hawaii Island – just for your – so you folks know we manage nearly 50% of the state ceded lands – 700,000 acres. 70% of the state forest reserves, designated 75% of the natural area reserves, 18 Na Ala Hele programs and over 600,000 acres of hunting land. I always like to remind everybody that the Big Island is the center of the universe and the state – and when I was the branch manager here and other island branches used to complain – I said we manage all of you plus a bunch of space – so just to put it in perspective. So 27.6 of the Island of Hawaii is managed by DOFAW so those green areas are DOFAW managed lands. As I mentioned, they’re designated as forest reserve, natural area reserve, game management area, plant sanctuary – so they’re just the land that have been designated as such, they’re state lands designated and under the jurisdiction of our division of forestry and wildlife. So there’s other state lands that are under the jurisdiction of Land Division – there’s approximately over 200,000 acres on the island managed 13 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 by Land Division. \[tape gap\] So these were the questions that you had – this is the areas that have been identified as the watershed priority areas that were in the plan – areas in blue. Again those go across multiple landowner jurisdictions so 22.3% is in that watershed priority area. \[Cannot hear the question\] L. Hadway: I have one that actually overlays the 2 of them. So right there. Oh, so that’s the DOFAW managed lands that overlap with the watershed and that’s the hunting that overlaps with the watershed. Chair Sylvester: OK, I think that’s the one… L. Hadway: No, it’s not. No. I’m gonna show you that next, OK? So I was very – based on that meeting that we had when Chair Aila was here – I really heard a lot of what you guys were saying so I wanted to try and make these maps as clear as possible. Understanding which lands were in DOFAW, which lands were in public hunting… So when we look now, I’m going to talk purely about fencing on DOFAW land. So these red areas are the lands that are actually fenced right now and 3.5 % of DOFAW’s land is fenced. The next one I’m gonna show you is gonna – are the projects that have already kinda been vetted and approved and what those include – so 3.5% of DOFAW land is fenced. 19.4% of DOFAW land is planned for a total of 22.9%. But what I want to show you and talk about in particular is Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea as you are all well aware of is a court ordered situation. One of the significant things about Mauna Kea, and I’ll move to the next slide which is actually the hunting land that’s fenced – so 1.4% of the public hunting is currently fenced acreage wise. And I believe that, that shows all the red is the currently fenced areas. And then this is what it is moving to, again including Mauna Kea. One of the things that we know about Mauna Kea is that there’s still bird hunting associated with Mauna Kea and technically they’re still pig hunting, though we know it isn’t good habitat for pigs. But there are pigs in that lower Kaohe section. So that’s minus Mauna Kea. But other things that the watershed – so in terms of watershed initiative, I mean this is what’s planned. It’s not the entire watershed being fenced. This is gonna take probably 10 to 15 years to implement and funding. And some of the fencing you’re seeing particularly associated with Puuwaawaa is for endangered species protection. Oh there’s 21 listed plants there and several birds and also some insects that are listed there. Man: \[Unclear\] L. Hadway: I’m sorry I… Chair Sylvester: Stay on topic, stay on topic… 14 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 L. Hadway: ….present the statistics. I’m showing these to you because there’s been a lot of talk and I wanted to show you guys very plainly what we have on the books. So I just thought that was the best way to do it. And you know though – because I really think what was such an alarming map were these ones – and when we don’t have those fence lines associated with the watershed and you hear about the watershed initiative you think that, that entire priority watershed is gonna be fenced. Something I want to talk about associated with watershed and I wish I had a pointer… Chair Sylvester: Lisa, stop right there. I’d like to just ask one more question. Even that part – if the 3.5% of DOFAW land is fenced currently, is that just fenced or is that fenced and considered part of this watershed? Or is it just fenced areas around the island. L. Hadway: It’s fenced areas around the island because they figured that was a far more important thing to cover the entire suite. Chair Sylvester: 3.5% to 19% that’s more than double… L. Hadway: Yeah. But this takes into account some of the dry forest areas like Manuka, Mauna Kea – parts of that are considered the priority watershed. Chair Sylvester: I think that’s part of the problem because the watershed plan specifically said to double the size of the water – and I mean it’s not your doing or anything like that – I just wanted to let you know there’s a lot of animosity and stuff because when you start looking at numbers and sizes and… L. Hadway: Right… Chair Sylvester: You know, I know because Mauna Kea is kind of part of a big part of that chunk of that so you know it’s kinda deceptive that way but… It’s like if they’re taking that it should have been part of the whole big percentage of what they needed for watershed protection because apparently, and then speaking with Representative Lowen in Kona she said that their water, you know I stressed that the – can you overlap the watershed protection plan \[unclear\]? L. Hadway: With the fencing… Chair Sylvester: No, no, just to where the actual watershed – the blue, yeah. L. Hadway: Yeah. Chair Sylvester: You can see like the Kohala area, Kawaihae area and all that – that’s where – I mean there’s no plans for any type of forest protection. It’s just that their water comes from the mountain, so if that’s the case then all of Mauna Kea should have been part of the watershed – which is 60,000 acres or 15 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 whatever, so that should have been sufficient enough to almost double the size of the protected area alone – if they just included that. And what we see from 3.5% to 22% is quite large so… I know it’s not your doing and, that’s… L. Hadway: Tony (Sylvester), if I may, I felt it was more accurate and more transparent to show everybody the entire gamut versus just the watershed fences. And I think that, that would be deceptive. And I felt it was important to show all of DOFAW’s projects on the books. Chair Sylvester: OK. And I appreciate that, thank you. T. Lodge I have one a question. Chair Sylvester: Yeah, Tom. T. Lodge: Why I appreciate what you’re saying here and the fencing is very small th part of this watershed plan at present, at that meeting on the 24 Tony (Sylvester) specifically asked Chair Aila that given the watershed, can we get back to that watershed map ---- one second. That watershed covers the entire area and all of that is priority 1 and priority 2. The goal of priority 1 and priority 2 was to remove all ungulates. Period. I mean that – and Aila confirmed that. Tony (Sylvester) specifically asked him, “Hey, if you had the money today would you get rid of ‘em today?” He said, “Yes.” So the goal ultimately is to, it seems like, remove ungulates from the island, which doesn’t fly with the idea of you know hunting for our children. Man: \[Unclear\] L. Hadway: And I’m talking from a perspective of reality of management on the ground and massive planning processes that have gone on – Kohala Watershed Partnership in cooperation with several of the private landowners as well – so you know in terms of the long term, like I said, 10 to 15 years – these are the things that have been planned so you know there is priority watershed that depending on where that rain belt is, is important, but there’s other activities associated with the watershed that are important such as invasive species control – that includes things like if we have some new plant show up like miconia –say it starts moving into Kohala where it isn’t right now – we would probably would be able to use some of the watershed funding to control something like that out there. So… \[Cannot hear the question\] L. Hadway: The reason for that is that the animals, in particular the ground layer of vegetation tends to be highly disturbed from – pigs certainly will overturn a lot – it also depends on kind of the where you are and which kind of forest it is – in particular – pigs don’t do as much damage when you have a really hard, dry – 16 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 kind of pahoehoe or a’a situation – but when you have a lot of goats out there, the goats will girdle the trees and then you have less and less forest. But one of the biggest impacts and areas of concern and I think maybe several of you have participated in the cattle hunt going on right now – is the feral cattle situation in the upper Hilo forest – Hilo watershed. And those cattle, if you look out through that forest – it kind of looks like a golf course. \[Discussion\] L. Hadway: And I do believe that there is room for a multitude of uses across DOFAW’s lands and the reason, like I said, I really felt that it was important to show you guys the whole suite of the projects regardless of whether they fell in the watershed priority or not. With that you can understand where this stuff actually is on the landscape. Because when you aren’t looking at these maps, you know, it becomes, if it’s – it’s difficult to really get a sense of where the activity is happening. So I wanted to show this and you know one of the things that really has come up and that was Jordan (Jokiel) was working on is that there’s a lot of land that’s difficult to access that’s still would be good hunting. So improving access is one of our priorities as well and we’re seeing that as one of the things that we would like to use watershed funding for. Man: \[Can’t hear question\] L. Hadway: Access. It protects forests as well. And when we have planting going on for example down in the pastures on the north slope of Mauna Kea there’s a lot of funding going toward re-establishing forest there. Man: \[Can’t hear question\] Chair Sylvester: OK. I will do that at the end. A few more items we can get through and then we get your questions if possible. Move to F now. I think you answered D & E. Any more questions on. The 480,000 acres that’s across boundaries, that’s not just DOFAW land, Kamehameha Schools, Hawaiian Homes land and… L. Hadway: It’s not and I want you to know that that’s not 480 acres of fenced ungulate removed activity. That’s the whole suite of forest management activities. Chair Sylvester: OK. L. Hadway: And so that’s why the acreage is high. The current goal statewide is 90,000 acres is what it is and the goal is 180. Chair Sylvester: OK, that’s… L. Hadway: That’s priority watershed. 17 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 Chair Sylvester: That was the number I’m looking for. So 180? And that’s in 10 years? L. Hadway: By 2021. Chair Sylvester: And then after that is? Just take care of what you guys have? L. Hadway: Yeah. Chair Sylvester: OK. All right, questions, are you ready for questions then? L. Hadway: Sure. f) The implementation of the Watershed Initiative Plan states that DLNR and our partners are employing more efficient management techniques. Why resource users are not considered a “partner” in this plan or any other plan. Chair Sylvester: OK. Reading that plan and seeing all these things with partnerships and Chair Aila talks all about the eleven watershed partnerships and all this and I guess in the hunting community as a whole for quite a long time we’ve wondered why the resource – it’s called resource users – I hate to use the word users but why are resource users aren’t considered a partner in this plan or any other plans? And I know when there’s projects they go out and do a public review or they go and get some people to sit on a – I don’t where but Kau – I wasn’t aware of any of that projects. Maybe Kalani (DeCoito) – do you know anything about when that project came up and the EA and all that stuff? Did people in your community get together and? K. DeCoito: \[Unclear\] Chair Sylvester: Yes, the actual. The whole plan for that area and stuff. K. DeCoito: There was one public meeting that was voiced against. And then ever since that they just shut it down. And now there’s a court case pending. \[Unclear\] L. Hadway: And you know Mililani Browning worked on that project and I know that they took a lot of guys up into the forest as well to kinda show them the sites…and K. DeCoito: Well, see, there was \[unclear\]. Certain other areas. But the refusal from her bosses said no. She \[unclear\] the walk up – just walking everybody through that this is what would happen – but initially they wanted to have certain 18 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 area despite it all. Despite what Mili was going through and what she was told – a lot of times that people was saying they wanted different areas. They wouldn’t see it. Their mind was made up. There was – just one public meeting out there – the formalities that needed done. So that’s why, it’s a big concern and that’s why it’s in a court hearing. L. Hadway: You know in terms of partnership we – you know every section of the island, I mean we find that there are different folks, you know, with different opinions all across the landscape. There are certain guys that are very oriented to one hunting area or another – and so – I mean ideally we’d be working with the communities that hunt in those areas – some of the areas that we have projects, you know, there’s guys that travel from all over the island, in particular Puuwaawaa. When that management plan was written in 2003 there were some folks in the hunting community that actually sat and helped develop that management plan. So there are advisory committees. I think we can do a better job – there’s no question – there are some folks that sit on this panel that have my personal cell phone number and text me. So you’re being heard. And I want you to know that they’re moving forward. I want to see you working together but that also comes with a recognition that there are things that – we have other mandates besides hunting and I’m hopeful for a landscape that we can provide for everybody and all of the resources that we’re required to protect and the last thing that I want to see is another law suit like happened on Mauna Kea. That’s the last thing I want to see. And I think if we can proactively plan together with the recognition that we don’t have mediocrity across the landscape – but we have solid game management areas – we have solid protected areas – that we can have a patchwork quilt of areas that can provide and provide for people to put meat on the table – but also provide for, you know, the story plants and species that are found no where else in the world but here. K. DeCoito: But see, what we’re talking about is my district and in my district that fence is proposed dead center of the mountain. There is no hunters, you know, where they can go higher. It’s like you’re taking that area right there. I think too, actually, really to get it on map and not know the area \[unclear\] but really go there and see that area – it’s where the \[unclear\] are. \[Unclear\] It’s not a Kahuku issue, it’s not a Nature Conservancy issue, it’s \[unclear\]. L. Hadway: Yeah, and I think one of the biggest I know for Kau that we were facing is access and getting into other sections of the forest reserve. And one of the creative ideas – we would really like to work with some of the private landowners who have current leases that may have some of those leases coming up and actually be able to have DOFAW lease some of those access points or create easements over them – that would allow access. But we gotta also understand that wherever we have access points, I mean, we also get the phone calls about the complaints of cars parked in places that block driveways and those kinds of things so I think it would be great to work with and I know 19 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 Jordan (Jokiel) was trying to work really hard with you folks to understand some of the most important access points. K. DeCoito: Yeah, the whole access was one issue, but you taking away that fence – that area – where you guys want is just dead center of the forest. We have access to the forest. Now we’re going to have to play with all the private landowners and hopefully get that access through their side for get to the forest because basically that portion right there – is actually totally accessible right now. And when you fence ‘em, it’s not. So you actually taking away from the public hunting, not the private landowners cause the private owners is the places we cannot get to. For that area right here you’re off. And that’s what we’ve been trying to say for a long time. So listening? Never. That’s all I say. \[unclear\]. Chair Sylvester: Willie-Joe had a question, thank you Kalani. W. Camara: Lisa, back to something you had said earlier – about not being afraid. Who besides you is gonna stand up to not being unafraid because so far, I mean, so far, since I’ve been involved with this as much as I’ve been, you know, I, I take your word that you’re trying to stand up to some of these pressures from outside – but you’re only one person and the people above you and I’m sorry but it starts with the governor down – nobody, I don’t know if they’re afraid, but they not going to stand up for us. And, yeah, and we just leaning down to all these special interest groups all these years. And that’s where all this frustration is coming from. You know it’s not just what’s happening right now – this is years in the making – so how are we gonna convince the other key people in the department that everybody needs to work together and we don’t have, I mean, we don’t have to just lay down and let Fish & Wildlife bully us into doing everything \[unclear\] right now. I – you don’t have to answer it. That’s just my – it’s not really a question, I guess, that’s just my opinion is that you know who else is gonna have the backbone to stand up for us too, besides just you, because, I mean, I don’t know, maybe you got plenty power but it’s not enough, you know what I mean? You need, you need help also. How are you going to convince these other people, you know, Mr. Aila, whoever gonna take Esther’s (Kiaaina) position – you know – the governor. It’s rough. L. Hadway: I hear you. I think there’s a lot of great staff on the ground that is willing and able and I think augmenting the program and going after additional funding – I think there’s a solid recognition that’s there been you know programs that have certainly excelled in the last decade and I would like to see some of that moved throughout the entire division and hence the reason I made the choice to go into the position that I am in now. It’s not easy at all, but you know I didn’t have to come here, I didn’t have to make these maps, I didn’t have to. But I thought it was important, you know we spent a lot of time on Friday. I’ve made some choices not to go on some trips to work with Forest Service on some very specific forestry issues to spend my time, like I said, working on these national level endangered species issue. We aren’t always going to like the answers – 20 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 both ways but I think we’re at a point where if we can kind of come to some kind of common understandings and recognition of some of our additional obligations but know that we certainly I’m hopeful and that’s pretty much all I can tell you right now. Chair Sylvester: Okay, one more, Tom wrap it up. T. Lodge: I appreciate all that you are doing. But, one of the things that I see in asking – that it’s not just the money. There has to be a will in DLNR I mean in dealing with the island community. \[Unclear\] dealing with the advisory councils basically at a ground level you kind of like fractured, you know you have one at Puuwaawaa, you have one in \[unclear\], Willie-Joe here, and they partner with all these other people and really you should be partnering with the hunters as well in all these areas. You know top down fashion. We should have somebody who is dedicated to the community, the hunting community, when you start thinking about these projects, so that he can guide you \[unclear\] coming in and saying hey, well this is what we’re going to do – it’s more of hey, this is what we want to do and how should we do it. Chair Sylvester: Thank you. M. Bartell: First off, Lisa, I want to say thanks. I think that presentation was excellent and I think transparency is very welcome, right, because I don’t think we were getting it before. A couple comments. I was with Malama Solomon late last week. She did a presentation on DOFAW priorities. If you’re a hunter watching this thing it’ll make your stomach crawl, right, I do think that as the new head of DOFAW – you know a lot of people count on the renewable resources we have and they need to be a priority for DOFAW, right. And coming back to priorities, priorities – words are great. I talked about results and I think we need some. Frankly, and I’m counting on you and I’m counting on GMAC to help you get there, right, but you know, when we were at the legislature on Friday I made the comment that priorities are really dollars – and as you look at this administration, if you look at the legislature, if you look at the money stacked up on watershed, invasive species, fencing and eradication – the fact that we actually have the opportunity to get $750,000 this year is probably a first, but when you look at the hunters and we look at the budget on which priorities are based, we don’t even make the page, right? We just don’t make the page. So the words are good, I think the intent is there, money against these programs are what we need. Money and people who are accountable. And I think we have accountable people now – and together we’ve got to figure out a way to get some money to put against this stuff – cause that’s they way we’re gonna get some results. And with that – those are comments not questions, Lisa, if I can help in any way, shape or form, you got my number. Chair Sylvester: Thank you, Mark (Bartell). 21 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 L. Hadway: And as I mentioned, Mark, I’m hopeful that we actually inserted some language that hopefully allows for another 750k out of the request from HB 1902 so we’ll see how that moves. If I may, one last thing, may I? Chair Sylvester: Yes. L. Hadway: I just wanted to point out some position updates – so the state acquisition coordinator, which was Jordan Jokiel, for those of you that had the pleasure of meeting him – his current position is posted under the research rd corporation of the University of Hawaii and it closes on the 3 of March. That position was one of the positions when we get funding and we don’t – we have to have a position actually appointed by, or not appointed but given to us by the legislature to make a civil service position – so we hire them through the research corporation of the University of Hawaii. I’m happy to say that, that position we are moving it through the system to get it established as a civil service position as well. So hopefully we can get someone to replace Jordan (Jokiel) and can eventually can get them in the state system. The Hawaii Island Branch manager Mike Warne’s position is actually internally and externally thth posted and it is closing externally on the 28 and I believe internally on the 24. And then the wildlife game biologist for those of you who knew Ed Johnson, he was in the admin office and passed away I believe last January – we are interviewing for that position right now and I’m hopeful that it may have to go back out to external recruitment. So I’m just letting you guys know that we’re still trying to fill that position and it’s one of the key positions to help us move this kind of agenda forward and we’re really trying to find someone that fits that position well. Chair Sylvester: Thank you, Lisa. One final question, Willie-Joe? W. Camara: Lisa, what happened to the DOFAW website? L. Hadway: Good question. W. Camara: And how can I get back on it every now and then, cause it’s gone. I can’t find it. L. Hadway: Yeah, we had a great kind of website with a ton of information on it and we had to transition to a new e-website – that’s a statewide initiative and it’s been a rusty transition. W. Camara: Because I can find, I mean I can get like onto like DOBOR, the boating one, but DOFAW is no where to be found. Chair Sylvester: Lisa, \[unclear\] statewide acquisition coordinator – is that a permanent position? 22 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 L. Hadway: Well, this one is \[unclear\] the way positions get established is they tend to be established temporary first, but then they run temporary for a few years and then we go back to the legislature to try and turn them into permanent positions. Chair Sylvester: How long will this position be open, I guess, open \[unclear\] go back to the legislature? L. Hadway: The civil service – well several have been running six, seven years as temporary, you have all the same benefits, but it’s just a matter of the legislature funding that as a priority. Chair Sylvester: Thank you. We’re gonna whip through the rest of the agenda. We just have to make a few motions. Chair Sylvester asked Lisa Hadway to stay until the end to entertain questions from the general public. She agreed. VII: UNFINISHED BUSINESS: 1. A motion to accept our legislative testimony for HB1901, HB1902, HB1903, HB1904, HB1905, HB1907, SB2511. Chair Sylvester: Under unfinished business – I’d like to hear a motion to accept legislative testimony. We’ve been quite busy putting in some bills at the legislature this year and that would be HB1901, HB1902, HB1903, HB1904, HB1905, HB1907, SB2511. Action: W. Camara moved to accept legislative testimony of bills HB 1901,HB1902, HB1903, HB1904, HB1905, HB1907, SB2511; seconded by D. Yoshida, and carried unanimously by voice vote. VIII. NEW BUSINESS: Chair Sylvester: There was a request to get an aquatic issue in here and I saw an article in West Hawaii today about some big changes happening on the west side of the island so I’d like to hear a motion to submit a formal request to ask Dr. Bill Walsh of the Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources to attend one of our upcoming meetings to discuss that article and plans for West Hawaii. Do I hear motion? Action: T. Lodge moved to write a formal letter to invite Dr. Walsh to an upcoming meeting to discuss his article and plans for West Hawaii; seconded by W. Camara, and carried unanimously by voice vote. 23 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 IX. FUTURE MEETING DATES  March 24, 2014  April 21, 2014 Meetings will be held at 6:30pm in the Puna Conference Room and Mayor’s Conference Room in Kona via video conferencing. X. ANNOUNCEMENTS: Chair Sylvester: Ok, Glennon’s the upcoming shooting range in West Hawaii. Glennon Gingo: How you’re doing, Mr. Chair Sylvester and members of the advisory committee. Thank you very much. Lisa (Hadway), I don’t know about congratulating you, but it sounds like you’re going from the pot to the frying pan. So good luck in your new position. It’s great to have a former representative direct from the island of Hawaii. I hope the best for you and I hope hunters will all become your friends and you’ll become their friends. Thank you very much, as chairman of the friends of the NRA for the island of Hawaii just a quick update for you – the Hawaii Island Public Shooting range in Puuanahulu we’re still moving ahead on that – for some of you that also understand the Pittman-Robertson funds are also used for the support of firearm safety or range development as well and you can thank all of yourselves or anybody in that room that has purchased a firearm or any type of hunting equipment because that’s where that money comes from – those are federal taxes that are filtered to the state for those uses, so it’s not just limited to other related conservation areas. The range development is going along, we have some additional work that’s being done on the sound propagation. There’s some concerns that have been raised by the Waikoloa Resort Association – we’re addressing those issues. The first sound test that was performed by our engineering group at PBR Hawaii registered no propagation of noise by gun fire. We staged our gun firing at several points around the area where the construction of the range will be and the instrumentation that was used in that testing had registered nothing. There was more ambient noise around the resort, i.e. automobile traffic; traffic on Queen Kaahumanu highway, traffic within the resort, people yelling, screaming, tires, and motorcycles had more registered noise. So the resort association has asked the congressional delegation through a letter of complaint that DLNR takes steps to do another committee based sound propagation test. That committee met last week and they’ll be scheduling a second round of sound propagation studies. That seems to be the issue that the Waikoloa Resort Association has raised about this even though the group working on this on targeting incorporated in prior time target there were several other working groups around range development for the past 10 to 12 years – we’ve been fully transparent with the Waikoloa Resort Association as to the 24 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 design, the location and so on. So they’re has not been anything that has not been above board about the intention of building a public shooting range. Could the guests in attendance at the meeting here in Hilo, and I’m sure most of you know we do not have a public shooting range. We’ve had, over the past 10 years in excess of 24,000 firearm sales made or imported into the state of Hawaii. With a 70% growth rate over the last 5 years – if we continue down that path and do not have a safe place for our youth and our people to be shooting, practicing safe shooting skills, I don’t know – you can put 2 + 2 together and you’re gonna have some problems. You’re gonna have some accidents, you’re gonna have discharge of firearms on private land, you gonna have errant discharge and projectiles leaving property – so you can see where we’re headed if we do not make a public shooting range a priority. I think, Lisa (Hadway), you would love the fact that we could eventually move out of or quasi shooting area that we, we loving call the Manuka shooting area, which is actually a natural reserve area and close that place down eventually because it’s not a safe place to shoot, but unfortunately, it is a place because no one else has anywhere else to go shooting that they know of. So I support the range from the NRA perspective. I’ve had nothing but tremendous support at all levels of the NRA national to help with this process. We have great people working on the ground on this process. We encourage all of you to become involved and becoming involved may be a few months down the line when there’ll be more public hearings about the use of the land at Puuanahulu for the shooting range and we invite all of you to be there. Senator Solomon has asked that anybody that has a vested interest in the shooting range in the public attend her Waikoloa based public meeting which is this Wednesday at 5:30pm at Waikoloa Elementary School. We hope you’ll show up because that’s her meeting for the area and of course Puuanahulu is part of that Waikoloa district area in that ahupuaa. So we hope you’ll be there. The couple other comments and I’ll make it brief – on the NRA and hunting – the NRA operates a whole department on hunting. I’ve been to many, many states and been around a lot of meetings like this and hunters have an equal standing at the table, meaning that hunters are looked at as conservationists. In most of the states I’ve worked in – that means that everybody at that table that’s a hunter has a voice and everybody in conservation areas in the states that I’ve visited and gone to meetings at give them that level of standing. And I think that’s where we need to go with hunting in the state of Hawaii: that equal respect and looking at hunters as conservationists. Through a generous gift – Darren Lasonte who’s a foremost in hunting rights and the process of handling these things will be our guest this year in November at the Friends of the NRA meeting and dinner that we have. Darren is a dynamic guy – he’s a great guy to listen to – he is a hunter and he will give you a lot of insight about how other states have handled some of the issues that you’re going through right now and through a generous gift we’re gonna have Darren out and he is hunter. And that begs \[unclear\] the last question that I have and it’s a question, rather than a statement, and that is Lisa (Hadway) I know you’ve got some position descriptions out there and after looking at a lot of the folks in other states that have game management areas and who they hire – is there a line item in any of your job descriptions that puts 25 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – February 24, 2014 preference on these people being hunters or having a background in hunting? So that is a question, because I think that really makes a difference when you hire people into these positions to at least give that a little extra weight – that they have a hunting background. Thanks from the NRA. Hope to see you this year. Hope to see you Wednesday in Waikoloa and again, for our next generation of hunters, please support us in getting this range built. Thank you and aloha Chair Sylvester thanked Glennon Gingo and informed the advisory board that the NRA is in support all our house bills. The formal (Board) part of the meeting ended and the floor was opened for Q & A of which Lisa Hadway was happy to entertain. XI. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:03pm Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary ATTEST Anthony H. Sylvester, II 26