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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-11-17 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes i Hawaii Came Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes —November 17 2014 i' Game Management Advisory Commission County of Hawaii Minutes Meeting Date: November 17, 2014 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: Hawaii County Building — Council Chambers I. CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order at 6:33pm. II. ROLL CALL: Per B. 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 District 7 - Vacant Mark C. Bartell — District 8 District 9 —Vacant Quorum established ALSO PRESENT: Bill Brilhante, Corporation Counsel Barbara Kossow, Administrative Specialist B. Command, Deputy Planning Director. III. ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INTRODUCTION: • Guest: Brian Mabry, Game Warden for Pohakuloa Army Training Area • T. Sylvester and Mark Bartell terms are up next month. VI. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: October 27, 2014 Correction to minutes of name, not "Loy" Case should be Roy Case. Action: P. Bueltmann moved to accept the minutes as corrected; seconded by D. Yoshina, and carried unanimously by voice vote. V. BUDGET REPORT Action: W. Camara moved to accept the budget report as circulated; seconded by M. Bartell and carried unanimously by voice vote. 1 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 VI. PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMS: Chair Lodge welcomed Jo Jo Tanimoto who testified in Kona. JT: Hi. My name is Jo Jo Tanimoto and I live at Kawaihae. I thought I was going to be on the agenda this evening, Tom, I mean that's what the indication you gave to us so Robert Shook are in attendance this evening. So, I'm gonna pick the discussion item and that will set us right up into the discussion for his (R. Shook) project that he wants to create with the help of the game commission. So I have a copy for you guys — I'm just going read it — so it says, "Thank you for the opportunity to share an exciting community idea as an alternative for eradicating goats, pigs and sheep. I watched the You Tube presentation of the GMAC February meeting and speaker Lisa Hadway of DOFAW, which is why I'm here. So the item says — what works and what doesn't. Number one — I noticed that the maps of DOFAW, that Lisa shared, does not include North and South Kohala. Number two — those maps do not include the Kohala watershed, which specifically Pelekane and Waiulaula watersheds. Number three — the presentation of maps did not include the fenced areas of the Pelekane watershed, where we feel in Kawaihae that this is a problematic issue that the Game Commission should be aware of because it's so problematic that it got into the County CDP [Community Development Plan] document for the South Kohala area. Number four — those maps did not include the historical significance of trails and access to the mountain and along the seashore; the discussion did not include funding for protection of wildlife in the watershed areas and it's almost like it's not even acknowledging that there's anybody that lives in the area. The hierarchy map needs to be updated as of last year the Aha Moku division was included in the DLNR and it wasn't in the map either. Therefore, I come to the conclusion that South Kohala is not included in any DLNR budgeting and planning actions that are set to take place without this communities' comments; and I object. The actions, budget, the maps and the information shared all need to be fixed. And then number 7 — divisions of DLNR need to work together so that you address the gaps in authority that run concurrent with each other. And I think one of your members on that panel also brought that up. OK. So we have a proposal for a draft game management plan out there long before 2006 when we had the earthquake and all of the feral goats were loose and roaming around causing traffic accidents — they were eating all our plants in our yards and what not. And we needed to get — we still do, in fact, it's still going on — we need to get rid of those animals but we definitely do not want to be subjected to shooting these animals from the helicopter — like what happened couple months ago. And it's pretty close to where we live, so we're not comfortable with that. We have 2 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 a different plan and we want to share it with you guys so we can move forward with this plan. Which is what we were gonna share tonight — but not on the agenda. So I'm gonna ask that we get there. I'm also gonna ask when and ever you guys get a game management plan that we get a copy as well out there. I thought shooting animals from the air was against the law. But actually they no care how close we live because the closest village is Kawaihae village. It's next door to the timber company and that's where they were shooting `em. So DLNR — they no care about us. OK. So I'm here to complain on this item — what's working and what's not — nothing working for us. And we need your help to fix that. OK. The community concern, like I said, was so strong it came out in the South Kohala CDP. And I put down a page numbers, general policy numbers and what it was and what's supposed to be addressed. It's nowhere close to anything in any plan, even the watershed plans. They don't even address this stuff — so it needs to get updated and the game management proposal that we have — I don't know if you have time that you would like to at least listen to ours cause Robert Shook is here tonight for this one. The other thing that I think even State Historic Preservation needs to update is the fact that we have burials in our neighborhood — our neighborhood has a lot of ranches — including Parker Ranch. And the process right now is when they create subdivisions — then they go to the burial council. Well the problem with that is the cattle's been walking on these burials and the trails and it's getting lost and people stealing the rocks and they don't know where the rocks coming from and it's all on the burials so the process for this needs to get changed so that when they sell property — then you go to the burial council at that point. So that it's all included in the EIS, otherwise, those burials become inadvertent finds and they get stored in a closet in the bathroom in a plastic bag and then they get lost. Now that's the same thing going happen when the hunters go hunting. We don't know what their dogs are digging up. We don't know where the people are walking — they could be walking on graves! But nobody has taken the time to actually complain about our burials and our trails, which are valuable, which are historical, which are in the state laws, federal laws — that are supposed to be preserved and protected. We got a resolution for that. We can solve that with our game management plan and that is: 1) we don't want to be shooting next to our houses. Our children — that is our playground — they too close for that kind of stuff to happen in our community and I see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and number 8. Number 9 is not there — South Kohala. So maybe that's another problem that we got, but nobody told us that. So I guess everything tonight — I just wanted to bring a sample of what is not working — because there's a lot more things that are not working, including the maps. Anybody have any questions for me? 3 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 Ms. Tanimoto left her written summary and asked that it be circulated to the commission members. W. Camara said that he would review and contact her before the January meeting. Chair Lodge welcomed Robert Shook who testified in Kona. RS: My name is Robert Shook — traditional Hawaiian name. OK. I want to talk about the animals and the way they're being treated here. I have a plan that uses them as a resource and I notice here in Kona there's not much jobs unless you create a job. There's not much opportunities for these kids unless you create opportunities. But the one thing in Kona that everybody mistook is — their resources. Everybody looks at land. They don't look at what else the land comes with. I took the time to put something together about the animals here — the animals here it's not their fault that they're here — they're here — they were brought here for one special reason — somebody came along and changed their name from cattle to feral cattle or invasive species. So because they changed the name to invasive — now they kill these animals. I'm gonna give you a small story about Ikua Purdy. Ikua Purdy was the cowboy that broke all the records and what not — well he rustled a few cattles in his day to feed his people because they were starving — OK? They caught him and they were going to hang him as a cattle rustler. And they hanged a few people along the way — cattle rustling. Today we call `em "invasive." We shoot these cows and we leave `em on the side of the road like they're nothing. But just a little while ago we were hanging people because of `em. So you guys got to look at both sides of these laws, yeah, and cultural gatherings. Anyway, I look at it like this, yeah, Department of Hawaiian Homelands pays three cowboys — the cowboys pay Department of Homelands $40.00 a head of cattle that they catch on DHHL land, OK? According to Mike Robinson, he waived this fee of $40.00, which in six months they had caught something like 1,400 head of cattle. Now waiving the fees, denying the DHHL $56,000 that they were owed. OK? But the cowboys went and sold this meat at an average of $225.00 per cow, if you average `em out — 1,200 pound cow, 400 pound cow. They made $315,000 dollars. And then they got waived $56,000 dollars and this been going on since the beginning of time. None of this money goes to any cultural thing, any burial thing, anything at all. The money is lost. So I've come up with this plan — if we, as Aha Moku, we volunteer to protect these animals — we volunteer to get a "catch & release," we volunteer to be the managers of them and what not. You don't have to pay us. We do this because this is our way of life. We going live off of this. These animals going provide education for the future, they going provide jobs. I just showed you how much money in a short period of time this small amount of people with what is called, you know, this is what we have, yeah? You can add `em up, please do it on a calculator and what not. I have a plan to feed everybody over here and we have other homesteads at other areas. We can provide food for `em, we can create 11 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 jobs; we can do so much things, if you guys are willing to look at it on those basis. We asking OHA for money to fence in area, we asking DLNR to give us the land, OK, cause we don't have anything — all taken away. So they give us the land — we have a place at least we can go, we can put these animals on top. We can get one "catch & release." We will be the managers. We will advise the hunters when they can hunt, we will have schools that can go up there and see all these animals and what not and they'll be told who brought `em over and what they was here for, when they were slaughtered and how — they'll get the true history of it. Right now these cattles are being destroyed because they eat the bark off of a Sequoia pine tree, which is again indigenous from this land, brought over to be planted on Hawaiian Homestead land, yeah, indigenous, so we going kill the cattle and sheep because they eat the bark. Unreal. Chair Lodge said he appreciated his testimony and would like to hear more about this plan and possibly meet to discuss what this commission could do to help. Sustainability is the goal of this commission here and hunting sustainability and resources sustainability. RS: Terrific. Thank you for your time on this and whatnot, like I said, this is something that can be done and it should be done to preserve and whatnot, yeah, and hopefully we can make something out of it a lot better instead of just wasting this thing — or one or two guys get rich. Let's let all the kids get something out of it. A question was asked if any particular land was in mind or if it is mostly private land. RS: We were looking at DLNR. The last meeting we had come to in Building A (West Hawaii Civic Center). They were supposed to open the map and pick four slots in which they were going to put these animals on or designate. The problem with the designation was Mr. Aila said that they don't have the money or the man power — so we volunteered. We volunteered for it so that there's no worries of this, this, and this. And like I said, we going to OHA for fencing money and whatnot, yeah. So we don't have the exact location or whatnot — but DLNR has four sites that are already selected, so we just take whatever site that they select, whichever, all we ask for is that there be water on the land, yeah, some kind of thirty years worth of water. Point of contact person of the Aha Moku is Leimana DeMata who works in Mr. Aila's department. R. Shook hopes that this group could create something within the next five years. Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 It was determined that GMAC knowing the point of contact could possibly help to bring more awareness to this project. VII. DISCUSSION ITEMS: What worked/What didn't; Suggestions for improvements; Review of priorities; Process improvements Chair Lodge called upon Tony Sylvester to comment on (circulated) the November 2014 Update from David Penn, State of Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources (DLNR), Division of Forestry & Wildlife (DOFAW), Wildlife Access & Acquisition Program (WAAAP). Kaupakuea Easement (Hilo Forest Reserve, Finance Factors) WAAAP suggests that GMAC consider transmitting a formal recommendation to the County Council to adopt a resolution that requests the County Department of Public Works to locate and permanently mark, on the ground, the boundaries of the County easement. The quick way is to get some kind of easement into the property. Finance Factors is already working with DLNR for the right of way. When the property is sold the easement ends. Koa Forest Parcels Acquisition (Hilo Forest Reserve, Finance Factors) The parcels are within the pre -approved expansion area for the USFWS Hakalau Wildlife Refuge. The parcels appear to be the second highest priority — private lands — for acquisition in the USFWS Region's recent "Island Forest at Risk" proposal to the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. How can that be on a pre -approved expansion area? Who determines? Was it surveyed? Hakalau is trying to expand. They need to have an access from the bottom instead of going all the way around and this will give them that. How much effort should GMAC place on this now that they have come to us for support? TS: All this thing has done is transmitting a formal recommendation by the GMAC to the county to adopt a resolution and request the county Department of Public Works to support the landowners' proposal for 31 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 realignment and exchange of roads that reserve with the county. Now we were talking about trying to purchase the property and it's like they want us to just support an easement. WC: I cannot support the state buying that piece of property. TS: About 15,000 acres that was coming up for sale. The County could purchase that through PONC to keep the open space and access because a lot of the hunters from Onomea, Pepeekeo use this area. There's a state parcel that's gonna be landlocked inside of there and I think it's a 1,300 acre parcel and 5,000 acre parcel mostly coastal property. So we thought this might be a good project for inland but apparently — looks like Fish & Wildlife is involved. WC: I don't think we (GMAC) should drop it. But I think we should continue working with our council members and seeing if we can find the monies somehow county -wise to purchase this on — because honestly I don't think DLNR and the state purchasing this is going to be, you know, in best interest. I mean they've already proved that. TS: Even if it's the smaller of the two parcels. WC: Right. TS: The smaller parcel is 1,700 acres and then the larger one is 13,000. So maybe the smaller one — at least that way the County, at least we can always have in perpetuity an easement up in that area otherwise it's gonna be surrounded by fed and state fencing. No access for gathering or hunting or whatever. MB: If my memory serves me correctly the whole reason this started was that at the corner of the land that got sub -divided and another piece of private property is a forest reserve which we can hunt. And what we needed — we have an easement on the parcel that got sub -divided but all we need is a small chunk of property to get access to the forest reserve, right? TL: Correct. MB: We've got to buy the 13,000 acres or 1,700 acres to be access to something the state already owns, I mean it would be great. But what we need and what we started out with is how do we get a relatively small chunk of property at the corner of where those four all abut to gain... TL: It's already in process, if it changes ownership, then that easement would be compromised. 7 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 MB: But the current owner can sell us three acres, right, and we've got the County Planning Director sitting right next to me that might approve that be subdivided into 2 lots and we get 3 acres that allows us in perpetuity to get access to the forest reserve. If Finance Factors is willing to do that — it may detract a little from the price of that property, but if they're willing to work with hunters I just hate to throw in the towel on this one. BC: Agricultural property may be subdivided down to one acre parcels. You don't need to buy an acre for an easement. All you need is the right- of-way. If the property changes hands, it does not mean the easement ends if it is in the deed. Concern would be if this is being resolved. Discussion • The property in question is designated conservation. A deal would need to be made with DLNR to get some sort of right-of-way across the property — some sort of easement. Probably 100 square feet. Finance Factors is currently working with DLNR in getting the easement done. Not clear on the easement terminating if the property is sold. • Ike asked why we haven't approached Finance Factors. It was determined that the Access Committee, M. Bartell, W. Camara and Ike. Yoshina will work on drafting a letter to the Deputy Planning Director, B. Command to approach Finance Factors in obtaining a small piece of land as an easement for access into the forest reserve. • GMAC did a wonderful job bringing awareness to a lot of our legislators as to the problems that we're facing with our animals and our resources. • More can be done to market GMAC, such as continue state legislative work with key legislators, building partnerships, forming a monthly newsletter in the newspaper(s), web -site, putting on a conference with different sectors of the community to talk about issues such as aerial shooting, public access and so forth; • "Roundtable" format conference open to the public on a monthly basis more on an informal setting which would provide a lot of networking and in turn help with public support and testimony when needed. These "Roundtable" sessions could be held at a county facility. Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 • To be successful GMAC must educate the people who come to our meetings about what GMAC can physically do. And we need to encourage them to partake and be part of the process of legislation. • GMAC's Legislative Committee could approach the Land Board and the land board members, especially those who represent our county and try to educate them on our issues here in this county and insights on DLNR. Be objective with real data driven insights. • Make an effort to follow-up on issues and direct folks toward results. • More importantly, GMAC must continue to force the State to do its job. 3. Review of Priorities: • Our priorities are to focus correctly on what we are doing now. • To essentially preserve, protect and promote public hunting. • Create a partnership with DLNR and insure that they are doing their job... • Trust in Sub -Committee's work on issues and report results to board will help limit items on the agenda. 4. Process improvements: Having AV equipment that works and larger room to conduct the meetings is a wonderful improvement. VIII: NEW BUSINESS: IX. COMMITTEE REPORTS 1. Legislative Updates • A new Families of Field bill that will be submitted I Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 • Suggest that Wanton Waste be added as an Action Item • It was recommended that this board write to Mayor Kenoi updating him on these legislative initiatives. Statewide Game Commission — which T. Sylvester is leading the effort, we are making progress and we have a sponsor for that and it will model things like the NARS Commission right where they have solid data points. 2. Access updates if any • Access (easement) was covered earlier during the meeting tonight. Kipuka Ainahou lease agreement included in report (D. Penn's report) and also one other homestead road in Honomu. Continue dialog with the hunters in Honomu who have expressed their concern about some of those places. Work will continue on that with county council. Take note of Chair Aila's advice on page 2, under Kipuka Ainahou, per Chair Aila's advice WAAAP drafted a letter from Chair Aila, the Chair of Hawaiian Homes Commission suggesting joint efforts to develop and implement a comprehensive, strategic statewide approaches to game management and public hunting on Hawaiian Homes land (transmittal pending). Question was asked, why can't we do that on state land? X. Commissioner's Reports/Concerns by District WC: District 1- received calls about law suits and questions from, bird hunters, archery hunters regarding locked gates. The number 6 lock by Kaohe game management area — it's the one that opens up into that yellow gate that's up on the side of the highway — Firebreak 3. Usually that gate is open 24/7 because it needs to be accessible to come out of. It was locked on Election Day. Hotline number was called and Police did respond and said that all the gates are locked because PTA's closed. DLNR was also called. Assumed it was an oversight in locking the gate. Also, regarding access by Mauna Kea State cabins near the area that burnt a few years back - where is the access to get into that area because that is Unit A. Brian Mabry the Game Warden at Pohakuloa Army Training Area said that he opens the gates and that the reason it was not open on Election Day is because that was not in their hunting plan for their training. DLNR and 10 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 DOFAW actually have the keys to those gates. So right now, that's something B. Mabry will talk to DOFAW about and come up with a solution. The second is flat hill falls right at the 33 mile marker on the new Saddle Road. Everything Hilo side of the 33 is area 2. When there is hunting, B. Mabry will open that gate. It is open now. Whether that's been open during a state hunting event or a whether its bird or mammal. It is state's lock. The red and white candy striped gate. When the Area 2 is open, he will unlock that. If they're going to use that as access to get into the GMA then DOFAW should be locking. WC: Question, how are people supposed to know the boundary there, when you get in there. You get in that gate — on that - not between the road and the high fence — but once you get in that high fence, if there's a boundary of Area 2 and Unit 8 — how do I know when I'm in Area 2 and when I'm in Unit 8? If you look at our state book — our rule book — that's all Unit 8. It doesn't show any Unit 2 or Area above that power line and that mitigation fencing. BM: I've been discussing it with Bill of DOCARE for the twelve years at Pohakuloa — that's why only the hunters have a hotline — we always put in the little disclaimer — if you have questions — call the number's hotline — you're not going to get an answer back direct — but if you get in contact with police desk — if I'm not available they will call me — giving your name and phone number and I'll call you back. Yet, at the same time — that is something that I want to clarify and I don't want to get ahead of myself with this new game management program that we're doing up there — but the new game management program's gonna make a lot more of hunting information and Pohakuloa and its boundaries available to those people who can access the Internet — because what I would like to have is an update by week, by hunting area a PDF map that clearly shows what areas are open — what the boundaries are, hatched in where the no hunting areas are. As it stands right now, in the last two weeks I've put out over 50 signs to assist hunters and where the parking areas are at — to be a good neighbor to Waikii Ranch — and their buffer zone — so I was pounding this fence post all weekend to be a good neighbor. And right now, as one person. But we're making steps forward so what you're talking about is issues that I've known about for 12 years and with this colonel, we're moving forward. And it boils down to communication and that's what the plan is all about. It's getting the right people on board. WC: Thank you. A question for DLNR regarding the check-in sheets for the hunting in Unit A up to the log cabins and hunting in the burnt area. The sheets were 11 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 moved. One must drive all the way to Kolua, check in, come all the way back down or go to Puu huluhulu. Hans is on vacation but when he gets back, plan to meet with him to discuss this issue. KD: District 6 - Reported that the Kau Property access at a standstill due a tax issue. The fence was moved by the state; liability issue was addressed and a survey was done. But now, they need to determine the land tax. GMAC Access Committee to research and report back its findings. MB: District 8 - a number of conversations regarding the county being served with a complaint from the state where the state is trying to intervene on Article 18 - the no fly zone — no fly and shoot ordinance. W. Brilhante confirmed that the county was served with a complaint from the state regarding the county ordinance that prohibits aerial hunting on the island and that matter is in Corporation Counsel's office but has not been assigned to one of the attorneys as yet. It was suggested that GMAC ask that a representative from the Corp Counsel come and give a report, and if it's a sensitive matter — might be able to move into executive session to hear the report from Corp Counsel. WB offered to forward this information over to his boss in Corp Counsel and go from there. XI. NEXT MEETING SCHEDULE: Our next meeting is going to be on Monday, January 26, 2015. XII. ADJOURNMENT Action: W. Camara moved to adjourn the meeting at 8:37 p.m.; seconded by P. Bueltmann and carried unanimously by voice vote. Respectfully submitted by, Barbara Kossow Secretary ATTEST: Thomas H. Lodge Chair 12 Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes — November 17, 2014 13