New palila management badly needed
Don Fujimoto’s Dec. 26 letter analyzing consequences now apparent to the ill-thought-out environmental/judicial mandate to “save” palila is on the mark. Since 1980, 22,000 grazing animals have been removed from designated Palila Critical Habitat, which is essentially all of Maunakea. Half were taken through liberalized no-bag limit hunting, and half by DLNR’s aerial and other gunners. The basis for this robust animal extermination program was the hypothesis that grazing animals were damaging the mountain’s mamane growth, deemed essential to palila survival.
In 1980 there were an estimated 6,000 palila and thousands of sheep on Maunakea. Today there remains but a handful of sheep, and the mountain is covered with mamane. But the palila population has dwindled to 1,000 birds. What’s wrong with this picture?
I have hunted Maunakea for the past 20 years. Within the last three to four years I have seen unprecedented growth in the mountain’s understory, which has adversely impacted game bird hunting. The dense waist-high brush prevents incursion by man, dog, or bird, and constitutes a significant fuel load awaiting ignition. As recently experienced in California, a wind-driven wildfire will take everything. The question is whether DLNR will realize the folly of past practices and move to properly manage the public lands entrusted to their care – before that option is no longer available.
Richard Hoeflinger
Waikoloa
Still hammering away at wastewater project
Back in the old days, Henny Penny cried: “The sky is falling!” but nobody reacted. That’s because she couldn’t get her local politicians on board.
Now we are in the new age and Henny Penny’s environmental false alarms make lots of money for her nest egg. Henny Penny’s latest scare is: “Nutrients are pouring into the ocean!” and Hawaii County joined her flock. Now the wastewater people are ready to build an elaborate lagoon system for Naalehu, a town far from the shoreline.
These lagoons cost tens of millions of dollars. They will put us in debt up to our eyeballs. Meanwhile, Henny Penny keeps feathering her nest with county sewer fees and county tax dollars.
Please consider: Each $1 million that county politicians squander is a 20 dollar bill plucked from a local family of four. To that, Henny Penny says: “Never mind; it’s only chicken feed.”
Jerry Warren
Naalehu