All
of Hawai‘i’s
game mammals are introduced invasive species that:
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damage
public and private property including crops, yards, golf
courses, roadsides, and parks, inflicting enormous financial
costs that no one takes responsibility for |
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damage
trails and force hikers to walk through puddles and
mud contaminated with urine and feces (especially common
with feral pigs) |
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spread
other invasive species such as strawberry guava |
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damage
Hawaiian forests and streams, impairing the function
of watersheds |
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contaminate
the fresh water supply with disease-causing organisms |
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destroy
native species and their habitat |
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prevent
the recovery of rare and endangered species |
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increase
rockfalls, mudslides, and reef siltation by accelerating
erosion |
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cause
vehicle collisions on the roads |
These
are all part of the unacknowledged cost
of the State's game program. If not for hunting, feral pigs,
goats,
sheep,
cattle,
wild
deer
and mouflon would have been targeted for total eradication
decades ago. Because game mammals
roam freely over every island, the burdens of their harmful
effects are borne by all of the state’s approximately
1,300,000 residents. In contrast, in 2007, only 7,407 residents
obtained hunting licenses, including
those used only by game bird hunters. It has been
said that "90% of Hawai'i's public land is managed for
1% of the population."
A
TROPICAL BARNYARD?
As
game mammal populations are expanding and inflicting ever-greater
damage
on the islands, Hawai'i's native species are declining dramatically.
A recent botanical study concluded that more
than 50% of Hawaii's flora is at risk ("extinct, endangered,
vulnerable, or
rare"). Game mammals are a primary cause of the decline
of Hawaii's native plants and animals. Without its unique flora
and fauna,
Hawai'i is very similar to many other islands, and much
less special.
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THE WAY
FORWARD
All
limits on taking game mammals, such as seasons and bag limits,
should be eliminated. What
is the purpose of laws
limiting the take of animals that are too numerous? Why should
the public pay for enforcing such laws?
Deer,
mouflon, and feral pigs, goats, and sheep should
be legally designated as invasive pests, to provide legal
clarity, make it easier to obtain
funding for their control, and make it illegal
for people to release or move such animals. It will take decades
to dramatically reduce their numbers. There will be plenty of hunting
for a long time to come.
The
Governor's office should immediately
convene
a study group to determine how much money introduced game mammals
are costing residents each year, itemizing not only annual expenditures
on animal control measures such as fencing and trapping but also
quantifying damage to private property such as crops, golf courses,
and yards, and public property including parks, trails, natural
areas and rare and endangered species.
A
better understanding of existing costs will illustrate the advantages
and savings to be had from animal control, and will allow more
efficient planning to reduce costs and damage. Scientists and
managers familiar with adaptive management can design a strategy
to reduce animal
predation
on
crops,
more effectively protect
watersheds, test
whether commercial use of meat ultimately helps or hinders
animal control, and other considerations.
Without
a carefully considered game mammal control policy, strategy
and implementation, game mammal damage and control will continue
to be an endless, limitless expense that devastates Hawai'i's
natural heritage
and
bleeds the budget. Future opportunities to support the islands'
people culturally and economically
by experiencing and showcasing this unique natural heritage
are declining every day. No progress will occur until this
policy
vacuum is adequately addressed.
The
State of Hawai'i's leadership (governor, legislature, and land
management agencies) continues to be negligent in failing to
provide a coherent public policy governing harmful, free-roaming
hoofed animals. This policy failure makes it impossible to protect public
lands and the irreplaceable plants and animals that are becoming extinct
for lack of safe habitat.
In
the past, there was such a policy. From about 1900 to the early
1950s,
the Territorial government implemented a rigorous animal
control and fencing program that removed
goats, sheep, cattle, and at least
170,000 pigs from island natural areas. That program ended
with the development of a game program in the mid-1950s. The
fences
were allowed to fall down and pest animals proliferated
throughout the islands, despite their well-known harmful effects.
Again
Hawai'i lags behind to the detriment of its people and
its future, allowing its unique natural heritage to be needlessly
destroyed, while other
countries and states have developed and implemented
stringent
rules for
the
management
and control of introduced
game mammals.
The
current situation, with public agencies writing recovery
plans for native species that call for removal of game mammals from the
habitat while the same agencies fund hunting programs, trying
to fence ubiquitous free-roaming animals out of countless areas while being
unable
to manage
or
monitor
almost
a million
acres of largely inaccessible designated hunting area, is the
most
costly and least effective way to manage Hawai'i's
precious public land. Much of the area designated for
hunting is supposedly so named for the purposes of animal control.
However, since much of it is remote and not frequented by hunters,
effective
animal control is not taking place. As Mr. Spock would
inevitably
conclude, "This
is not logical." The most urgent need is for policymakers
to abandon the protection of invasive game mammals so
that Hawai'i's native plants and animals can be better
defended.
NOTEWORTHY:
- Other
countries and states control feral animals for human health reasons
alone. Island medical researchers are very worried about avian
influenza, in light of the combination of feral pigs and feral
chickens common in Hawai'i's natural areas. See article, Pigs
Linked to Spanish Influenza Pandemic and detailed
threats and risks from feral pigs (190kb pdf file) as outlined
for the state of Oregon.
- The
islands' future food independence is at risk. Introduced game
mammals represent a reservoir of disease for both livestock and
humans and impair watershed function. Feral pigs were implicated
in the outbreak of E.
coli on the mainland in 2006. They prey on young animals
and eat rotting carcasses of their own species and other livestock.
They do not represent food security by being present "in
the mountains," as some would like to believe. It is extremely
inefficient to try to feed large numbers of people with wild
animals, compared with captive-raised, safely managed livestock.
Again, only a few benefit while the majority bears
the burden of the environmental and financial cost. Furthermore,
the animals' continuous damage to watersheds threatens the size
and
safety
of the water
supply.
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A
brief history
of game mammals in Hawai‘i |
- Before the Polynesians arrived, Hawai'i had no hoofed animals.
The Polynesians brought small pigs that were
kept as livestock, not released into the forest and hunted as later
animals
were. (A few may dispute this, but most evidence indicates
the Polynesian pig was a domestic animal, not a game animal. For
more information, see P.Q. Tomich, 1986, Mammals in Hawai'i.)
- During the era in which
Captain Cook arrived in Hawai'i, it was common for ships’ crews
to release domestic animals on the islands they visited, to multiply
and provide a food
source for later visits.
- Cook and subsequent ships brought goats, sheep, cattle, and European
swine to Hawai'i, beginning in 1778.
- All these animals thrived and began to permanently alter the island
landscape, as grazing animals do all over the world.
- Around 1900, faced with
massive
watershed
damage
by
feral
mammals,
the
Hawai'i Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry initiated
an animal control program. It included shooting, poisoning,
bounties, and fencing a system of Forest Reserves. In about 50
years, 170,000 feral pigs were removed from the forests statewide.
"The numbers
of feral sheep and goats grazing on the ranges of the various
islands also created problems in the loss of habitat--the
destruction of cover and subsequent erosion of the soil. Today
the
goats, sheep, and pigs are classed as game and are hunted as
'mainlanders' hunt deer. Hunting, in some areas, has reduced
this 'game' to such
low numbers that seasons must be imposed to insure future sport.
The Japanese, or 'axis,' deer--which were brought to Molakai
[sic] Island during the last century as a gift to the King--also
offer
possibilities for transplanting to the other islands to add
to hunting opportunities, Mr. Rutherford* says. The Territory
is now
studying these acclimated deer
to determine if such
transplanting
operations
are advisable." *Chief of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's Branch of Federal Aid, who at the time of this
press release 'had recently returned from Hawai'i, where he
inspected
the Territory's
projects under the Pittman-Robertson Federal Aid to Wildlife
Restoration Act.'
It is odd that "the
destruction of cover and subsequent erosion of the soil" is
immediately dismissed with the phrase "seasons must be imposed
to insure future sport".
- Beginning in the 1950s, additional game species were introduced.
DOFAW's
forerunner,
the
Hawai'i Division of Fish and Game, introduced mouflon to Kauai,
Hawai'i, and Lanai. Axis deer, previously limited to Molokai, were
introduced
to Maui, Lanai, and Oahu. With
statehood
in
1959,
HDFG took over responsibility for free-roaming
hoofed animals from the Board of Agriculture
and Forestry. HDFG ended the policy of reducing animal
populations to
protect
the land and water and instituted a
policy of sustained
yield, with bag limits and hunting seasons.
- Since the 1950s,
there has been no effective plan to protect public land and private
property from the damage caused by pigs,
goats, wild cattle, sheep, and deer that wander freely over the islands.
- In the meantime, other states and other countries have pursued
intensive research, planning, and policy aimed at reducing the threat
from introduced hoofed animals.
List of sources |
Hawai‘i's
Game Management Agency |
DOFAW
is the agency charged with protecting Hawai‘i's forests and
watersheds:
DOFAW Policy B: Protect
and enhance the condition of Hawai'i's unique native plant and animal
species, and native ecosystems for their inherent value to Hawai'i's
citizens and for their productive value to science, education,
industry and the cultural enrichment of future generations and
prevent species extinctions whenever possible. (Source: 2004
DLNR DOFAW report to State Legislature)
DOFAW also administers
the State's game program. With almost no control over where game
mammals go or how many there are, it is impossible for DOFAW to
implement Policy B.
- For meaningful
protection of watersheds and remaining native species to take
place, the state must undertake comprehensive strategic planning
and meaningful steps to control the number and range of game
mammals. Only
then
can recovery
of the land, water, plants, and animals that game animals have
destroyed over past decades begin.
- Hunters would
also benefit from the removal of bag limits and seasons.
- All residents
can help effect change by insisting on action: implementation
of an effective ungulate control plan. Please contact the
DOFAW branch manager for your island and ask how residents can
get a complete report on what their branch is doing to protect
natural areas from game mammals. Hawai‘i
is being
changed from something rare and beautiful to something very different.
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Position
paper from the Hawaii Conservation Alliance on feral ungulates (hoofed
animals). Alliance partners include UH, DOFAW, USDA, and Kamehameha
Schools: HCA Home
Page. See also:
Haleakala
National Park fencing and USGS
on Hawaii's natural history (pdf file)
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you choose this...
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