09-23-2011, 04:26 PM
quote:It is encouraged*, and hasn't had any effect on the destruction caused by pigs, goats, sheep, mouflon, or deer on the other islands. What on earth makes you think deer here would be any different?
Originally posted by oink
It's all about making lemonade and in the current job market very tasty lemonade. If the deer are already here it could be extremely expensive to eradicate them and very likely unsuccessful. Hunting, if encouraged, can prove very effective at keeping the population under control.
* in some places and some animals, especially for pigs - but it's the politically powerful hunters' associations that are the biggest proponents of restrictions
quote:Have you been to Pohakuloa and Puu Waawaa and seen the contrast between fenced and unfenced areas? Where there are no seedlings and no branches below 4 feet in the unfenced land, and nothing but alien grasses on the ground? While inside the fences, akoko and mamane trees go wild like they used to do?
Oh, and I have done a fair amount of hiking in all elevations of the B.I.