09-30-2011, 05:00 AM
Dear KathyH,
I by no means are pointing you out. Everyone has something to offer and that is what makes this place so special. You are correct though, there are many of us that have become angry over the years due to what
is happening.
The sheep issue goes back a long way. It is a lengthy topic so I will just keep it short for now.
The Sierra Club sued our Gov't 30 years ago to force them to eradicate all our wild sheep because the sheep eat the leaves of the Mamane tree, and the Mamane tree seeds are part of the Palila bird diet.
The problem is this... There are hundreds of thousands of mamane trees with millions of seeds right now but the Palila bird numbers are still declining. How can they blame the sheep for the decline in the Palila bird
when currently there is millions of seeds for them to eat.
I can understand that over the next 100 years or so that with no new mamane tree seedlings that future populations could be affected as the older trees die off, but over the past 100 years the Palila has already declined drastically
and their food source has not declined.
The sheep population has declined as well. From well over 30,000 sheep to a few hundred on Mauna Kea in that past few years.
These people just have it stuck in their head that the sheep need to go and are not interested in real science to find out why the palila bird numbers are in decline. For now the sheep are the scape goat for lack of true research into the matter.
This is what frustrates us. When these animals are gone we will never get them back.
Just another food source gone from an Island that has to import most of our goods. So much for "eat local"!
I by no means are pointing you out. Everyone has something to offer and that is what makes this place so special. You are correct though, there are many of us that have become angry over the years due to what
is happening.
The sheep issue goes back a long way. It is a lengthy topic so I will just keep it short for now.
The Sierra Club sued our Gov't 30 years ago to force them to eradicate all our wild sheep because the sheep eat the leaves of the Mamane tree, and the Mamane tree seeds are part of the Palila bird diet.
The problem is this... There are hundreds of thousands of mamane trees with millions of seeds right now but the Palila bird numbers are still declining. How can they blame the sheep for the decline in the Palila bird
when currently there is millions of seeds for them to eat.
I can understand that over the next 100 years or so that with no new mamane tree seedlings that future populations could be affected as the older trees die off, but over the past 100 years the Palila has already declined drastically
and their food source has not declined.
The sheep population has declined as well. From well over 30,000 sheep to a few hundred on Mauna Kea in that past few years.
These people just have it stuck in their head that the sheep need to go and are not interested in real science to find out why the palila bird numbers are in decline. For now the sheep are the scape goat for lack of true research into the matter.
This is what frustrates us. When these animals are gone we will never get them back.
Just another food source gone from an Island that has to import most of our goods. So much for "eat local"!