10-03-2011, 09:18 PM
I have been monitoring this thread since my last post, and it is nice to see a discussion in which both sides have presented valid points as well as a comparison to the current sheep issue.
Kipa has posted an accurate history about the events leading toward todays aerial sheep eradications, and indeed new research is needed! There are so many mamane trees; on a drive over saddle when heading from hilo to kona, facing right looking up toward the slopes of Mauna Kea literally every tree is a mamane or naio with the vast majority of them being mamane, the palila's lifeline. This past July, 2011 I was able to spend many hours in the Mauna Kea forest reserve and observed many of the mamane trees with so many seeds that they looked like they would fall over from such a heavy load. (pictures can be found here https://profiles.google.com/103465580712...064/photos) With so many seeds for the palila to eat, there is clearly another cause for their decline. DLNR should be spending tax payer dollars on actual research to save the palila rather than thousands every time they take the chopper up for an aerial slaughter. There are 3 more planned eradications before Christmas of this year! What a waste of resources and money. There is no doubt that they will carelessly approach the axis deer situation in the same way. As always there is preferred balance that can be achieved between introduced animals such as sheep and axis deer with the native ecosystem that will never be considered, our government will always take the easy way out. I feel that the introduction of axis deer could have been avoided had different actions been taken toward dealing with the wild sheep on our island.
freestate- We all get how you feel: "I think bringing Axis Deer is a very bad idea " but you have not provided any argument of worth. All you do is blindly stand behind your ideas and complain about name calling over the net -> whoop di doo. I take it quite offensively for someone who is not from Hawaii or the Big Island to say "I believe in repairing or minimizing the damage to the Big Island" to someone who grew up here such as myself, after my family has lived here for generations. I would never go to yours or anybody elses hometown and say I believe in repairing the damage that was done here. Who are you to move here and say what is right, or best for the Big Island?! My family as well as the family's of many who have lived here for generations have contributed to make Hawaii what it is today, and you are calling that "damaged". Now that's insulting, I'd take axis deer over anti-Hawaii people like yourself any day.
Kipa has posted an accurate history about the events leading toward todays aerial sheep eradications, and indeed new research is needed! There are so many mamane trees; on a drive over saddle when heading from hilo to kona, facing right looking up toward the slopes of Mauna Kea literally every tree is a mamane or naio with the vast majority of them being mamane, the palila's lifeline. This past July, 2011 I was able to spend many hours in the Mauna Kea forest reserve and observed many of the mamane trees with so many seeds that they looked like they would fall over from such a heavy load. (pictures can be found here https://profiles.google.com/103465580712...064/photos) With so many seeds for the palila to eat, there is clearly another cause for their decline. DLNR should be spending tax payer dollars on actual research to save the palila rather than thousands every time they take the chopper up for an aerial slaughter. There are 3 more planned eradications before Christmas of this year! What a waste of resources and money. There is no doubt that they will carelessly approach the axis deer situation in the same way. As always there is preferred balance that can be achieved between introduced animals such as sheep and axis deer with the native ecosystem that will never be considered, our government will always take the easy way out. I feel that the introduction of axis deer could have been avoided had different actions been taken toward dealing with the wild sheep on our island.
freestate- We all get how you feel: "I think bringing Axis Deer is a very bad idea " but you have not provided any argument of worth. All you do is blindly stand behind your ideas and complain about name calling over the net -> whoop di doo. I take it quite offensively for someone who is not from Hawaii or the Big Island to say "I believe in repairing or minimizing the damage to the Big Island" to someone who grew up here such as myself, after my family has lived here for generations. I would never go to yours or anybody elses hometown and say I believe in repairing the damage that was done here. Who are you to move here and say what is right, or best for the Big Island?! My family as well as the family's of many who have lived here for generations have contributed to make Hawaii what it is today, and you are calling that "damaged". Now that's insulting, I'd take axis deer over anti-Hawaii people like yourself any day.