Richard Ha writes:
This past Saturday evening, I went over to Nani Mau Gardens to give moral support to my friends in the Mauna Kea Recreational Users Group (MKRUG). This group includes hunters, off-road motorcyclists and mountain bikers. I was an avid off-road motorcycle and mountain bike enthusiast back in the day.
Big Island Video News covered this meeting well. Big Island Video News video: Hunters hold hearing over DLNR gencing, game eradication
Wayne Blyth, chairman of the MKRUG
They had invited all the Big Island legislators to this meeting, in order to let them know how the "hunters" part of the coalition feels about a large part of the Kulani Forest being fenced off. They do not like it. Representatives Jerry Chang and Clifton Tsuji attended, as did Council Member Fresh Onishi. I was floored to see how many people attended the meeting, which was called on very short notice.
Although Rep. Jerry Chang congratulated the group for being well-organized, I think he misread it. It’s not that they were organized. It’s more that fencing off the forest touches a real sore spot. It threatens people's ability to get food for their families. What about the people?
One eloquent speaker said it was all about cost for them to go hunting for food. They had to buy the license, pay for dog food and buy gas to make it possible to go hunt for food. On the other hand, he said, the folks who fence off the forest just have to find something to justify getting a grant to do so. For him, it is a cost issue.
My dad used to hunt to feed his family. This audience was made up of young people and families, and all the way up to people in their 60s and 70s who have hunted all their lives. I saw the same concern as in people worried about rising electricity bills.
It’s why people are so supportive of geothermal.
- Low-cost electricity helps the regular folk.
- Seventy percent of the economy is made up of consumer spending.
- If people have extra money, they will spend.
- This will cause our standard of living to rise.
This is not rocket science.
I support people having lots of good places to hunt for food. I also support places where native forest is fenced to protect it from feral animals. The two things are not mutually exclusive. To me the problem with this dialogue is that it has become so polarized — we can have BOTH hunting areas and natural areas; we don’t have to choose one over the other.
Aloha Melora
I too favor a consensus collaborative type of approach. As we face an uncertain future of declining world oil supply, we are going to need closer communities, make more friends and stay closer to our families. Thanks for commenting
Aloha