Hdroadcurlew said:
Kauai- DISASTER. The Kokee STate park and te power that be intend to continue to INCREASE the number of FERAL PIGS & introduced DEER so that hunters can be happy. In the meantime, habitat for all the rare and declining species well back into the Alakai are being impacted. ANY HOPE
for these endagered birds depends on a change in this type of Management. FOR SOME obscure reason USFWS is not applying, enforcing or even talking about ENDAGERED SPECIES ACT IN RELATION TO these birds.... They don't really care.
a few comments and questions...
1) I've only visited Hawai'i twice (1995 & 2004), so my data set is
extremely limited, but I would agree with the assessment that Kokee seems to be on a downhill slide. As an example, in 1995, the visitor center area was home to a nene family, while in 2004 it was home to a feral cat family... I wonder how much construction of the trails and boardwalks into the Alakai have contributed to the decline of the endemic birds as it gives rats a superhighway into the heart of the swamp. I saw rats underneath the boardwalk in '04.
2) Are the hunting interests primarily native Hawaiian? As far as I know, this was the case in '95.
3) In '04, I overheard Audobon volunteers discussing the protest that PETA organized in response to a planned/executed(?) rat poisoning scheme.
4) Is the site with the most up-to-date information about Hawaii's birds really UK based? (I recently did some searching on my own and could not find a better site.) That along with the fact that many extinctions have occured (or have been declared) within the last 20 years and without much fanfare says volumes about how much people in the USA care about Hawaii's endemics.
Considering all of these disjoint, random thoughts, is there anything that we (as birders in the USA) or I (Joe Schmoe halfway around the world) can do? We have wildlife management who don't seem to have the power to execute their caring, special interest groups who have opposing goals, and a populace that neither knows nor cares. The situation seems pretty bleak... but more depressing situations have been turned around.
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