Another five miles of fencing around a portion of Maunakea is slated for construction this year, which will almost, but not quite, enclose the upper slopes of the mountain after more than 10 years.
In 2010, the Department of Land and Natural Resources began construction of a 6-foot-tall fence to surround a 67,000-acre area on Maunakea in order to protect the critical habitat of the endangered palila bird, the Hawaiian honeycreeper which only lives on the southwestern slopes of the mountain.
Since then, all but eight miles of the planned 59-mile fence have been completed, nearly enclosing the entire critical habitat.
DLNR’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife had requested the department approve a capital improvement project to complete an additional section of fencing, closing a 5.25 gap in the existing fence along the northwestern slope of the mountain, near Parker Ranch.
That request was scheduled to be discussed at last Friday’s meeting of the Board of Land and Natural Resources. However, the Tuesday prior to that meeting, DOFAW withdrew the request.
“It turns out the department went to the board already with that request last year,” said DOFAW wildlife biologist Jason Omick. “So, I pulled it from Friday’s agenda because there was no need to go to the board again.”
With the need for board approval obviated, Omick said DOFAW will begin soliciting bids for the project “shortly,” adding that the division has two years to utilize the $1 million budgeted in capital improvement funds. But, he also noted, the actual cost of the project will probably range from between $600,000 and $800,000, depending on contractor bids.
Whenever that stretch of fence is complete, the last incomplete part of the fence will be a 2.5-mile corner on the northeastern slopes of the mountain. No completion date for that section has been set.
The fence is intended to protect the habitat of the endangered palila from ungulates such as goats and sheep, which eat the grasses and shrubs that shelter the birds. However, despite the construction of the fence and extensive ungulate-control programs, there remains fewer than 1,000 palila in the wild. A 2021 study estimated there were only 678 of the birds in the wild, about half of the number estimated the previous year.
Nani Pogline, a member of the Hawaii County Game Management Advisory Commission’s legislative committee, had helped draft a bill earlier this year that would require the DLNR to investigate whether its efforts to eradicate sheep on Maunakea have actually helped the endangered species, but that bill stalled almost immediately upon introduction.
“When the sheep eradication started about 45 years ago, the palila count was 6,000,” Pogline said. “It doesn’t seem to be working.”
In addition, because of the removal of ungulates from the area, Pogline said the grasses and shrubs have grown back too much and now present a significant wildfire risk, which further endangers the birds.
A related bill has survived the Legislature and awaits Gov. David Ige’s signature. House Bill 1872 would, if passed, require the DLNR to recognize the value of game animals as a sustainable food source, and that they should be properly managed, rather than eradicated.
The bill makes no changes to the DLNR’s authority. However, it also notes that proper management of game animals, rather than eradication, “provides benefits to important watershed areas, including weed control and the reduction of grass fire fuel,” to which BLNR chair Suzanne Case took issue.
While the DLNR ultimately supports the measure, Case suggested in testimony to a Senate committee that the correlation between game eradication and wildfire risk be omitted, saying it is “not a universal or even widespread benefit except in select areas, and is best not generalized in statute.” The final draft of the bill retains the sentence in question.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.