New hunting regulations that would double the amount of feral pigs a hunter could take each day in certain Puna forest reserves will once again be considered by the state Board of Land and Natural Resources Friday.
The proposed new rules would increase the daily bag limits within the Nanawale, Malama Ki and Keauohana forest reserves in Puna from two to four pigs per hunter and allow hunting every day, instead of the current schedule, where hunting is only permitted on weekends and on holidays.
The new rules match a previous set of proposed new rules that were scheduled to be discussed by the BLNR in September of last year, but that matter was indefinitely postponed.
“Those forest reserves are definitely harboring a lot of pigs,” said Eileen O’Hara, president of the Hawaiian Shores Community Association, which abuts the Nanawale Forest Reserve. “They do a lot of damage in residential subdivisions and to agricultural operations. They tear up gardens, they can chew up and kill … pretty much any kind of plant. They seem to like Polynesian trees in particular.”
O’Hara said the pig problem appears to be seasonal. In the winter of 2021-2022, she said the problem escalated significantly, to the point that an impromptu task force was set up among Puna stakeholders, county and state officials and more to address the problem. While the pig problem diminished over the summer, she said the pigs are back again in the winter and there still is no solution to address them.
Furthermore, O’Hara said there is still ambiguity among residents whether trapping and killing a pig on their own property is legally permissible.
“We’re not trying to eliminate all the pigs on the island, I want to be clear about that,” O’Hara said. “But we need a sustainable way to control them, because they’re not just a problem in Puna, they’re a problem in Ka‘u, they’re a problem in Honokaa, they’re a problem in Kona, they’re a problem in Waimea. They’re a problem on the mainland, even.”
Because of a state law passed last year allowing the Department of Land and Natural Resources to more efficiently make temporary changes to management policies, the proposed new rules would only be in place for two years initially, with the option to extend it by one year at a time. However, the new rule could become effective as soon as Jan. 23.
O’Hara said she hopes that, along with the increase in hunting availability, the county and state could help develop policies that can direct “as much of the pig population toward edibility as possible.” While she acknowledged that not all pigs are fit for eating, processing facilities such as a mobile slaughter unit could help jumpstart a local pork industry on the Big Island.
Last year, O’Hara, who is also the executive director of Puna advocacy nonprofit Malama O Puna, applied for a pair of county and state grants to fund a mobile slaughter unit, but those applications were unsuccessful because of open questions about the logistics of transporting live-captured pigs to the slaughter unit. However, O’Hara said she is revising that proposal, and that there will be a demonstration of a “Pig Brig” — a live trap that can catch and hold an entire sounder of pigs — on January 19 at the Gilbert Kahele Recreation Area.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.