Navy goes after goats at Lualualei
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
LUALUALEI — In an attempt to protect endangered plant species and reduce erosion in Lualualei Valley, the Navy has begun an 18-month, $45,000 program to reduce the population of feral goats living in the steep Wai'anae Mountains above the Naval Reservation.
For six years the Army has been culling feral goats in Makua Valley to protect the 29 endangered plant species, one snail and birds that make their homes in the military reservation, but this is the first such effort at Lualualei.
"The feral goats are being removed because they threaten to destroy various native species and their habitat in Lualualei Valley," said Terence Tengan, environmental coordinator for the Naval Magazine Pearl Harbor.
"The goats graze, trample and uproot rare and endangered plant species and spread invasive weeds that displace native vegetation. They also damage the land by exposing soil to severe erosion that degrades the habitat and greatly increases siltation in streams, coastal areas and ocean reefs."
The Navy has contracted with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to remove feral goats by shooting them on the ground and from a helicopter. Hunters will begin the operation Saturday near Pu'u Kaua.
The system has worked well in Makua where in 1999, hunters killed 42 goats in the valley. The Army also built a 9-mile chain-link fence encircling a portion of the valley last year at a cost of more than $1 million to keep foraging goats and pigs out. Fewer than 50 feral goats remain at Makua.
Residents at the Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board meeting last month asked if the goats could be distributed for food, but Navy officials said they cannot salvage the meat because of regulations requiring postmortem exams. Public goat hunting is allowed in Lualualei, but only with bows and arrows or knives.
The hunting program alone has been unable to control the steadily increasing population of goats, Tengan said. Due to their remote locations near steep and inaccessible cliffs, only four goats have been removed recently through public hunting. An estimated 75 to 100 goats now roam the hills above Lualualei and they are getting close to the Honouliuli Preserve, managed by the Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i.
Makaha Ahupua'a Community Association member Betty Waller said that if the Navy would better advertise the hunts, more people would take advantage of the program and the goat meat would not be wasted.
"Residents don't want to just let the meat rot," Waller said. "People don't know they can go on the land and they should know. In other parts of the country goat meat is a delicacy."
The Navy has run legal notices about the hunting program.
Biologist James Kwon, with the U.S. Fish & WIldlife Service, said there are approximately 13 endangered plant species in Lualualei.
"We are not trying to get rid of all (the goats)," Kwon said, "but right now the population is growing uncontrolled. They are in such a remote location that a majority of hunters aren't going up there. We are trying to slowly turn the tide and recover some of these species."
Cynthia Rezentes, a member of the Wai'anae Mountains Feral Goat Management Group, said endangered plants in Makua have made an incredible recovery following goat control efforts. The management group includes federal and state agencies, the Army and Navy, the Nature Conservancy and the city Board of Water Supply.
The 3,962-acre Honouliuli Preserve is a critical habitat for the endangered 'elepaio bird and home to 10 rare snails and insects and hundreds of native plant species, 70 of which are rare or endangered, according to Pauline Sato, O'ahu program director for the Nature Conservancy.
"We are supporting the effort because these goats could easily enter the preserve. It is so close," Sato said. "The goats have been around for a while but seem to be getting closer and closer. We need to do something before it is too late."
The Nature Conservancy plans to erect a fence of its own along the north end of the preserve to keep out feral pigs and goats. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is providing money to support the fence project. Construction is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
