PALILA VERSUS N.R.A.

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American Hunter article is presented in a regular column titled "Hunting—An American Tradition." It says that the palila "might be endangered," that "the `environmentalists' never documented a single instance of adverse modification of... habitat showing that the presence of mouflons `harmed' the palila . . . , "that the judge erred seriously in his decision and that the actual intention of "misguided environmentalists" may be "to exterminate America's other wild game.

" The article, in short, is quite fantastic—as in "based on fantasy." Still, the piece and the press release it was based on have found their way into quite a few mailboxes and newspapers by now, and could well do some damage, since simple inaccuracy has seldom sufficed to keep a vigorous assertion from being published or believed. The most serious charge is that the palila is not being harmed by the mouflon sheep. Here's what Mike Sherwood has to say regarding that.

"Every witness who addressed this question testified that the mouflon are in fact harming the palila because the sheep eat mamane tree leaves, bark and, most important, young seedlings and shoots. Mamane happens to be the favored food item for the mouflon—the biologists refer to it as an `ice cream' plant for the sheep. Moreover, because there were no naturally occurring browsing and grazing mammals in Hawaii, the mamane had no need to evolve defenses (such as thorns, bitter-tasting bark or poisonous sap) to browsing or grazing pressure. Thus, as the older mamane trees are killed or die off naturally, insufficient new trees are being allowed to grow to maturity to replace them, and the forest declines. It is prevention of mamane regeneration caused by the eating of shoots and seedlings that is the critical problem. Because the palila cannot survive without mamane, if the forest were allowed to continue its decline, eventually the palila would go extinct. "Virtually every witness agreed with all this, including expert witnesses for both the state and the hunters.

" The other charge—that "misguided environmentalists" seek to eliminate America's wild game—is plain silly. What the author may have meant is that environmentalists would like to eliminate alien animals when they compete with native creatures, especially when they are harming those natives. Many people certainly believe that, though it can be fiercely controversial. (Some years ago, for example, the Park Service took steps to remove introduced wild burros from the Grand Canyon, which proved very unpopular in some circles.) It's a complicated issue and deserves careful examination in each specific instance where it arises.

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