Why It Matters: The 2025 Ka’ohe Game Management Area (GMA) hunting season empowers sportsmen and women to manage invasive species, while protecting native ecosystems and providing sporting opportunity. By targeting feral species, hunters support the critically endangered palila, aligning with conservation goals.
Highlights:
- The GMA hunting season runs July 3 – August 31, 2025, for muzzleloaders or shotguns to aid in the population management of feral pigs (limit of four daily), sheep, and goats (no limit).
- Planned management operations from August 27-28, 2025, will temporarily close the GMA to hunting as DLNR works to reduce mammal impacts on palila habitat.
- The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) strongly supports utilizing hunting as a preferred management tool for overall conservation, population management, and habitat protection.
Nestled on Mauna Kea’s western slope is Hawai’i’s Ka’ohe Game Management Area (GMA), a popular destination for hunting, hiking, and bird watching. This GMA will be opening for game mammal hunting from July 3 to August 31, 2025, offering sportsmen and women the opportunity to aid in conservation. The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) will allow hunters with muzzleloaders or shotguns (slugs) to harvest pigs, sheep, and goats. The season includes a temporary closure on August 27-28, 2025, for additional mammal management. The combined hunting and management activities over the next two months will facilitate DLNR’s overall mammal management operations, which are vital for protecting the critically endangered, native, palila bird’s mamane-naio forest home.
These management hunts target feral goats, pigs, and sheep, which threaten native vegetation essential for the palila’s survival. Generous bag limits for sheep and goat facilitate population reductions at the levels needed to support the conservation of this critical habitat. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation emphasizes hunting as a cost-effective, science-based tool for managing overpopulations of species, and Ka’ohe’s season exemplifies this approach, blending recreational opportunity with ecosystem restoration.
Participating sportsmen and women embody CSF’s vision for hunters as conservation stewards and vital partners in the protection of Endangered Species Act listed species. This upcoming hunting season in Ka’ohe mitigates ecological damage from invasive wildlife, generates economic benefits through licensing and local spending, while maintaining traditions of responsible harvest — making it a sustainable alternative to costly professional control, ensuring native species like the palila thrive while enriching Hawai’i’s outdoor opportunities.
