The axis deer is a marvel of efficiency. It eats just about anything. It breeds prodigiously and can adapt to a wide variety of conditions. It’s skilled at avoiding predators, including human ones.

On Maui, these characteristics have allowed the deer to thrive, causing an estimated $1 million in damage over the past two years to farms, ranches and tourist resorts. The environmental damage is palpable on Molokai and Lanai as well. Haole koa has replaced lush native forests; a hunter on the "Wild and Raw" television show said the terrain on Molokai reminded him of west Texas.

Now the deer have found their way to Hawaii island, and conservationists and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources are understandably alarmed. Hawaii island contains the heart of the state’s agriculture and ranching industries, as well as the last large expanses of pristine native forests. Those forests contain what remain of old Hawaii — endemic plants and endangered birds such as the akiapolaau, Hawaii creeper and Hawaii akepa. They also provide the flowers, fruits and plants, such as maile, used in traditional Hawaiian gathering practices. Many of these places are in vast, remote areas of Ka‘u that are difficult to access — unless you’re a resourceful, perpetually hungry species like the axis deer.

The state rightly wants to end this problem before it gets out of control. DLNR launched a program in April to eliminate the estimated 100 deer, which have been spotted in the northern parts of the island and in the southern district of Ka‘u. Keeping the deer off the island was also addressed: In the last session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 3001, which prohibits the transportation and possession of wild or feral deer.

The deer eradication program is part of a larger effort to protect the island’s resources against the depredations of introduced species like sheep, goats, deer and pigs. A draft environmental assessment released in May proposes to fence off 12,000 acres of the Ka‘u Forest Reserve — a small portion of the 62,000-acre preserve — and eliminate the destructive ungulates contained within. Hunters, gatherers and hikers would have ready access, through gates, walkovers and improved trails. Eventually, the area could be used to return to the wild the critically endangered Hawaiian crow, now existing only in captivity.

Predictably, members of the hunting community have objected. Palikapu Dedman, president of the Pele Defense Fund, said in an Associated Press story that "the hunter has been ignored" in the state’s campaign against feral ungulates. In a recent Star-Advertiser Island Voices commentary, Pahoa resident Sydney Ross Singer argued against the elimination of introduced game, saying that hunters both keep the population down and "are invested in perpetuating the species for the future."

There is some merit to their complaints. Subsistence hunters, especially those in wild and remote areas of Hawaii island, depend on the meat of the animals they harvest. It is their way of life. And without the hunters, it would no doubt be more difficult, if not impossible, to keep these voracious animals in check.

But Hawaii island hunters don’t need axis deer to survive. There is no shortage of goats, pigs and sheep on the island. And for those who prefer to hunt axis deer, it’s open season on public lands on Maui and Molokai.

DLNR has an obligation to protect Hawaii’s most delicate ecosystems from destruction. The state also has a legitimate interest in protecting Hawaii island’s economic health. The axis deer threaten both. They should be removed.