ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ronnie Harada, an inspector at the Hawaii Department of Agriculture's plant quarantine branch, shook flowers to check for bugs as he inspected a newly arrived shipment at the Honolulu Airport on Wednesday.
The treetops, in shimmering shades of green, flutter beneath the whirring blades of a helicopter. Mike Leech and Ryan Smith lean out the open sides of the chopper, scanning near-vertical gulches for signs of a prey they don't want to find. Hawaii on front line
to fight invasive speciesOfficials warn of the threat to
Native birds found dead
the islands without more fundingBy Rita Beamish
Associated PressWith binoculars and a hand-held global positioning instrument, these young biologists search the landscape for telltale three-foot leaves with purple undersides.
After an hour, Leech proclaims it "a good trip." The jungle below shows no sign of the dread miconia plant that chokes out other trees and kills native plants and insects beneath its giant sun-blocking canopy.
Battling what many consider Hawaii's biggest menace, Leech heads a voluntary Oahu team of conservationists and government scientists who tackle miconia and other invasive species. Similar teams have formed on the other Hawaiian islands.
Miconia has gobbled up 70 percent of the forest in Tahiti. Botanists say Hawaii could be next. But miconia is just one among thousands of alien, or non-native, species lurking in Hawaii's fragile, isolated ecosystems.
Unlike the feisty alien who visits Hawaii in the latest animated Disney film, "Lilo and Stitch," many of these aliens from across the ocean pose increasing threats to Hawaii's agriculture, native flora and fauna and to tourist attractions like coral reefs.
An estimated 100 alien species are added each year to the Bishop Museum's Hawaii Biological Survey. They sometimes sneak in with hobbyists or horticulturists, or stow away in cargo or wheel wells.
With the likes of snakeheads and red imported fire ants creating havoc across the contiguous United States, Hawaii is on the front lines of the nationwide war on invasive species.
"We're the leader in species extinction and the leader in invasives," said Duane Nelson, forest health coordinator in Hawaii for the U.S. Forest Service. "The big thing is, they're coming in more quickly."
In insects alone, Hawaii has as many alien varieties -- nearly 3,000 -- as the mainland states combined, although not all are destructive.
"We've been in a major crisis with invasive species for the last century and it's getting exponentially worse," said Fred Kraus, vertebrate zoologist at Honolulu's Bishop Museum. The invasives have irreversibly damaged Hawaii's native populations, he said, contributing to the extinction and endangerment of countless species, including about three quarters of Hawaii's native birds.
The state Legislature this year cited the "silent invasion" as "the single greatest threat to Hawaii's economy, natural environment, and the health and lifestyle of Hawaii's people and visitors."
Tourists know Hawaii as a pest-free paradise, "but people are slowly waking up to the fact that things change all the time, and these organisms are coming, and if we don't watch out, we could get hit with a big one that hurts us economically," said Grady Timmons, communications director for The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii. "We're holding it at bay, but a lot of stuff has come through."
As many as 500 of the more than 5,000 alien species in Hawaii "are viewed with great concern within the scientific community," according to Allen Allison, Bishop Museum vice president for science.
Among them, dime-sized coqui frogs keep neighborhoods awake with lawnmower-volume screeching. They devour valuable insects and offer a limitless food source for larger invaders like rats. An explosion in mice is suspect in a handful of murine typhus cases. Mosquitoes have caused more than 100 cases of dengue fever since last year.
Two tall and tough weeds, fountain grass and pampas grass, create fire hazards and damage grazing lands. Invasive fireweed poisons livestock. Alien seaweed and algae smother coral reefs and dump pungent weeds on beaches.
Miconia, native to Central America, has established itself perhaps irreversibly with cancer-like tenacity over more than 175,000 acres on the Big Island alone, threatening native habitat and watersheds.
Stray iguanas and reptiles turn up regularly, and feral sheep and pigs are long established in the forests.
But so far, Hawaii is fending off the terror-inspiring brown tree snake by using dogs to inspect flights from Guam, where the snake has a stranglehold. There, the snakes slither onto electrical lines and cause power outages, bite sleeping people and devour birds.
Also high on Hawaii's watch list is the ferocious red imported fire ant that is moving west across the contiguous United States.
Inspection of incoming cargo turns up around 1,000 alien insects a year, even without adequate staff to search all flights and boats, said Neil Reimer, manager of the Department of Agriculture's plant quarantine branch.
But that many interceptions were logged at Maui's Kahului airport alone during a recent experiment with full inspection on all flights. It was a clear demonstration of how many aliens are penetrating the current inspection system.
"Realistically we're not doing a good job of prevention or control for the widespread species. It is going to take quite a bit more than we're currently committing," said Mindy Wilkinson, state invasive species coordinator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
State and federal officials have their sights on the coqui frog as a major target. They anticipate extension of an Environmental Protection Agency special permit to fatally douse the frogs with caffeine spray. Additionally, reforestation seedlings are dipped in hot water to kill hidden frogs, and other antidotes are being considered.
Among other efforts in the Hawaii battle against invasives:
>> Two thousand volunteers each year hack fast-spreading Kahili ginger plants from scenic Kokee State Park on Kauai, using blue herbicide to deaden the roots.
>> Aircraft target miconia seedlings with fungus spray. Volunteers fan out through rainforests and rappel down cliffs to prevent infestation of new areas. One overlooked plant can produce millions of seeds in a year.
>> Researchers scour foreign countries for fungi and insects that can attack specific aliens.
>> Oahu biologists use global positioning instruments to plot on a computer every Miconia plant found.
Gov. Ben Cayetano this year created the Hawaii Invasive Species Council, patterned on a national committee of the Clinton administration, to coordinate and direct cross-agency action. But funding remains a problem.
Hawaii's Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, with representatives from state and federal agencies and conservation groups, concludes it would take $50 million a year to tackle invasives. State officials estimate their spending at $7 million to $10 million.
"The bottom line is it's really not enough to deal with the threats we have," said Mike Buck, administrator of the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife. Noting the eventual impact on business and tourism, he said private interests like shipping, airlines and tourism should share the funding burden.
Intervention on coqui frogs several years ago could have prevented the infestation that now requires $3.5 million a year, said Earl Campbell, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife invasives specialist and chairman of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, which includes representatives from state and federal agencies as well as conservation groups.
"We're working at a fraction of the level we need to be working. I keep feeling that we're fighting the good fight but we're losing," Nelson said. "Very easily the last remaining native species in Hawaii could be gone in 100 years if we don't take some dramatic steps pretty soon."
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KAHULUI >> State wildlife workers have found more dead birds at a nesting site near Maui's Hookipa Beach Park. More native birds
found dead on MauiThe 12 shearwaters were
apparently killed by feral catsAssociated Press
Bird specialist Fern Duvall said the workers found 12 more wedge-tailed shearwaters that apparently were killed by feral cats.
Three live chicks were found in their burrows, but it was not known the if parents of the chicks were at sea or were among the dead, Duvall said.
The birds were from the same colony that has been devastated over the past month by cats, he said.
Earlier this month, Duvall recovered the bodies of 93 shearwaters from the cliffs between Hookipa and Maliko Bay. The injuries to the heads and chests indicate the birds had been killed by cats, he said.
Wedge-tailed shearwaters are native to Hawaii, but are also found throughout the Pacific and are not considered endangered or threatened.
The birds have a wingspan of about 17 inches, which allows for long-range soaring over the ocean. But they are clumsy on land since their legs do not hold them up on a solid surface, making them vulnerable to predators.
"It's pretty much destroyed the colony," Duvall said. "There's almost nothing left alive out there."
