A University of Hawaii botany professor has come up with a way to predict whether landscaping plants new to Hawaii might escape and become alien pests like the dreaded "green cancer" miconia. UH professor devises way
to find possible plant pestsA quiz seeks to identify traits that would
Strategic meetings set to fight invasive plants
harm island environments
By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comCurtis Daehler's quiz asks where plants came from, what kind of surroundings they like, whether they are a pest somewhere else in the world, how they spread their seeds and whether they have undesirable traits like being poisonous or thorny.
With about a day's worth of research by a graduate student, Daehler's Weed Risk Assessment model can make a judgment on whether a plant is likely to become a pest in Hawaii.
Daehler adopted his Weed Risk Assessment model from those being used now by Australia and New Zealand to keep out plants that would harm native ecosystems. He hopes that soon Hawaii can use it there.
Daehler and his collaborator Julie Denslow, of the U.S. Forest Service, will share the results of their research at informational meetings around the islands that began yesterday on Kauai.
The Division of Forestry and Wildlife-sponsored talks are targeted for landscape designers, planters and nursery managers, but anyone who is interested can attend.
Daehler and Denslow point out in the introduction to their Web page: "The economic costs of invasive species in the United States were recently estimated to be at least $137 billion per year. This enormous economic burden does not even consider the harmful effects of invasive species on native ecosystems.
"In Hawaii, over 80 percent of our rare and endangered native plant species are currently threatened by invasive alien plants, and all of Hawaii's ecosystems have been impacted."
Identifying troublesome plants does not mean Hawaii would not have a lot of planting options, Daehler said.
"There are a lot of good species out there that scored low and are predicted not to be pests," he said. He hopes to create a database of plants that are comparable to the bad ones but less of a risk.
"It's a long-term plan," he said, "And we need the help of industry."
Rather than using Hawaii's "black list" approach of a list of banned plants, the Weed Risk Assessment offers a "white list" approach of plants that would fit in here without causing problems, said Mindy Wilkinson, invasive species coordinator for the Department of Land & Natural Resources.
"Our conclusion is that if people follow the recommendations of the Weed Risk Assessment, we could reduce the spread of invasive plants in Hawaii and the damage and harm caused by them to a great extent," Daehler said. "Ninety-five percent of major pests (in Hawaii now) wouldn't have been planted if people had followed this."
For example, when miconia was introduced to Hawaii as an ornamental plant in 1957, no one realized it would escape and eventually take over acres of native forest. It wasn't until 1993 that the plant was put on the state's list of banned noxious weeds. Now, some are doubtful miconia ever will be eliminated on Maui and the Big Island.
Groups fighting miconia estimate the cost of eradication on the two islands could be as high as $47 million during the next seven years.
For more information, see www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/daehler/wra.
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The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife is holding meetings statewide this month to discuss how the landscape industry, government agencies and other stakeholders can work together to minimize the risk of introducing new invasive plants to Hawaii. Fighting invasive plants
All public meetings will be from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
>> Oahu: Monday, McCoy Pavilion, Ala Moana Beach Park>> Hilo: Tuesday, at University of Hawaii's Komohana Agriculture Complex, Conference Rooms A & B, 875 Komohana St.
>> Kona: Wednesday, at the Kona Outdoor Circle, 76-6280 Kuakini Hwy., Kailua-Kona
>> Maui: Thursday, at the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center, 91 Pukalani St., Pukalani
University of Hawaii
