PHOTO BY MARK TANIMOTO / HONOLULU ZOO
The Hawaiian hoary bat, shown here eating a mealworm, is one of only two native mammals in Hawaii, the other being the monk seal.
Native bat forces In one corner is Hawaii's growing timber industry, which looks to increase the state's wood harvest, diversify the economy and create jobs.
review of timber
harvesting
By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.comIn the other corner, the Hawaiian hoary bat, the mouse-size flying creature that is one of Hawaii's only two native mammals (the Hawaiian monk seal is the other), and its supporters, who want to ensure cutting trees for profit does not leave the endangered species homeless.
Aiming to avert potential conflict, both sides are pooling resources to study the bat's needs and habits. Then, it is hoped, harvesting timber could be done in a way that does not threaten the species' survival.
The Hawaiian Hoary Bat Research Cooperative, which includes government wildlife and forestry agencies, is offering scientists $415,000 to study the elusive bat for two to three years. Research proposals will be accepted through February, and a project could begin later in the year.
Until more research is done, "we don't know enough about the bat to know if what they (timber companies) are planning to do or are already doing is harmful to the bat," said Scott Fretz, a state Division of Forestry & Wildlife biologist. "It's such a big question mark."
Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, with a wingspan of 13 inches, the bat (Lasiurus cinereus semotus, or 'ope'ape'a in Hawaiian) "is just a very interesting animal in itself," said Dan Taylor, Bats and Forest Initiative director for Bat Conservation International. "It's certainly related to the hoary bat on the mainland, but how did it get there (to Hawaii)? For an animal, either one pregnant one or more than one, to get that far is pretty fantastic."
The bat was listed as endangered in 1970 because -- although no one could tell how many of them there were (and still cannot) -- there were fewer than there had been in the 1800s and early 1900s, said Jenness McBride, a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist.
The Hawaiian hoary bat hot spots: Big Island's Puuhonua O Honaunau (City of Refuge), Volcanoes National Park, the South Kona flank of Mauna Loa, and the Hamakua Coast The Hawaiian hoary bat
Easiest place for amateurs to spot the bats: Near streetlights at dusk at the Wailuku River bridge on the Hawaii Belt Road in Hilo or at Hanalei Bay on Kauai
Bat calls (MP3 audio clips): These calls were made with a bat detector. The frequency is reduced to make the bats' normally inaudible calls audible to humans. The second call is a feeding buzz, or an increased rate of calling that is used when bats hone in on an insect.
There are only 30 recorded observations of the bats roosting (hanging upside down from a limb to rest) in trees, and no observations of the bat mating or raising its young, which are called pups, Taylor said, "so it's really kind of a big mystery."
Among the 45 bat species of Canada and the continental United States, seven of which are on the endangered-species list, there is none about which less is known, Taylor said.
Theresa Menard, who recently completed her master's thesis at the University of Hawaii, is only the third person to study the bat since the 1960s.
Menard was well along in her research at 25 Big Island sites in 1999 when she read the state's proposal to cut timber in its Waiakea Timber Management Area of the Big Island.
"The environmental assessment said there were no bats in that area," Menard recalled. "I went there with my bat detector (a device that magnifies the bat's high-frequency sounds so humans can hear them) and observed the bats there on three occasions. I informed DOFAW (the Forestry Division) of this and suggested if they wanted to do environmentally friendly forestry that they not cut in June or July, when bat pups can't fly."
If further research data supports it, solutions could be as simple as that.
And yet, summer is the ideal time to harvest, said Carl Masaki, state forestry program manager, because it is drier and logging trucks do not make as much impact on the dirt roads. So even when more is known about the bat, compromises may have to be made.
Eventually, the bat cooperative was formed this year among the Department of Land & Natural Resources (of which the Forestry Division is a part), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which is charged with safeguarding endangered species), the Hawaii Forest Industry Association (a nonprofit that promotes responsible forestry) and a number of other interested parties.
"It's great. It's not something you see very often, and I'm not familiar with anything like it in Hawaii right now," Fretz said.
The Hawaii forest industry is "quite small. We still don't have what we call an industrial forest," said Masaki. Impact on bats is not a problem "right now because nobody is harvesting in large numbers," he said. Planned expansion of the industry requires the bat research, he said.
There are more than 40,000 acres of standing, harvestable timber and another 20,000-plus acres in various stages of planting, planning or natural regeneration on the Big Island and Kauai, said Mike Robinson, coordinator of the Hawaii Forestry and Communities Initiative. The goal is 100,000 acres under forestry management by 2005, with a potential annual revenue of $100 million, up from $28 million in 1992.
The bat research is crucial to the industry's growth, he said, because "as a land manager, it's very important to understand what your impacts on the land are. If you're talking about being sustainable, you want to be able to depend on that land for years to come (and to support) all the critters that use those trees, soil and water."
Michael Constantinides, a state forester, agreed: "There has to be a way to harvest timber resources in a way that does not harm this animal. It's listed (as endangered) and is an important part of our ecosystem."
Division of Forestry and Wildlife
State Board of Land and Natural Resources
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Hawaii Forest Industry Association
