Tree snake inspection cuts
continue to pose risk

Answer: Last September and October, at least 34 Hawaii-bound airplanes left Guam without being inspected for brown tree snakes.

Even though the planes were inspected by the state Department of Agriculture when they got here, officials were worried that the risk of a snake getting through was too high.

Two factors affected the missed planes: an increase in military flights out of Guam, often on short notice, and funding shortages for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services inspection teams on Guam.

The bad news is that some flights leaving Guam this year continue to be missed, said Christy Martin, public information officer for the Hawaii Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

Wildlife Services has missed inspecting about 127,000 pounds of cargo and 91 aircraft between October and February, although not all those flights were headed for Hawaii, Martin said.

Emergency funding enabled the USDA to keep trained dog inspection teams on Guam that had faced possible layoffs, but that is not permanent and will have to be fought for again this year, Martin said.

"It's a reprieve," Martin said. "The protection level is not as bad as it could be, but I'd say we're still at risk.

"We still have a patchwork of funding, so we get a patchwork of protection."

The good news is that many of those planes were only touching down for refueling, so the chances of picking up a snake were low. And communication between Hawaii and Guam to inform the state Department of Agriculture has improved, Martin said.

Meanwhile, Hawaii now has four working dog inspection teams, two are in training and funding is being sought for two more, said Neil Reimer, administrator of the state Agriculture Department's Plant Quarantine Division.

The brown tree snake has caused the extinction of eight of Guam's native bird species and cost the territory lost productivity from snakes causing power outages.

Studies estimate that if the snakes became established in Hawaii, they would be a severe threat to native birds here and could cost the state economy between $28,515,800 and $405,174,800 annually.