(HONOLULU) – A rapid response team of experts from state and federal agencies and non-government organizations formed over the last week to investigate the deaths of several ʻōhiʻa trees in the Moloa‘a Forest Reserve on Kaua‘i’s northeastern side.
Forestry & Wildlife
(HONOLULU) – Following a series of statewide public hearing on proposed changes to rules regulating activities within Hawaii’s Forest Reserve System, the DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife is reminding everyone that input and comments on the rules will be accepted until May 11, 2018. The rule changes are in response to evolving natural resource concerns and the needs of managers and forest users.
(HONOLULU) – An organic farm on O‘ahu and an ethnobotanical garden on Hawai‘i Island are the newest awardees for state funding from the DLNR Legacy Land Conservation Program. The program provides grants to community organizations and government agencies that strive to purchase and protect land that shelters exceptional, unique, threatened, and endangered resources. Last Friday the Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) approved recommendations from the Legacy Land Conservation Commission and the Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DOFAW) to award three million dollars in state grants for conservation that protects resources for public benefit.
(Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i) – The men and women charged with the responsibility of preventing, fighting and managing wildfires around the State of Hawai‘i gather on Hawai‘i Island next week for the yearly Hawai‘i Wildfire Summit organized by the Hawai‘i Wildfire Management Organization (HWMO). The week begins with two days of professional training from the National Fire Protection Association which focuses on “Assessing Structure Ignition Potential from Wildfire.”
(South Kona, Hawai‘i) It’s a long and rough four-wheel-drive road to reach a black sand beach at Manukā Natural Area Reserve (NAR) on Hawai’i Island. That doesn’t deter some 30 people – Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund staff, representatives from federal and state agencies and volunteers – from making the trip for nine consecutive Earth Days with a singular mission in mind. That’s to remove plastic debris, derelict fishing equipment and nets and the typical trash produced by all of us.
LIHU‘E, KAUA‘I -- The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife on Kaua‘i will be opening Nounou Forest Reserve for a trial archery animal control of feral pigs.
(Volcano, Hawai‘i) –The eleven young ‘Alalā living in the Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve on the Island of Hawai‘i continue to thrive, showing increased natural behaviors, foraging on native plants, and even challenging the occasional ‘Io, or Hawaiian Hawk. Conservationists are cautiously optimistic about the birds’ continued success in native habitat and are working together with researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo to analyze vocalizations of these rare birds. Foraging and other social behaviors are also being studied to determine if historically seen activities are increasing now that the group has access to the surroundings in which they evolved.
(KAHULUI, MAUI) – The ‘Ahihi-Kina’u Natural Area Reserve (NAR) on Maui’s south shore will remain closed at least until Monday, April 23, 2018 due to the continued presence of sharks in the popular snorkeling destination. The NAR has been closed for two weeks, after numerous tiger sharks were spotted, apparently coming close to shore to follow pupping reef sharks.
(HILO) - Researchers in Hawaiʻi, working with national and international specialists, have published a paper providing new insight into the origin and development of the tree disease called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD). Scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of Hawaiʻi worked with colleagues at the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and Iowa State to describe two new species of plant pathogenic fungi known to cause ROD. Initially noticed by landowners in Puna in 2010, ROD spread quickly across tens of thousands of acres on the Big Island, killing hundreds of thousands of native ʻōhiʻa trees (Metrosideros polymorpha) in a short time. A plant pathology team led by Dr. Lisa Keith at the ARS laboratory in Hilo went to work collecting and analyzing samples of dead and dying ʻōhiʻa.
HONOLULU — The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife would like to thank all the wildlife artists who submitted amazing art entries for the 2018-19 Hawai‘i Wildlife Conservation and Game Bird Stamp Art Contest. A committee reviewed all submissions and two winners were chosen last month.