For fiscal year 1998, brown tree snake pro–grams in Guam and Hawai’i have received the biggest sum of federal funds yet appropri–ated to the problems posed by this snake: about $1.6 million. Half of that is to go to the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey for research. The Office of Insular Affairs will determine how the re–mainder is to be distributed.
While most people involved in controlling the brown tree snake stress that more money is needed to address the problem adequately, this year’s amount is more than double what Congress appropriated for fiscal years 1992 through 1996.
With these funds, members of the Brown Tree Snake Control Committee, which includes the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Defense, and Agriculture; the government of Guam; the State of Hawai’i; and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, will try to meet the objectives set forth in the Brown Tree Snake Control Plan.
Those objectives include the reduction of snake populations in Guam; the elimination of snakes from the transportation network; the eradication of snakes in areas where they have only recently become established; con–trol of snakes to reduce predation on endan–gered species and other native animals and their interactions with humans; and public education.
The Beagle Teams
In Hawai’i, the most effective screening method identified so far is use of the dog teams to inspect planes, cargo, and baggage. About $171,000 of this year’s federal grant will go towards this program, about $19,000 less than what has been received in past years.
Three beagles assist Hawai’i Plant Quar–antine inspectors with keeping alien pest species out of the state by sniffing the airport’s baggage area, Federal Express, and UPS packages. The dogs are trained to detect target odors of plants and animals that are banned in Hawai’i. Also known as the Brown Tree Snake canine unit, the dog teams (one in–spector-one dog) also check Guam military and commercial flights for the snake, which hitchhikes in plane wheel wells and cargo and other compartments.
A typical night shift runs from 7 p.m. to 3:45 a.m. During that shift, there maybe only one inspection team on duty for the entire island of O’ahu. The team is responsible for inspecting the evening’s two Continental Air–lines flights and any military flights from Guam, and all small packages that come in via UPS “that’s one 747-full of containers,” says State Quarantine inspector Lester Kaichi. The day shift is responsible for checking Federal Express packages, the domestic bag–gage area and military flights and ships.
To live within his budget, Kaichi says, “We pinch pennies. We cut out overtime, but when I do this, that means we can’t inspect some of the military flights that come after our normal hours of operation. This opens up a big loophole in our inspection system.”
Dedicated inspectors have the option of claiming comp time if they decide to catch an after-hours flight. “But you can only ask so much of them,” he adds. “Some of these guys are on 12-hour shifts.”
Because the state’s unit is funded through year-to-year federal grants, state inspectors are considered temporary workers, another handicap Kaichi must deal with. “We’re try–ing to convince our office to make some of these positions permanent so at least I will have a core of veteran inspectors and I don’t have to go through a routine once every two years where I train a whole bunch of new guys,” Kaichi says.
“Every time you send a new person out there, they are bound to make mistakes. They are bound to overlook something. And it’s that one moment of carelessness or one mis–take that could allow a brown tree snake in.”
The DOA is proposing this legislative ses–sion to get approval to hire two more perma–nent inspectors and increase the inspection staff to seven.
“I’ve been asked several times how many dog teams I would need as far as Hawai’i is concerned,” Kaichi says. “I would need a minimum of seven dog teams to inspect just the aircraft arriving in Hawai’i and the most ideal is to have 12.”
With seven teams, the DOA could prob–ably cover every scheduled flight that comes in. The extra five teams Kaichi proposes would be used to catch the military flights that unexpectedly arrive after normal inspec–tion hours.
Canine Training
While the dog inspection teams are regarded as Hawai’i’s primary line of defense against the brown tree snake, dog training is hand–cuffed by current state laws meant to protect Hawai’i.
State law says that the only snakes allowed to be brought into Hawai’i are two non-venomous males, which are to be held at the Honolulu Zoo. The DOA is not allowed to import any snakes for dog training. So, the dogs are usually trained using snakes seized as evidence, such as pythons and other pet species.
The brown tree snake is considered ven–omous, so it cannot be imported at all even by the zoo. This legislative session, the De–partment of Agriculture is proposing to change the law to allow it to import sterilized male snakes for training purposes.
Alternately, the DOA is proposing that the dogs might be sent to Guam for training, if they are allowed to return without having to go through quarantine.
Complicating Factors
Two new discoveries about the brown tree snake have inspectors reevaluating their approach. First, it has probably become established in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Second, it is ca–pable of living longer in cargo containers than anyone had previously thought possible.
Many of those involved with the control of the brown tree snake believe it may already be established in Saipan, in the Common–wealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Snakes there have been found at sites far removed from points of entry. As a result, Kaichi says, flights from Saipan are now treated the same as flights from Guam.
An incident in Corpus Christi, Texas, has also broadened the inspection teams’ search. A washing machine was packed and crated, shipped from Guam to California, and then trucked to Corpus Christi. When the crate was opened months after it had been packed, a still-live brown tree snake crawled out, having apparently made most of the trip in the tub of the washing machine.
No ships arrive in Hawai’i directly from Guam. Surface containers from Guam typically make many intermediate stops, includ–ing ports in the Orient and on the West Coast of the United States, before coming to Hawai’i. Usually, at least a month passes between the time a container leaves Guam and arrives in Hawai’i.
That used to be considered enough time to assure that no snake would survive the journey. However, the survival of the snake that made it to Corpus Christi has shaken that assumption.
“Now with the Texas snake, we have to rethink the way we do things. But we don’t have enough manpower or dogs to try and cover every single ship and plane that arrives,” Kaichi says.
— Teresa Dawson
Volume 8, Number 9 March 1998
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