Editorial

Protect the Plants at Pohakuloa

For the last year, hunters on the Big Island — politically strong, but scientifically feeble — have pretty much dominated the Army’s deliberations over how to manage priceless, unique, and irreplaceable natural resources at its Pohakuloa Training Area. In that year, rare and endangered plants have suffered the continuing assault of sheep that browse, goats that trample, pigs that root.

It is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue — for the sake of the plants, for the sake of rational decision-making, and, ultimately, for the sake of democracy.

The hunters are urging the Army to proceed cautiously, fencing areas of no more than 100 acres at a time as little demonstration plots. Should those work out, they say, then the Army might ask them for permission to enclose larger areas.

The Army itself is proposing putting up about 14 miles of fences around three areas, totaling about 2,500 acres, where rare plants are most concentrated. This approach, however, consigns the outliers to near-certain doom. In addition, it all but ensures that relatively intact existing plant habitat and communities outside the fences will become further degraded, to the point that they may never recover.

The National Biological Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have endorsed a more radical plan, under which the same 14 miles of fencing would be strung along one side of PTA. Animals on the Army’s side of the fence would be driven through a gap in the fence into a state game management area; the gap would be closed, and public hunting would be allowed to take out the remaining animals. Eventually, the fencing would be extended to enclose the western third of PTA. More aggressive management tools, including suppression of fountain grass, would be applied, and eventually, the native plant communities in the area would be restored to health. This approach, the Army says, would require far more money to implement than the Army has available.

Early this year, the Army is expected to make its decision. It is not too late for those concerned about the fate of Pohakuloa’s priceless plants to weigh in on the subject. Calls may be made to the following people:

Lieutenant Colonal Lloyd Mues, commanding officer at PTA. His telephone number is 808 538-3501; fax 808 523-1390.

U.S. Senator Daniel S. Inouye. His office telephone number in Honolulu is 808 541-2542; fax 808 541-2549.

Robert Smith, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. His number is 808 541-3441; fax 808 541-3470.

The protection of rare species should not be a political contest, where those who are loudest or the biggest bullies win. Rather, it must proceed under the guidance of the best science available, the rational, efficient use of limited resources, and strict adherence to all laws, including the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.

Considered in this light, there can be no choice: The Army must drive out the animals from the western third of PTA and build the biggest, finest fence it can afford.

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A New Paradigm

Even if the feral ungulates are removed from the areas of rare plant habitat, the plants face additional threats. Invasive weeds and fire are two of the greatest.

Controlling these presents additional challenges, especially at a time when the Army is not certain of adequate funds for its ecosystem management programs.

One of the most novel ideas to emerge from the Pohakuloa Training Area working group was that presented by Hawaiian cultural scholar Kepa Maly. In a memo last August, Maly proposed the development of a partnership between the Army and the community, along the lines of one that has been developed at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia. There, a Conservation Volunteer Program has grown to the point that the Marines’ natural resource managers could no longer supervise and coordinate it. “Coordination and supervisory responsibilities were assigned to several volunteer coordinators who now administer the Conservation Volunteer Program under the direction of the base natural resource manager,” Maly wrote. “They take applications, determine interests and then assign tasks to volunteers. They line up the projects, assign volunteers, and record their hours.”

If something along the same lines could be established at Pohakuloa, the Army might have a ready supply of labor to pull weeds, repair fences, and assist with biological and archaeological surveys. We can think of no better way for the Army to improve its relations with the community than to invite interested members of the public to work hand in hand with the Army in bringing Pohakuloa’s priceless natural resources back from the brink of extinction.

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In the Spirit of the Season

Environment Hawai`i gratefully acknowledges the many readers who responded so generously to our fall fund-raising letter. We thank you, one and all:

Isabella Abbott; Alia Point `Awa Nursery; Paul and Tanya Alston; Eve Anderson; Denise Antolini; Aranki/Watson; Thorunn Bathelt; Barbara Bell; Pele Bjorkman; Kekuni Blaisdell; Susan Blumstein; Richard Boyd; K.W. Bridges; Harold Bronstein; Pam Bunn;

Ken Carlson; Traver Carroll; Hampton and Meredith Carson; John Cater; Dora and Carl Chang; Carl Christensen; Alice Clark; Eve Clute; Sara Collins; Ian and Janet Cooke; Doak Cox; Bill and Evy Dana; Gavan Daws; Francis Delany; Arleone Dibben-Young; William Devick; Everett Dowling;

Anne Earhart; Sallie Edmunds; Ruby Edwards; Arlene Ellis; Karen and Gary Eoff; Donald Evans; Mary Miho Finley; Andrew and Virginia Fisher; Chip Fletcher; Karen Foster; Karen Freeman and Steve Knowlton; Michael Frome;

Nancy Glover; Emily and Geno Godinet; Bonnie Goodell; James and Priscilla Growney; Mike Hamnett; Ed Harada; June Harrigan and Arnold Lum; Lorna J. Harrison; Hawai`i La`ieikawai Association; James Heick; Derral Herbst; Gary Hickling; George Hudes; Hui Lihikai; Susan and Robert Irvine; Virginia Isbell;

Jim Jacobi; Michael Jones; Steve Katz; Ka`u Landing; Beverly Keever; Diane Keffer; Celeste King; Christine Kobayashi and John McComas; Mary Lou Kobayashi; Ken and Patty Kupchak;

Doug Lamerson; Joan Lander, Puhipau, and Na Maka o ka `Aina; Henry Lawrence; Clark Leavitt; Andy Levin; Denise Light; Robin Loomis; Cathy Lowder; Donna Lum; Bert and Janis Lyon;

lan; Collette Machado; Cora Majek; Felicia Marcus; Caroline Marshall; Sherwood Maynard; Doug and Christine Meller; Bob Merriam; Paula Merwin; Evanita Midkiff; Steven Miller and Mabel Trafford; Moanalua Gardens Foundation; Cindy Moeckel; Kaohu Monfort; Valerie Monson; Kenneth Moore; Val and Art Mori; Dieter Mueller-Dombois; Justus Muller;

Ralston Nagata; Joan Packer; Benton Keali`i Pang; Richard Poirier; Eliot F. Porter; Thane and Linda Pratt; Robert Pyle; Kim Ramos; Peter Rappa; Robert and Ursula Retherford; Sally Rice; Barbara Robeson; Lou Rose;

Eric Sadoyama; Sherrie Samuels; Jonathan Scheuer; Beppie Shapiro; Gene Shepherd; Stanley Shimabukuro; Florence Shinkle; Joseph Singer; Hoppy Smith; Priscilla and Don Swerdfeger; Katie Swift; Peter Thompson; The President’s Fund of the Tides Foundation; Dorothy Turnbull; Phyllis Turnbull; Marion Vaught;

Les Wachi; Wai Engineering; Jim and Sallie Wang; Rick Warshauer; Garrett Webb; Elaine Wender; Carol Wilcox; Roy Wilkens; Tom Wright; Stuart Yamada; Alan Young; Christopher Yuen; Alan Ziegler; and Marjorie Ziegler.

We also appreciate the several anonymous donations. Last but by no means least, we would like to acknowledge a substantial grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. Happy New Year to you all.

Volume 7, Number 7 January 1997