D-Day arrived March 1 at the Olinda Endangered Species Propagation Facility.
For nearly 10 years, Olinda has been home to the state’s captive flock of `alala, the perilously endangered Hawaiian crow (Corvus hawaiiensis). The state’s captive flock of nene, the endangered Hawaiian goose (Nesochen sandvicensis) arrived in 1989. Over the years, the former prison camp has evolved into a state-of-the-art captive bird propagation facility, with professional staffing, sophisticated incubation equipment, a well-equipped veterinary clinic, and quarantine station, among other features.
On March 1, the state walked away from it all, turning the facility — and the birds — over to The Peregrine Fund, which has leased the site for the next 20 years at $1 a year. The move has left state employees embittered and, among environmentalists, has raised questions about the state’s commitment to preserving endangered species.
However, both the administrator of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Mike Buck, and his boss, DLNR Chairman Mike Wilson, claim that by turning management of the facility over to The Peregrine Fund, a private, non-profit organization that has had some success with the captive propagation of raptors, the state will save money and the likelihood of the `alala’s recovery is increased. Robert Smith, manager of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Islands Ecoregion, supports the move as well.
Uprooted Lives
At the end of February, the full complement of nine staff (six state civil service; two special hires through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and one state-funded researcher) were still working at Olinda.
For Wayne Taka, who had worked with the nene nearly 20 years, February 27 was the last day he would dig up 20 or so neat squares of sod to be placed each day in the concrete-floored nene pens. The turf and the stalks of pualele (Sonchus oleraceus), which Taka also gathered daily, gave the birds the ability to graze and nibble as they would in the wild. The routine was labor-intensive: not only would new sod be dug up each day, but the trays of sod placed in the nene pens the previous day would have to be removed and replaced in the ground.
Taka, whose work with the nene goes back to the days when the flock was kept on the Big Island, near the Army’s Pohakuloa Training Area, was devoted to the birds, and while the sod and pualele may not be considered by some to be essential to the birds’ survival — they were provided in addition to the food and water set out fresh each day — their presence no doubt reduced the stress of captivity on the birds.
Would the one person that The Peregrine Fund was sending to take over the Olinda facility on that day be able to do all for the nene that Taka had done — in addition to caring for the `alala and the forest birds residing at the facility?
For aviculturist Fern Duvall, February 29 was probably the last day he would work with `alala. Duvall, one of the world’s foremost experts on the rearing of captive crows, had been brought to Hawai`i in 1984. At the time, the state’s captive propagation program was in a shambles. Many of the birds in the captive `alala flock had been imprinted by a previous volunteer caretaker, Barbara Lee. Duvall had been hired — at first as a consultant, later as director of the Olinda facility — to bring a high degree of professionalism and expertise to the operation.
Duvall did just that, but his uncompromising stand that the state should collect birds from the wild to augment the diminished genetic stock of the captive flock earned him the enduring wrath of the owners of McCandless Ranch on the Big Island, where the few `alala remaining in the wild are to be found. Those owners insisted on Duvall’s removal as Olinda’s director as a condition of an out-of-court settlement of an Endangered Species Act lawsuit. As a result, Peter Shannon, an expert in the area of flamingos and hornbills, was brought in as facility director.
At Olinda, Duvall saw to it that the grounds were landscaped with native species of plants that were thought to be part of the birds’ diet in the wild. He planted the ho`awa tree (Pittosporum terminalioides) growing in the courtyard at Olinda, which provides fruit for the `alala. A native hibiscus planted near the machine shop is so hardy that its offspring have been used as rootstock for a far more endangered species — Kokia cookei — that was recently reintroduced to Moloka`i, where it had become extinct in the wild. Duvall also planned and oversaw the plantings of native Hawaiian species throughout the Olinda grounds.
DOFAW administrator Buck had planned to transfer Duvall to Honolulu. More than a dozen prominent environmentalists and groups on Maui — including Don Reeser, superintendent of Haleakala National Park; Lloyd Loope, scientist with the National Biological Service; the Native Hawaiian Plant Society; the Sierra Club; and Living Indigenous Forest Ecosystems (representing Hawaiians at Kahikinui) — protested the move, as did the Hawai`i Government Employees Association, the union representing most state workers. As a result, Duvall’s future was unsettled at the end of February.
Helen Baker, a post-doctoral researcher from England, has devoted the last two years of her life to a program of research that was designed to culminate in the release to the wild of birds hatched from eggs produced by a captive flock of endangered forest birds. Baker is only now completing the first phase of the work, involving common forest birds used as surrogates for the more endangered ones. With the end of the state’s management of Olinda comes the end of her state-sponsored research as well. The Peregrine Fund has indicated it intends to “delay/terminate” the acquisition of the crested honeycreeper nestlings, which formed the next step of Baker’s work. Baker, whose job is not civil-service protected, has no idea what she will do when her contract expires on June 30.
On March 1, Eddie Andrade, wildlife technician, groundskeeper and handyman at Olinda, assumed new duties at the DOFAW baseyard in Kahului. By late February, Andrade was asking whether The Peregrine Fund’s people would know how to operate the generator or repair pipes when they broke. Would they tend as carefully as he had the native Hawaiian plants that were his pride and joy?
According to Andrade, when he spoke with Buck about his concerns that The Peregrine Fund would not be able to maintain the facility, Buck told him that he could help out — as a volunteer and on his own time. “No way,” Andrade said. “I work at the baseyard from 7 to 3:30. I just going to drive by twice a day and watch what they do.”
Veterinarian Greg Massey has worked at Olinda for three years. During that time, he has begun research into such important areas as the ability of small forest birds to develop immunity to avian malaria and the degree of stress in small birds brought about by their handling. In this, he has been assisted from time to time by top-flight researchers and fourth-year veterinary students from the mainland, who come to Olinda for internships in conservation medicine.
Massey will continue working at Olinda, conducting his research and providing clinical care to birds, as needed, until his contract expires June 30. After that, he has no firm plans.
Olinda director Peter Shannon is also under contract with the state until June 30. Shannon had brought a measure of stability to Olinda’s management, had worked hard to establish successful cooperative research programs with the National Biological Service and the Haleakala National Park, and had undertaken public outreach efforts, such as the annual Olinda Open House. Like Massey, Shannon has no idea what he’ll be doing after June 30. The Peregrine Fund has not invited him to stay beyond that date.
Under New Management
Staff from The Peregrine Fund have visited Olinda on several occasions. However, in the weeks and days leading up to the fund’s takeover, no TPF personnel were on site to learn the routines of bird care.
Alan Lieberman is director of the fund’s Big Island operations. In an interview with Environment Hawai`i, he stated that TPF had hired two new people — both from the San Diego Zoo — to work at Olinda. (One is the manager of the zoo’s avian propagation center, he said, while the other was manager of the zoo’s Tiger River section, which, Liberman said, “has a substantial bird inventory.”) He said he was trying to hire an additional employee by March 1, and a fourth by July 1. In the meantime, he said, Peter Shannon would be helping The Peregrine Fund run the facility, along with TPF staff from the Big Island “on a rotating basis.” At press time, it also appeared likely that TPF would be asking the state to assign some workers from DOFAW’s Maui District to help in the day-to-day operations.
The nene would continue to be looked after as carefully as they had been in the past, Lieberman said. “Every program that works,” he said, “we’ll maintain it, as best we can.” There would be no loss in quality of the nene program, he insisted. Furthermore, everyone at Olinda under TPF’s management will be someone who has had experience raising nene at the San Diego Zoo.
Until July 1, TPF would be relying on Greg Massey to continue to perform veterinary duties, he said. After that, the plan is to contract for veterinary services. “We have just developed a contract for vet services, which we’ll be putting out for bid on Maui,” Lieberman said. There would be no full-time, on-site veterinarian at either Olinda or at the Keauhou facility being run by TPF, he said. “We have to mitigate the cost of care with the practical nature of what we need on a day-to-day basis,” Lieberman said. “Clinical needs will be basically addressed on an on-call basis.” For development of long-term veterinary protocols, he said, “we have a consortium of vets from the San Diego Zoo to help us develop comprehensive veterinary care.”
When asked what experience The Peregrine Fund had had with passerine birds (including crows), Lieberman insisted that his staff “probably has had more experience with passerines and corvids than anyone else in the world at this point. The personnel working at Keauhou now have a great depth of knowledge in passerine preservation. They have worked at the San Diego Zoo.”
On the matter of maintaining the native Hawaiian plantings, Lieberman did not anticipate any problem: “We’re all big into plants. We try to maintain environments, not just cages.”
False Economies
The takeover of the state facility by a private organization has been touted by DOFAW administrator Buck as a cost-saving move. When Buck asked the Board of Land and Natural Resources to approve leasing the Olinda facility to The Peregrine Fund at the Board’s meeting of November 17, 1995, for example, Buck prefaced his request with the following remarks:
“In these times of reducing public budgets, government agencies are examining their programs to assure expenditures are focused on core functions and spent in the most efficient manner. In some cases, the private sector may be in a position to conduct needed activities more efficiently and effectively than the public sector. After an examination of these factors, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife is submitting for [Land Board] consideration a long-term cooperation agreement with The Peregrine Fund, whom we have requested to manage our Olinda Endangered Species Facility.”
But claims that the transfer of the facility will save the state money do not withstand close inspection. With rental being set at $1 per year, there effectively is no income from the lease of nearly 45 acres of land and the substantial improvements, which have cost the state nearly $3 million over the last decade. Nor will the state save on salaries, since all of the regular state employees at Olinda will be transferred to other positions in the DLNR and remain on the payroll.
In fact, the state will lose revenue as a result of the transfer. The cost of operating the facility (excluding personnel) runs about $230,000 a year, but, under Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act, the federal government contributes some $300,000 a year to the project. The $70,000 difference was used to offset the salaries of state workers. When The Peregrine Fund takes over, the state will act as a pass-through for available federal funds — which means that the state will have to look to other sources to come up with the $70,000 in federal funds that had been applied to personnel costs.
But that’s not the end of it. According to Buck, the state will be paying The Peregrine Fund $50,000 to manage the facility for the first year, and will make additional payments in later years, “subject to legislative approval,” to quote from the draft lease. Thus, for the first year of the lease, in any event, the state will effectively be paying in the neighborhood of $120,000 to The Peregrine Fund to manage the Olinda facility.
Spirituality
While the DLNR and Fish and Wildlife Service are enthusiastic supporters of The Peregrine Fund, not everyone shares that high opinion.
Yvonne Ching, a veterinarian, worked with TPF in 1993 when it was releasing young `alala into the wild from a “hacking” station, or large aviary, on land adjoining the McCandless Ranch in South Kona. In testimony before the Land Board, Ching objected to the proposed transfer of the Olinda facility, expressing her concerns that TPF’s management decisions were, in some cases, based not on scientific rationale, but on staff intuition and “spiritual” guidance.
Ching told the board that she felt the strict terms of federal and state permits needed for working with endangered species were not observed by TPF at the Kona site. “There were heated discussions with my project leader concerning management decisions affecting the `alala that were not based on biological needs, but spiritual needs,” Ching said. “I was told by my project leader that medicine (veterinary and human) was ‘irreverent’ in general and that utilizing a shaman would be the preferred method to locating a captive breeding facility.”
Noting that The Peregrine Fund had no plans to include a veterinarian among its Olinda personnel, Ching reminded the Land Board that when the National Research Council released a detailed report in 1992 on the `alala, one of its recommendations had been to have an on-site staff veterinarian. “If you look at the quality breeding facilities for endangered species across the nation,” Ching said, “you will find that they have staff veterinarians, and that veterinarians play an active role in both research and medicine. The `alala population is still at a critical low, such that the loss of any individual has an impact.”
Board Chairman Mike Wilson asked Mike Buck for a response. Buck referred to TPF’s “international network of veterinarians who are at the zoos that they use.” Bill Burnham, president of TPF, also responded, noting that “there is not a full-time job, a full-time veterinarian job, associated with the facility. If we can find a veterinarian who is willing to do everything else in addition to performing veterinarian services, then that would be great.”
Regarding Ching’s experience with the project leader who held medicine in low esteem, Burnham said: “I am familiar with the individual that Yvonne spent time with. He’s wholly committed to the `alala. He’s very spiritual. On the other hand, the bird is also very culturally sensitive — McCandless Ranch is also very culturally sensitive.”
Public Oversight?
Others testifying at the BLNR meeting voiced concerns over what Buck described as the “privatization of public trust resources.” Henry Curtis, executive director of Life of the Land, noted that the lease called for “little oversight by the state,” and while that might “eliminate some of the nuisances that get in the way of the efficient running of government,” it would leave the public “cut out of the process.”
Buck responded by saying that TPF would be required to submit annual work plans, augmented by what he called a “partnership agreement,” involving the state, TPF, and the Fish and Wildlife Service. “Everything we do is available; people can come around and look at it,” Buck said. “This is not an underground operation…. We can provide an annual work plan for anyone who wants to see it.” (By late February, however, there was no annual work plan available for public review.)
Buck cautioned against too much oversight: “There is a dynamic, I think, of wanting to have the private sector come in [and], at the same time, of having a certain amount of oversight to make sure it’s done responsibly — but not too much oversight, because then we destroy the very thing we’re trying to achieve, which is having a focused direction.”
In the end, Buck said he would be “more than happy to come to the board with an annual progress report.”
To Lease: Fully Furnished
Under the terms of the draft lease made available to Environment Hawai`i by Buck, The Peregrine Fund is required to submit to the DLNR an annual progress report and financial statement by November 15 of each year. The lease also requires PTF, the state, and a representative of the Fish and Wildlife Service to “conduct an annual meeting to discuss mutual issues of concern regarding the operation and management of the facility and related programs and projects.”
But otherwise, the lease is all but silent on what is to be done with the resident birds. A paragraph describing the “character of use” of the leased property makes scant reference to the birds: “The Lessee shall use or allow the premises leased to be used solely to support restoration and conservation of native Hawaiian birds,” reads the draft approved by the attorney general. Buck and TPF want to add another clause: “and other birds, as agreed to by the parties hereto.” According to Buck, this is to allow other endangered birds in the Pacific Islands to be brought to the facility for captive propagation. One possibility, he said, might be the Mariana crow.
Apart from that, the only other paragraph in the lease referring to birds concerns “Bird rehabilitation.” That clause obligates The Peregrine Fund to provide, at the state’s request, “appropriate treatment and rehabilitation” of any state or federally listed endangered or threatened bird.” It is left to TPF to determine what type of care or treatment is required.
On the matter of staffing, the lease merely calls for TPF to “assume responsibility for providing an adequate employee staff for the facility.” What constitutes “adequate” is, again, to be left to the judgment of The Peregrine Fund.
Volume 6, Number 9 March 1996
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