The same phrase that gladdens the heart of the visitor industry arouses dread in the hearts of the officials charged with keeping Hawai`i’s environment and important crops safe from marauding invaders. Consider: The coconut rhinocerous beetle. This native of India has devastated palm trees across the South Pacific and, with its arrival in Hawai`i last winter, could do the same here. Federal and state agencies, as well as the Army, are sparing no expense to keep it from gaining a foothold here. The macadamia felted coccid: No one knows exactly how it got here from its home in Queensland, but it is now damaging even the most mature, established macadamia orchards on the Big Island. Little fire ant, coqui frog, albizia trees – the list goes on and on. The destructive critters and little-shop-of-horror plants seem to arrive as fast as the airlines and ships can bring them in. The state’s quarantine defenses are stuck, meanwhile, with a budget that would have been inadequate in the horse-and-buggy era. As our cover article shows, the Legislature’s $5 million appropriation to address invasive species is better than it’s been in years’ past, but – in the face of actual threats – not nearly sufficient.
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