Posted 11/07/2011
The director of the state Department of Agriculture, Russell Kokubun, has issued a finding of no significant impact for the release of a scale insect that many in the conservation community hope will deal a blow to the so-far unstoppable march of strawberry guava – a.k.a. waiawi or Psidium cattleianum — through Hawai`i’s native forests.
The FONSI appears in the November 8 edition of The Environmental Notice, published by the Hawai`i Office of Environmental Quality Control.
Accompanying the FONSI was a final environmental assessment and a summary of the expected impacts of the release onto state lands of Tectococcus ovatus, the scale insect. According to the summary, “T. ovatus is a highly specific natural control agent producing leaf galls on strawberry guava that reduce its vigor and fruiting in its native range in Brazil, where it is host to various natural predators and control agents. Strawberry guava has no such controls in Hawai`i, and their absence contributes to this fast-growing tree’s ability to outcompete native plant species of Hawai`i.”
The release of the insect was delayed for years by the protests of a small group on the Big Island, where T. ovatus is proposed to be released on state land. (Our July 2011 issue had an article on the protests led by Sydney Singer.) Comments on the draft EA received by the Department of Agriculture ran nearly two-to-one in favor of the insect’s release (136 in favor versus 70 opposed).
The final EA and FONSI may be viewed on the website of the OEQC.
Photo of strawberry guava courtesy Forest and Kim Starr
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