Invasive Species Killing Hawaiian Rainforest

African Tulip and other invasives species are killing native Hawaiian rainforest. The African Tulip was brought to Hawaii by Hana Hotel many years ago and quickly spread down wind into pristine rainforest. When you cut the tree down, each branch grows a new tree plus its flowers send thousands of spores into the wind, the rivers and now the forest is orange. Miconia, bamboo and wild pigs, goats, cows and deer eat native underbrush causing irreversable damage to native plants. Many of these plants are used for cultural practices of hula and la'aulapa'au, organic healing medicines. State efforts to rid the forest have fallen short and thousands of acres are now being assaulted with Ohia and Koa being choked out. Western culture, theft and cultural rape of the land create a genocide of Hawaiian culture, forests and oceans and people.
Have a nice holiday.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Hawaii
• activism
• nature
• rainforests
• invasive
• species
• bio
• fuel
• holiday
• education
• environment
• african
• tulip
• kahuna

[pechochochoa]

Kahunahawaii, you make the tree look like satan bringing GENOCIDE". Genocide refers to people wiping out other people so FORESTICIDE sounds more appropriate. It is not the tree's fault, people took it out from its natural environment. You also say "when you cut it each branch grows a new tree". I studied it and never saw shoots growing from chopped down trees. It does affect the group of pollinators (insects) thus your biofuel aka firewood option sounds like a good way to control it.

[kahunahawaii]

@pechochochoa it does grow a new tree from each branch.. like the invasive species which is western civilization the tree is symbolic.. whites brought in as ornamental.. blew straight downwind and overruns

native species.. just like Hawaiians..

[nbarca]

...so if they were to actually cut down invasive forests, it would be a good idea to plant something new and beneficial in that open gap. Also many trees are shade tolerant enought to grow right through invasive forest canopy and eventually overtop and supress many invasives via shade (i.e. mango). If you look, you see the processes already in action; just very slowly. I agree, there's vast areas of invasive species that hold great potential for biofuel.

[kahunahawaii]

@nbarca it took thousands of years for the native forest to find balance in Hawaii.. no need to plant anything just let nature retake the land.. as you, nature is taking back the entire planet.. it is not in a hurry..

[kahunahawaii]

@kahunahawaii ... aloha akamai

[ericjungleboy]

It's pointless, even counterproductive, to try to do anything about invasive trees in Hawaii. The time to act on that came and went a long time ago. Alien trees are so firmly established and widespread in Hawaii (and dominant everywhere except at higher elevations) that there is NOTHING you can do about it now. Just enjoy the beauty of the trees and let natural selection take its course.

[Kujodaedra247]

We definitely need to look deeper into PREVENTION of these species, so that more don't come over to our islands. I really don't think it is a good idea to introduce pests like Tectococcus ovatus could possibly be more harmful to other facets of the ecosystem which may not have been looked into yet. Everything is very connected. I don't want to see another incident like the crab spider that was introduced to get rid of something else. more native species planting! gotta replace the "invasives"...

[Kujodaedra247]

I like to call these plants opportunistic instead of invasive. I don't seriously think they're here to invade and hurt ecosystems. They're just humble tree beings that have found a home, it's not their fault. Instead of looking at the situation with anger and fear, it is more beneficial to work with these species and understand their purpose. Who knows, maybe they have powerful medicinal properties. Let's be open minded. We can work with these plants. BioChar, timber for building, crafts, etc...

[Kujodaedra247]

I think BioChar would be the best idea for these plants and others like it. If you are unfamiliar with BioChar, I highly recommend checking it out here on youtube.

[nbarca]

@kahunahawaii No it didn't. They evolved with each other over millions of years and new arivals were few and far between, and their impacts, however great, were buffered by diversity. Diversity is natures secret weapon. This mass extinction we are in is preventable if society has the will to reverse it. Whether nature retakes anything is irrelevant to the fact that future generations will not enjoy those plants and animals (resources) as their parents did.

[nbarca]

@kahunahawaii ...but sometimes we can guide it in the right direction based our our values & needs. Mango might colonize a neighboring african toulip forest over several decades but why wait when one person, in one day could seed a that area and in 20 years his children would reap the benefits.

[nbarca]

@kahunahawaii nature does it best.