 because host of Hawaii Is My Main Land, kicking off your Palhuna Fridays at 3 p.m. on ThinkTek Hawaii. Today, we're going to talk about what the legislature has called the single greatest threat to Hawaii's economy and the natural environment, and to the health and lifestyle of Hawaii's people. That is invasive species. My guest is J.C. Watson, a planner with the Hawaii Invasive Species Council. Welcome, J.C. Hey, Kyle. Thanks for having me. You know, until we started talking about the show and doing a little homework, I really had no idea how huge the numbers are of how these little things affect our economy. Give us some of the highlights. Well, invasive species really affect everything that we have here in Hawaii, from agriculture to our natural resources, our water, our native species, our birds, our plants, and everything in between. And most of what you see when you go outside is actually non-native species, unfortunately. Not every non-native species is invasive, but when they are invasive, they cause harm to, like I said, agriculture, the environment, or human health, or the economy. So for instance, I read something crazy like fruit flies cost us $300 million annually? Well, I think that's what the estimates are. But yeah, the fruit fly is something that's here in Hawaii but isn't actually in the mainland. So you know when you go and you fly to the mainland and you have to put your bag through the agricultural inspection? Sure. That's because we have fruit flies and they don't want those to get to the mainland and be invasive there as well and impact, say, the citrus industry. Okay. And we have some other bad actors here. Don't wait. Yes, we do. Well, where to begin? Everything from mosquitoes. Those are probably the worst in my book, to biting ants like the little fire ant. The mosquitoes are the worst in your book. Why? Mostly because they affect my everyday life. And they also, you know, native birds are really dear to my heart and non-native mosquitoes transmit avian diseases such as avian malaria and avian pox. And due to those, as well as other factors, is kind of the main reason we don't have a lot of native birds left and why a lot of them have one extinct. Okay. And as far as the really nasty things like snakes? Yes, snakes are another one that fortunately we don't have. They are found and are detected occasionally, but the Hawaii Department of Agriculture is, you know, very, very alert for snake detection, especially the brown tree snake is probably one of the ones that they're most on the spot for trying to locate. Why is that? Primarily because there's a lot of commerce between Hawaii and Guam, which is the place where it's located, and a lot of military traffic. So if it were to come from somewhere, it's likely it would come from Guam, but fortunately we have a lot of inspectors out there. What would it do if it could? Well if it came, being that Hawaii is an island system much like Guam, it's likely to have a lot of the same impacts as it has there, such as biodiversity reductions. It pretty much ate all the birds on Guam due to the density of snakes and their kind of their love for warm areas. They cause power outages because they climb into electrical transformers. They're also mildly venomous, so when they bite you, if they bite you, it can kind of be uncomfortable. So while I was doing my research, I came across a statistic that was shocking to me, you probably know it, but just the Honolulu International Airport handles 21 million passengers a year. That's a lot of passengers. That's a lot of passengers. I mean I thought, oh, how big can that be? We have 8 million people visiting every year, but the fact that that one airport has 21 million passengers and then we have five international airports statewide, that's a lot of ground to cover. Yeah, it is. So you're off, well first tell us a little bit about what the Interagency Invasive Species Council does. So the Hawaii Invasive Species Council is a really unique kind of organization because we're not our own agency, we're kind of a conglomeration composite agency that is made up of a board of, I guess you could call them directors, but it's kind of co-chaired by the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. And then we also have four additional seats which are made up of Department of Transportation, Department of Business and Finance, UH, and the Department of Health. Well it's reassuring to me that there is this kind of interagency communication going on to handle a problem as broad as this. It first, during the IUCN, was the first time I heard about a very exciting development that you guys have just birthed a big baby here last month. Yeah, we have. What is it? So the big news, at least in 2017, is the release of the Hawaii Interagency Biosecurity Plan. And that's a long-term plan that's going to start in 2017 and run us through 2027. And it outlines a huge list of goals and strategies for combating invasive species within the state. And kind of the way it works is it focuses on pre-border, border, and post-border interceptions and kind of goals and stuff like that. So how in the real world, as a citizen of Hawaii, am I going to notice that there's an interagency biosecurity plan? I would hope so. Okay, so. And how might I know that you guys are doing your best to protect us from these nasties? Well, that's a very good question. I guess I haven't ever thought about it, what it would look like from the public perspective, looking at what's actually being done on the ground level. But there's going to be some pretty cool things, like I mentioned the three kind of components of it. But pre-border would be maybe more regulations on stopping stuff from coming in, maybe screening techniques for packages or detector dogs to the airport by chance, things like that. So those would be things that people could see that kind of examples of what Hawaii is doing to stop things from coming in the first place because prevention is where that's the biggest bang for your buck. You know, once it gets here and gets widespread, that's going to be where the cost comes in. But if you can stop it from coming in, an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure. So JC, as we're coming, when we fly home and we're coming in through the airport and we have those cute little bins, the amnesty bins, do people actually ever use those? I don't know. Okay. I'm fair question. Unfortunately, I don't know. I mean, we have our, that little card you've got to fill out, the declaration card and then the amnesty bins. But the amnesty bins are actually kind of a broader, part of a broader program, which is the Hawaii Amnesty Program, which allows people to actually turn in what I guess could be considered an illegal invasive species without risk of prosecution. Okay. So let's say you unknowingly brought in a snake and you had it as a pet and it outgrew its container and instead of releasing it into the wild, which unfortunately people do, you can turn it into the Hawaii Department of Ag. No questions asked. Hawaii Department of Ag. Yeah. All right. And is there a number you, one could Google? Probably the best, yeah. So the best number, I would just call 643 Pest. That's the Hawaii Department of Agriculture's Invasive Species Hotline and they're there during the day and they can kind of help you out with that. I'm sure you could also Google the Hawaii Department of Ag Amnesty Program or something like that. Okay. So that 643 Pest, that's the one we call when we hear, when we hear Kokis, for instance. Yeah. Anahu, I guess. Yeah. I should say. Yeah. You can call them for a host of species, but you're definitely better to report something and it turn out that it is already widespread or that it's not invasive than not reported at all. Okay. Well, sort of interestingly today on Senator Laura Thielen's Facebook page, she had a picture of one of those six foot iguanas that's, as you guys get many calls about those in Waimanalo. Well, we don't, but I am sure that the Department of Ag gets calls occasionally when they're spotted. The HISC doesn't really have kind of response capacity. Okay. So that's handled by the Department of Agriculture. Yeah, that's handled by the Department of Agriculture. They're definitely the go-to resource for pest reports. So what you guys do, you're Kuliana specifically in handling invasive species as wise. So we, as an interagency board, one of our primary kind of mandates is that we advise the legislature on invasive species issues. So we, being that it's the legislative session right now, we're spending a lot of time at the Capitol sitting in hearings and drafting testimony and stuff in support of invasive species bills. And how's it looking? Actually, so far this year, I don't want to jinx it, but it's looking pretty good. So we're going to beef up the dollars that are available for invasive species, I hope. Yes, I would hope so. See if I can bring it here. But yes, so the two primary agencies, which are the Department of Ag and the Department of DLNR, which are responsible for biosecurity, actually receive less than 0.4 and 1% respectively of the total state budget, which is $13.7 billion. So we don't get very much money in terms of what we are tasked to do. Do you have a sense of how many people are actually out there responding to the invasive species issues? Well, responding, I'm not sure of the exact number, but there are quite a number of people that are out there actually doing on the ground invasive species control work. That's good to hear. Yeah. So what HISC does kind of ties into that. So as a, we're kind of a gap-filling sub-agency, and we have a kind of an interagency grants funding program for state agencies that kind of, and programs that kind of fall in between the gaps of what's mandated in each agency. So an example of that? An example of that would be the island invasive species committees. And let's say biocontrol research out of UH, or research on genetics for rapid ohio death. Okay. For example. We're going to talk about the rapid ohio death a little later, but there's a, you brought a darling video from a student that won about last year's Hawaii Invasive Species Awareness Week. So we're going to go to a break and following the video. Awesome. Invasive species affect us by not protecting our water as native plants would. Native plants absorb the water into the soil and save it while invasive plants are not very good at holding it and lets it slip away. Invasive species are wasting the water we use for drinking and agriculture. Some of the most aggressive invasive plant species in Maui are guava, coffee, and ginger. You're watching Think Tech Hawaii, 25 talk shows by 25 dedicated hosts every week, helping us explore and understand the issues and events in and affecting our state. Great content for Hawaii from Think Tech. Okay. We want to tell you about Hawaii, the state of clean energy, which plays every Wednesday from 4 to 4.30. Ray Starling and me, we co-host that show. Dean Nishina is here. He's from the Consumer Advocate. We just had a show. We liked the show. We had a good time on the show. What do you think, Ray? We're going to have Dean back because there's so much going on at the Consumer Advocate's office and there's so much yet to be done to get to our 100% renewable energy goals. What do you think, Dean? Did you have a good time? I did have a good time and I think this is a good opportunity for consumers to learn more because it'll be really helpful in terms of moving forward with our transition to clean energy. From your lips to God's ears, thanks, Ray. Thanks, Dean. Watch us 4 o'clock every Wednesday. You'll see. Back to Hawaii is my mainland. I'm Kali Lucas and with me today is JC Watson, who grew up here and has dedicated his professional life to protecting our i9 in very tangible ways. JC, we have an event coming up that you have been very active in organizing. Can you talk about that? Sure. Being that we're getting close to the end of February, it's time to, well, that's when I start thinking about Hawaii Invasive Species Awareness Week. It's typically the last week of February and it's kind of a coordinated smorgasbord of events that happen statewide kind of in conjunction with the National Invasive Species Council's National Invasive Species Awareness Week. That's a mouthful. But yeah, so I've been working on that a lot recently. And basically what it is, as I mentioned, it's a bunch of events, but it also kind of brings a focus to invasive species awareness within the state. So what kind of events are happening here locally? Well, there's everything from volunteer events for people who want to get out and actually get their hands dirty. Like? Well, let's see. I have a whole huge list. We just had a, let's see, I'll find the next one. So the next one is coming up on February 18th. This one's going to be on a big island and this is actually an albiza control training and work day, teaching people how to control invasive albiza trees on their property safely and effectively. Wow. So if somebody wants to look that up, where would they go? So the, yeah, so the best place to find it is on the Hisk website, which I can read off. I'm not sure if you guys are going to post that on the bottom or not. But the Hisk website can be found at dlnr.hoi.gov slash Hisk. And then if you want to put a couple more slashes and a couple more letters in there, you can put slash hi-sau h-i-s-a-w slash. And then that'll take you to kind of the main invasive species awareness week page and you can find the events list from there. Okay. Excellent. Is there maybe a Facebook page? Yeah, absolutely. The Hawaiian invasive species council does have a Facebook page and I actually have already posted the list of the Oahu and Kauai events on there. Wonderful. Excellent. So that beautiful video we just watched, tell us about that. Yes. So last year we had a student PSA contest that went out statewide and it basically called on intermediate to high school, actually I think it was only high school kids last year. Yeah, as well. To create 30 second PSAs on invasive species and their impacts. So that was our first place winner, protecting water resources. It's just beautiful and I'm afraid I can't remember the name of the young woman who made that but she did a fabulous job and you Kaimana. So you received lots of? Well, last year, that was actually the first time we had a student video contest. We had about 20 submissions I want to say, 2025. Wow, that's pretty good for the first year. Yeah, it was pretty good and then this year the deadline hasn't quite passed yet. Well, today's the 17th so I think they have until next week Wednesday. So if any intermediate to high school age kids want to pull together a quick video and get it submitted, you can also find the call for submissions on our website. So Danica Brown is the one is the second place winner from last week and we have her video too. Thank you very much. Let's watch that. Hawaii is home to many endemic species found nowhere else on earth but these species are threatened by invasive species. Some invasive species such as guava and lilocoi can block out sunlight or compete for nutrients necessary to survive. Native animals such as pigs and goats to serve the native plants habitat as well. We never know where the next invasive species will come from changing our islands forever. Really well done, really well done. What a great way to get the next generation thinking critically about invasive species. Yeah. Good job. Thanks. Well good job to the students who made it. Yeah. In that last video we saw some pictures of the really devastating rapid ohio death. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah. So rapid ohio death which is getting a lot of attention since it's kind of discovery and since it's been spreading so vastly is if it's actually yeah. So rapid ohio death is caused by a fungus called ceratocystis fimbriata and that fungus infects ohio trees particularly and causes them to die so fast that their leaves can't even fall off. Wow. So when they start to kind of have symptoms a big mature tree can be done in a matter of weeks. Wow. Yeah. But fortunately I guess if you can call it fortunately is that it is only found on the island of Hawaii so at least it's not statewide. Do we have any idea of how it got here or how it spreads or? Well this is all still being researched but kind of the nearest strain I guess you could call of ceratocystis is found on a landscape plant called syngonium. It's like a creeping vine so they're not quite sure how it made the jump from that completely different family into ohio and that's all being researched currently. So you provided us with a map of some of the places on Hawaii Island that it is found. Yeah so kind of the epicenter is on the east side over by Hilo and Puna and this was the map out of this is kind of the older map there's a current one being done but it hasn't been published yet but it unfortunately has many more dots on it. Are they more widespread or just more dots where there are dots now? Kind of both it is spreading on big island and you know it's one of those things that the more you look for it the more you find. So since it's kind of detection the DLNR and vision of forestry and wildlife has been you know really ramping up their efforts on doing surveys they've actually been working on doing surveys statewide on all the islands and then doing really comprehensive surveys on big island. Okay but to date it has not been found on any other island but Hawaii Island. That is correct. Okay so citizens what can we do? So there's five well it's going to be six things that everybody can do every day to kind of combat rapid ohio death and not spread it around. The first one is don't move ohio off of big island. There is actually a permanent I think it's a ruling from the Department of Ag that ohio cannot be transported off of big island without a permit and to get that permit you can contact the Department of Ag. Let's say you want to ship ohio posts off of big island to sell. So that's a really good so even if it's a dead tree or so forth dead wood. Yeah the dead wood can still harbor the fungus and the spores can actually stay alive in there for quite some time so it's really important not to move ohio off of big island. Secondly it's important not to move ohio logs and firewood around a big island because if you take an infected tree from one side of the island and take it to your home and set it in your yard on the other side you could potentially pass the fungus around that way too. So ohio is one of those native species that's found in incredibly broad range of so is the rep is this fungus confined to one of those areas and not others or is it as widespread as the species is do you know? Well I can't say if it's as widespread as a species but it definitely has the potential to impact ohio wherever it grows. Okay I'm sorry I interrupted you were telling us what we could do so we could not move ohio. Not move off island not move them around the island and then you can also clean your gear so if you are driving through an area where there is ohio or hiking through you can clean your boots afterwards you can brush off all that soil because the spores can be in the soil a little bit and if you tromp around to a place where it isn't there's a potential for spreading it that way so you can clean your boots you can clean your vehicles if you are cutting ohio for an example clearing a lot in in punar or something like that you know it's very important to sanitize your chainsaw afterwards if you have to go cut somewhere else you're not spreading that wood chip around and that debris and then another one is not to wound ohio so that means people who are hiking especially with machetes you know often will just tag trees as a way of marking trails and if you tag an infected ohio tree and then tag in a healthy ohio tree you can pass the fungus along that way so it's really important to do those things and protect your ohio because it's very important you're involved with the combating rapid ohio death not just with your day job right yeah that's true kind of as so I wear many hats in conservation so I kind of dedicated myself professionally and personally but yeah that's the ohio legacy initiative and that's a nonprofit that I hope to fund found and yeah basically focuses on creating new populations of ohio and maximizing biodiversity by reintroducing ohio into urban areas wow that's positive and exciting yay so it's not just the spread of rapid ohio death that we can help with as citizens but another one of our bad actors which you mentioned earlier in the first half was the little fire ant yeah so little fire ants are they might actually be a worse invasive species than mosquitoes because but I don't come in contact with them on a day to day basis as I do mosquitoes because they are also pretty much found on big island especially on the east side so helos yeah getting hit with a one-two punch of rapid ohio death and little fire ant but they're particularly bad because not only do they affect everybody around them I mean they bite you you know they they bite you they fall from the trees they land on you they bite you on your collar they bite your pet's eyes and make your um pets go blind wow they also are very effective at kind of harvesting aphids so that affects agricultural crops and then they infest your crops and if you have farmers then you go to harvest your crops and you get bit so really yet they're they're very very nasty and um fortunately they're not widespread on the other islands there are small populations on Maui, Oahu and Kauai but the Department of Agriculture the Hawaii Ant Lab and the island isks are working very very hard to contain those infestations and eradicate them uh the island what's oh the isks the invasive species committees okay well in the last two minutes um perhaps you can tell us um a way that we as citizens might be instrumental in uh stemming the tide of these nasty little things well um probably the easiest thing that you can do is test your property and it's fairly simple you just get a like a popsicle stick and put some peanut butter on it and you can do more than one you just kind of put them around your your property around your house or your building or at work or whatever i don't think anyone's going to mess with the popsicle stick covered in peanut butter um and you leave it out and about an hour later you pick it up and you put it in a plastic bag you throw that plastic bag in the freezer and that he mainly kills the ants and then you can send that sample to the Department of Agriculture and they'll actually test it wow okay that's a fun little project yeah it is a little weekend project with the keiki to test one's environment for little fire areas okay and is there some kind of area they like to inhabit what where do they sort of um they really like to be in foliage and in trees um they thrive where it's wet but they can also live where it's dry um and so far there hasn't really been an elevation gradient that they can't live in um hawaii is you know we're such a beautiful habitat that when species come here they can really just take off and if they're nasty like the little fire ant they have no boundaries thank you so much jc for coming and giving us a little taste of what the hawaii invasive species council is doing to keep us safe and um our beautiful aina um and thanks i just want to say personally thanks for you know picking such an awesome course of study you study that you age and yeah yeah and great jobs in conservation it's really important for other young people here to know that there's a great future even if you stay at home absolutely