Lanikai kids do their part to protect Mokulua islets
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer
A group of children at Lanikai Elementary School understands the ecology of offshore Hawaiian islands in a way few students do.
They understand it well enough that the state agreed to post signs designed by the kids on the Mokulua islets off Lanikai. The new signs went up Friday after an assembly at the school. Seventeen students, along with a cluster of adults, boated out to the islets to bolt them onto pre-installed posts.
"They put all these ecological concepts into the signs. They had us in tears. These kids were just amazing," said Sheldon Plentovich, a University of Hawai'i doctoral candidate in zoology, who had been serving as a resource to the Lanikai students since 2002.
Their regular teacher during those years, Donna Therrien, is now a Windward District resource teacher. She said the students learned about the Mokulua islets in class and regularly visited them to study geology, track invasive ant populations and pick up debris. The youngsters also noticed the existing signs posted on the islets.
"The signs said, 'Don't do this, don't do that, or you'll get a fine.' The kids' signs, one says what you should do and the other explains the interconnectedness of everything on the island," Therrien said.
The first sign, for example, advises kayakers and other visitors to check their gear for ants, seeds and other possible hitchhikers that could invade the islets. It also warns that seabird burrows are easily crushed, which can kill the egg, chick or adult bird inside. And it suggests visitors take away their trash, plus some extra, leaving the islands cleaner than they found them.
The second sign provides drawings that can help identify plants, birds and fishes. It reviews how the roots of plants bind the soil, preventing erosion and supporting seabird nesting burrows; how bees that live in dead branches help plants by pollinating them; and how alien ants damage the bee populations and also attack young seabird chicks.
Plentovich started working with the Lanikai fourth- and fifth-graders under a two-year National Science Foundation K-12 Fellowship. It allowed her to earn a little money for her living expenses and education while helping students.
"The whole fellowship is about sharing your research with kids. My research was on invasive species and their interactions with other species on the Mokuluas," Plentovich said.
The signs — one of which was illustrated by the children and the other by a UH student — were designed two years ago, but it took a while to get them funded and manufactured.
Although the fellowship is now over, Plentovich still visits with the students at Lanikai.
"Even when you're not getting money from the fellowship, you're involved," she said.
Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.
