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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Bureaucracy bugs species fight

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

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HAWAI'I VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK — Biologists and other experts complained yesterday that federal regulations are blocking state efforts to prevent destructive invasive species from hitchhiking on plant shipments to Hawai'i.

Commercial shipments of plants for nurseries and other businesses are believed responsible for introducing to the Islands such unwanted guests as stinging caterpillars, the coqui frog, the Erythrina gall wasp, the little fire ant and other pests that have the potential to cause major environmental damage.

One of the newest threats is the 'ohi'a rust fungus, discovered in Waimanalo in April and now found in Manoa, Makiki and Kalihi. To slow its spread, the state is asking people not to transport guava, 'ohi'a or eucalyptus between the Islands.

Speaking at a hearing of the U.S. Senate subcommittee on national parks, held at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Neil J. Reimer of the state Department of Agriculture said some of those alien species might have been intercepted before they became established. He singled out the federal Plant Protection Act, which bars state inspectors from more strictly regulating plant shipments.

In Hawai'i's war against invasive species, "we're going to lose unless we can keep new invasions out, at least better than we can do now," said Lloyd L. Loope, research scientist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division.

Loope and others called for stricter controls on imported plants. "I'm not saying it should be shut down, but we need balance," he said.

Experts also told Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, who had requested the hearing on invasive species in national parks, that they are alarmed at reports that the federal agency assigned to inspect cargo from Guam is so strained it is unable to check all military shipments.

Mark R. Fox, director of external affairs for the Nature Conservancy's Hawai'i program, said federal officials told him that in the last two weeks of June alone, seven military aircraft carrying more than 300,000 pounds of household goods left Guam without being inspected.

The cargo of household goods for military families was sent to destinations around the country, including Hawai'i, he said. Shipments from Guam are a particular concern because of fears that the venomous brown tree snake that infests that U.S. territory could become established here.

Reimer, the state's plant quarantine branch chief, said the Plant Protection Act prohibits states from regulating international shipments of plants, including controlling unwanted weeds or pests. States can regulate interstate shipments only if state regulations are the same or more lenient than the federal restrictions.

The restrictions have the state "very concerned" about the importation of orchids from Taiwan and other nations, he said. Slugs, snails, ants, beetles, biting flies and viruses have been detected in orchid shipments, and the state has asked federal agriculture officials to tighten rules.

The controversy over foreign orchid shipments also prompted the Hawai'i Orchid Growers Associations to sue the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Reimer said.

U.S. Rep Ed Case, D-2nd (Rural O'ahu, Neighbor Islands), has introduced HR 3468 to provide for additional federal inspections and to create a more rapid process by which the state can seek federal bans on imports of invasive species into Hawai'i.

Fox said that on Guam, the expansion of military activities is putting "enormous pressure" on the U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel who must inspect cargo.

"They're really being pushed to the brink," he said. "They're in substandard facilities there, they have limited financial resources, and now with all of the cargo going in and out of Guam, things are leaving uninspected daily from Guam."

Reimer echoed those concerns, warning that stepped-up activity by the Navy and Air Force has increased the risk of importing brown tree snakes and other invasive species to Hawai'i. He cited experts' estimates that if the snake were established here, the potential economic losses could be $400 million to $1.8 billion per year.

Last month, Akaka introduced a measure to create a $250 million grant program to identify, control and eradicate invasive species on public land and property next to public land.

The proposed Public Land Protection and Conservation Act of 2005 would authorize the U.S. Department of the Interior to provide grants to states, nonprofits and Native American tribes to find invasive species, determine how serious a problem they pose, and prioritize the eradication or other work that needs to be done.