Hawai'i's struggling real estate industry could have an unanticipated consequence on the Islands' fragile environment because money to guard against foreign plants and animals is tied to the state's dwindling conveyance tax levied on home sales.

Some managers with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources are telling their enforcement staffs that their efforts to wipe out everything from noisy coqui frogs to carpets of invading algae to domineering miconia plants could disappear as lawmakers struggle to close a nearly $1 billion budget shortfall.

DLNR managers know that they're competing against other worthwhile projects for fewer state dollars from this year's Legislature. But their efforts to fight outside species, they say, affect a wide range of industries and interests in the Islands, from agriculture to tourism.

"Almost everything in the forest is found only here in Hawai'i," said Rachel Neville, operations manager for the O'ahu invasive species committee, a partnership between state, municipal and federal agencies. "But they've told us to expect 50 percent cuts in fiscal year 2010 and 60 percent cuts in FY 2011. That would pretty much wipe us out. It seems feasible that maybe we won't exist anymore."

Two special DLNR funds — the Natural Area Reserve Fund and Land Conservation Fund — receive money from the conveyance tax applied to real property transactions in Hawai'i. But as home sales fall, the amount of money for the Natural Area Reserve Fund alone is expected to drop in half from $12 million for conservation programs in fiscal year 2007 to just $6 million in fiscal year 2009.

And there is no guarantee that state lawmakers won't tap in to the remaining funds to pay for other programs unrelated to controlling invasive species.

So 158 staff members could lose their jobs starting in July, said Christy Martin, spokeswoman for the state's Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

"We are saving as many positions as possible by reducing costs such as helicopter time, fencing materials and other large costs," Martin said.

But after making the cuts this fiscal year, which ends June 30, "there will be nothing left to cut but jobs," Martin said.

Neville notified residents in 'Ahuimanu this month that her staff could no longer conduct its monthly searches for bush beardgrass in their neighborhoods.

"The species has also moved into upper elevation areas of the Ko'olau where control work is dangerous and expensive," Neville wrote. "These developments, together with recent and predicted future budget cuts, have forced our organization to focus resources on those species where we can have the most impact."

Sara Pelleteri, aquatic invasive species coordinator for DLNR's division of aquatic resources, has similar concerns for her unit, which is the nation's only rapid-response team for aquatic invasive fish, algae and other species.

Her staff is fighting marine algae in Kane'ohe and Waikiki and removing invading tilapia from wetland areas of Kaua'i, where the fish are wiping out vegetation that native birds need for food and nest building. Pelleteri's staff also identifies invasive algae, barnacles and crustaceans that arrive on Navy ships and interisland barges — and prevent them from shipping out to relatively pristine places like the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands.

In an island state with the most endangered plants and animals anywhere on the planet, "invasive species are a huge problem for Hawai'i and needs to be a full-time operation," Pelleteri said. "But we're looking at the possibility of losing our entire operation."

PROGRESS ON MICONIA

Most people in the Islands, Martin said, "don't realize the scope of this whole problem. Lots of people are going to be laid off. Whole programs on Kaua'i, O'ahu and the Big Island are going to shut down."

Neville's group yesterday cut down several miconia weeds that in Tahiti have wiped out more than 65,000 acres of native plants.

Left unchecked, Neville said, miconia on O'ahu could easily take over half of the Ko'olau watershed, which represents about 100,000 acres.

"With miconia on O'ahu, we're now in a real good spot," Neville said. "We haven't found a mature tree in over 12 months. That means there's no reproduction on O'ahu and seedlings are declining. We have to continue or else we'll lose all the progress that we've made and we'll be back to square one."

A generation ago, the topic of invasive species was considered a "fringe, environmental thing," said state Sen. Gary Hooser, D-7th, (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau). "Now people realize it affects everything from tourism to your property values to your ranch or farm."

Hooser was one of several legislators who recently met with the Hawai'i Cattlemens' Association. He wasn't surprised when the topic turned to invasive species.

"One rancher said, 'I'm not in the cattle business, I'm in the grass business.' Invasive species of various types cost him a lot of money and really threaten his livelihood," Hooser said. "They said to us, 'Please maintain the efforts.' They know that everything's being threatened and they spoke up in support of that effort. They reminded us that it's not just about frogs and tourism. There are real potential impacts to our base economy."

MORE LAKE WILSONS?

Hooser serves as majority leader and also sits on the Senate's Energy and Environment Committee and Ways and Means Committee. On a short list of issues that need to be funded this year, Hooser would include programs that affect Island energy, food security and jobs.

"I would put invasive species protection right up there," Hooser said. "The reality is that every area of government, almost without exception, is going to have to undergo great scrutiny and cutbacks. Hopefully we can shield efforts like invasive species from cuts that would wipe out all the success we have had and all the momentum we have going. To backslide would be truly tragic."

At the end of this legislative session, Hooser said, lawmakers will produce a budget that is "a reflection of our state's values. We need to be real clear that guarding against invasive species and protecting our food supply and agriculture is up there pretty high."

State Sen. Donna Kim, D-14th, (Halawa, Moanalua, Kamehameha Heights), believes that cutting back on invasive species enforcement will only invite more problems like the invasion of Salvinia molesta that closed 325-acre Lake Wilson to the public from January 2002 to November 2003 and threatened the lake's fish.

When it was all over, the state ended up spending more than $1 million in 2003 alone to fight the weed.

"Our efforts for invasive species need to continue," Kim said yesterday. "If we don't, what happened to Lake Wilson is going to happen more and more around the Islands.

"When coqui frogs or other species start to invade the Islands, maybe people won't want to come to visit us anymore. In Hawai'i, it's our environment that makes us special. If it gets invaded by these species, then what do we have?"