Importing safe insects the only hope of saving Maui’s native koa forests

I am writing in support of the introduction into Hawaii of strawberry guava biological control by the U.S. Forest Service. There is no more important decision we can make as a community regarding the fate of native Hawaiian watershed forests than this one.

Hawaiian forests provide us our drinking water. They are homes for Hawaiian plants and animals that have nowhere else to go. They cannot be kept in botanical gardens and zoos forever. Some that have existed in their native locations for millions of years wither in captivity within days.

To Hawaiians these plants and animals are not just unique - they are embodiments of forces and deities of ancient Hawaii, proclaimed in the chants, legends and hula of the islands. These are sacred. The scholar Nathanial Emerson, writing in "The Unwritten Literature of the Hula" (1909), stated that the hula plants were the "favorite manifestations" of the gods.

If we try our best and still lose them, then auwe, but at least we tried our best. To not defend them at this crucial hour - and instead, as a modern Hawaiian society, defend the "rights" of a Brazilian tree in our Hawaiian homelands - seems to me misguided in the most obtuse of ways.

To biologists, each of the islands harbors forests that are without parallel in the Pacific or, for that matter, anywhere else on our planet.

Some say, "Why don't we just cut them down?" not realizing the extent of the strawberry quava problem. These trees are extremely difficult to kill, resprouting for years afterward. And, remember, there are millions, likely billions, of the trees, many in extremely rugged and remote areas. Even the entire state annual budget would not be sufficient funding, and even if it were, just imagine the amount of herbicide that would be poured into the watershed. Unacceptable.

There are forests on Maui where literally millions of strawberry guava are choking our last big koa. Koa puts $30 million into the state's economy.

I had the privilege of paddling in the state championships for the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association, where a koa canoe is mandatory. I cannot describe the thrilling sight of 20 or so gleaming boats lined up waiting for the start.

Many clubs do not have a koa boat, must borrow one to race and have little hope of obtaining one because big koa trees are so rare. Until a few months ago, all Molokai canoe clubs did not have a single koa wa'a. Kimokea Kapahulehua and Malama Chun tried to obtain a koa log for Molokai from Maui, but we had none big enough to give. If we don't slow down strawberry guava, koa will be depleted to the point that racing in a koa boat will become a "remember when" story.

Biological control is a careful science used around the world for otherwise intractable problem species when nothing else is working and the toll of failure is too much to bear. The insects being considered attack only strawberry guava, not common guava nor any other plant in Hawaii, whether native or of commercial value. They will not eliminate the plant but simply slow it down. It levels the playing field, enabling native plants to compete and thus survive.

In Brazil, where all the insects intended for biological control are common, strawberry guava is common and available as a food resource. Whether you like it or not, strawberry guava is going to be with us in the future in Hawaii. It would just stop being the superinvader of Hawaiian forests.

These efforts are not the result of last-minute, thrown-together ideas but the culmination of a several-decades-long process to develop more timely, more cost-effective and more comprehensive approach to our battle with invasive species.

I know the scientists associated with these efforts. I can assure you they have no ax to grind and have devoted their whole lives to defend our watershed forests. If we decide as a modern Hawaiian community that we want to stop these efforts, we certainly can. But with that decision, this generation will have sealed the fate of Hawaiian forests, the wao akua which have existed for millions of years before the tenure of our stewardship.

Arthur "Art" Medeiros earned a doctorate at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and is coordinator of the Leeward Haleakla Watershed Restoration Partnership.