State and federal wildlife agencies are creating an “encyclopedia” of sorts they hope will guide future efforts to control invasive mongooses and rodents in Hawaii and better protect native species. But first, they want input from the public. ADVERTISING State
State and federal wildlife agencies are creating an “encyclopedia” of sorts they hope will guide future efforts to control invasive mongooses and rodents in Hawaii and better protect native species. But first, they want input from the public.
A talk-story session Monday at the University of Hawaii’s Komohana Research and Extension Center in Hilo aimed to do just that. Dozens trickled in to the two-hour, open house-style event, which was one of 10 sessions hosted throughout the state in recent weeks by the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish &Wildlife Service.
The sessions aren’t planned with any specific control projects in mind. Instead, officials plan to use public input to create an environmental impact statement — a lengthy technical document that will identify the most effective eradication and control methods and serve as “toolbox” primarily for future state and federal projects in conservation areas.
“The (impact statement) will be an encyclopedia of rodent and mongoose control methods that have been used around the world for conservation,” said Christy Martin, spokeswoman for the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species. “This encyclopedia is also supposed to include sort of a guidebook on how to plan a project. If you’ve got native species and you need to protect them from, say, rat damage, how do you plan the best project? Well, you’ll be able to go to this document and design a controlled project that is best for the area.”
Mongoose and rodent populations are large and well-established throughout the state, including on Hawaii Island.
Rodents have negatively impacted 135 endangered or threatened native plant species in Hawaii, according to information presented Monday, and rats are thought to have caused extinction and decline of the state’s native forest birds, seabirds and kahuli tree snails.
The state says mongooses cause about $50 million in damage each year in Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
“The reoccurring damage on native species has gotten to the point where we need to really do something,” Martin said. “We’re losing species.”
Since the 1990s, the state has used a rodenticide called diphacinone to try and control mongooses.
Earl Campbell, chief of invasive species at Fish and Wildlife, said agencies are looking at a more integrated approach where “(project leads) have a suite of tools they can use, but then they can pick and choose which are right for a specific location.”
“We currently are doing this type of work already,” he said. “But what we want to do is have a coordinated approach statewide … . There are sites where people may want to restore native species, and this will allow people in new sites to have a suite of tools that they know are approved by the public, and the public knows the pros and cons of them. So the key thing is public input in this — to say, ‘Are we making the right decisions as an agency on how we control rodents and mongoose?’”
Not everyone who attended was completely on board.
Solomon Singer, co-founder of a nonprofit he described as “dedicated to human, animal and environmental health,” said there are problems with rodenticide, such as concern it could poison non-targeted animals such as pigs that could then potentially be ingested by humans.
“This is a really dangerous method of treating rats,” he said. “It’s a really terrible thing to do in this situation. We don’t feel it’s an acceptable method at all.”
The environmental impact statement should be completed in May 2017, officials said.
Agencies encourage the public to voice concerns and submit comments. They’re accepting written comments through April 7.
To submit, visit removeratsrestorehawaii.org.
“We’re having these meetings (because), maybe we missed something, maybe there are other methods we didn’t think of, or some issues we didn’t think of,” said Patrick Chee, Small-Mammal Control planner with the DLNR. “And we definitely want the public to give us their input on that.”
Email Kirsten Johnson at kjohnson@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
