🚀 go-pugleaf

The last trees of at least one endangered Hawaiian species were almost
certainly lost in a forest fire this summer.  And, the future for many other
species looks grim.

A forest fire in North Kona on the big island of Hawaii in September appears
to have destroyed the entire population (about 14 trees) of Kokia (a hibiscus
in the Malvaceae family with red leaves).  It also destroyed the last major
population of uhiuhi (Mezoneuron kauaiense, in the Papilionatae family),
possibly making that species extinct as well.  Those are two of the 19 native
Hawaiian plants on the federal endangered species list of 97 plants.  Roughly a
dozen other rare Hawaiian species---not yet on the federal endangered species
list---had major populations in the same forest.

The fire destroyed most of the Puuwaawaa Forest, the last extensive native dry
lowland ecosystem in the islands.  On Hawaii and the other islands, most of
that type of ecosystem has been grazed, urbanized or put into coffee or sugar
cane production.  Botanists have been attempting to preserve the Puuwaawaa
Forest since 1904.  The Natural Area Reserves Commission recommended in 1974
that a large part of Puuwaawaa be placed in forest reserve because "Removal of
the lowland native dry forest has progressed to the extend that this type of
ecosystem is near extinction."  That was not done, and now it appears to be too
late. 

It is not certain how many other species may have been affected, since only
those on the endangered species list are carefully kept track of.  The
paperwork and administrative procedures to actually get a threatened or
endangered species onto that list takes a long time to prepare and process.
Besides the 19 Hawaiian species on the endangered list, 556 Hawaiian plants
species are pending addition to the list.  Processing is so slow that only
perhaps one or two species are actually added to the federal list each year. Of
the 556, some 133 have not been seen for several years and are potentially
extinct. Many others will probably become extinct before they even get onto the
list.

-- 
Bob Cunningham
bob@hig.hawaii.edu