Hawai'i, Endangered Species Capitol of the US

[Les C]

Hawai'i has 373 species on the Endangered Species List, and another 103 are being considered for listing.

http://starbulletin.com/2006/09/13/news/story08.html

Les

[Fishboy]

This is a topic near and dear to my heart and I'm really interested in replies from Punatics. I review transportation projects to ensure they avoid and minimize impacts to protected species and sensitive environments. This effort can be quite variable with regards to adding costs but, typically, efforts to meet federal, state, and local environmental requirements amount to ten percent or less of the project cost. Depending on the project, avoiding things like wetlands or streams amount to not much more than building a retainiing wall rather than fill-slopes along the roadway, or installing drilled-shaft piers for bridges rather than spread-footing.

Maybe this is technical and beyond the scope and intent of PunaWeb, but I've been wondering about the application of the ESA in Hawaii and the impacts to a typical building project, so I have to toss in my two cents. That Eco-friendly resort at Punalu'u is a perfect example; does anyone have experience with large residential projects and the effort necessary to meet environmental codes?

Great to chat,
Brian (Fishboy)

[mella l]

This is interesting Les. I read the article and went to the link of 81 pages of the current list. After searching that document I couldn't find anything specific to Hawaii. I tried to find specifics.

I recently saw a movie that spoke of documented changes in the weather and what that means to birds I believe it was in Britain. Seems with spring coming earlier the caterpillars are hatching two weeks before the baby birds are born and this has a huge effect on the food chain and puts the baby birds in jeopardy.
It is such a tenuous balance for nature and our unintended consequences have unimagined repercussions. Something to be aware of to be sure and try to work around.

Here we are striving to protect fairy brine shrimp in the low moist areas along the Pacific Fly Way. Accommodations must be made I think, but it does get in the way of infrastructure progression.

Have you ever visited the Hawaiian Ag Dept Quarantine site and looked into the conditionally accepted imports to the islands. There are if I remeber correctly 70 some pages of conditionally accepted water and land animals. Very informative.

I have a question you might have an answer for. Do GMO seed crops have any affect on seed eating birds, has this been studied?

I know Fishboy that your line of business is way beyond my understanding yet we rely on expertise to hear the issues and try to make some sense of it all so our vote count when it comes to these matters. Protecting the vulnerable species from children to the species we need to share the space with lessening our impact where we can and do effect the future. Hopefully those on the forum with direct knowledge and experience will tune in here and share their understanding, of agriculture, aquaculture, and what they are striving to do and how successful that has been.

mella l

Edited by - mella l on 09/19/2006 05:12:06

[Keith]

Hi Mella

The part about the GMO is something I know a little about. To date there have been no studies to determine if the seeds effect birds or animals that feel on them. The research has been on human consumption and so far that not shown any effects over the time period allowed. If you didn't know we consume GMO every day now. Did you know that seedless watermelon is considered a GMO?

The biggest concerns have been in a few topics. Transmutation, where say a round up ready gene would transmutation to a weed causing a super weed that is resistant to that chemical.

Another concern is the effectiveness of the GMO. Resistance in the plant kingdom in regards to GMO is not existent, tolerance is the closes you can get. So after a few years say 5 the GMO insect of disease resistance breaks down and a new GMO is needed to do the same job. Is that creating a super strain? maybe.

How this will effect all the non GMO planting is not a pretty sight. And again we would be relying on that company to come up with an answer to this problem.

This doesn't even get into the question of halo effects

Keith

Keith

[mella l]

OK I would like to know the Halo Effect? Is that like quilt by association?

I love seedless watermelons, I just hope the seeds don't harm the birds. I didn't realise it was genetically modified. I thought it was like flowers, a mutant is so beautiful that it is widely propagated, like many a favorite apple, or Daphne! Boy guess I better listen up! Thanks, Mella

mella l

Edited by - mella l on 09/19/2006 14:29:42

[Carolann R]

Okay Mella, I've been watchin' for a while and I think you have a very large green thumb and I will be consorting (...er consulting) with you about many-a-planting! LOL

Carrie

"To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater." Bono
http://www.hellophoenix.com/art/dreamhawaii.Cfm

[Kelena]

They should really add "Hawaiians who speak Hawaiian" to the list.

[Les C]

Mella,

You're correct, the link in the Star Bulletin article doesn't even have the word "Hawaii" in it! Here's a link to the list as of 2000
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/endangered/e...redhi.html

The list as of 2000 had a total of 317 species.

The issue with Endangered Species is usually the destruction of their habitat, which takes away food and reproduction substrate. The term "ecology", of course, refers to the study of the inter-relatedness of things and how the loss of one or more species can lead to the loss of others. In the case of the Brighamia rockii, a lobelia that grows on the sea cliffs of Moloka'i, the disappearance of the historical pollinator might have ended the continued natural propogation of the plant. Some of you may recall seeing a TV documentary that showed botanists rappelling down the cliff to pollinate the plants. Similarly, the Wiliwili tree (Hawaiian Coral Tree), Erythrina sandwichensis, in the is in part threatened on the dry forest of Mau'i's southeast shore by the loss of its pollinator. Additionally, it is suffering from the invasive Erythrina Gall Wasp.

The slightly different topic of GMO crops is spooky. Many of the companies that develop GMO seeds have also been buying up stocks of seeds and limiting the rights to plant them around the world, in order to guide the markets to their products. Companies, like Monsanto, contract with farmers to use their seeds for specified growing seasons, and also limit their use of other (non-GMO) seeds. Likewise, they will sue farmers that they suspect of using unauthorized seeds. Such a case emerged in court, and it was found that the GMO crops growing in a non-participating farmer's fields had actually arrived there on their own, through pollination or wind-aided seeds. (Keith, is this the halo effect?)

Les

Edited by - Les C on 09/19/2006 18:32:45

Edited by - Les C on 09/19/2006 18:34:50

[Keith]

Hi

The halo effect was discovered about 10 years ago with GMO corn crops. These are wind pollinated. What they found was when a GMO corn crop was planted within 13 rows of a non GMO corn crop the non GMO corn crop was equally resistant to the same insect. In this case the European corn boar.

The issue again is the how far will the viable pollen travel. and how it interacts with other plants with the same number of chromosomes.

I am no a real fan of GMO unless it's highly scrutinized and I am not sure that it is. When big drug companies can spend millions for the research and then hire he same people that asses the products there is a problem.

The hope of GMO crops are that they will dispense with the use of tons of agricultural chemicals polluting the earth today. They can used to mass manufacture new drugs cheaper just like the do today for those suffering with diabetes. That they can select different vitamin into regional food sources that a poor population lacks.

The problem as I see it is that it all must make a profit for the corp and so we get round up ready soy beans that support farmers that don't keep there fields clean.

Keith