what happens after the ROD

[kalakoa]

Our tropical climate is ideal for fungi (such as the ROD), and the ohia have very limited genetic variability (eg, a "monoculture"), so it's highly probable that there simply won't be any ohia within 5-10 years.

Without ohia, we have no watershed.

Yes, it would be great to save the ohia from extinction, but it's probably already too late; we need to hedge our bets with a reforestation effort.

[terracore]

The eucalyptus they planted in the old cane fields seems to be doing well and harvesting it is creating jobs.

Probably the only thing that can save the Ohia is Monsanto and we can't have that because once we go down the GMO road the next step will be eradicating mosquitos that don't belong here and maybe even bringing back some of the bird species that can't live at lower elevations anymore because of the avian malaria, eliminating the bunchy top virus, and a host of other 21st century solutions that don't belong in our 19th century anti-vaccine, anti-telescope, anti-diversion, anti-roundabout, head-in-the sand manner of thinking.

[MarkP]

Even down in the hard hit areas I saw a few that still had green leaves. What is the fatality rate once infected? With the American Chestnut it was basically 100 percent but with the ROD it looks more like 90 percent. Catastrophic to be sure but if there are some surviving in each area those that survive will have immunity. There will be a massive dip in the population and a huge change in the makeup of the forest but that's way better than extinction.

[terracore]

There is a GMO American Chestnut waiting for regulatory approval. A hundred years of "natural" selective breeding with the blight-resistant Chinese variety has failed to produce a blight resistant American hybrid that maintains the desirable American traits.

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-genetically...conic.html

[kalakoa]

once we go down the GMO road

I don't see how GMO is required, here, just figure out some compatible species and start replanting the watershed.

Trying to avoid the usual scenarios:

1. "wait for the ecosystem to fail then apply for bailouts"

2. "endless argument about the best solution until it's too late"

3. "lawsuits against reforestation because the land is too sacred for haole trees"

I thought this was a distant problem with plenty of time for a solution ... then I confirmed ROD on my property, in an isolated part of the lot with no obvious vectors (away from the road, no neighbors, no trails, no geothermal wells, not worked with tools that might cross-contaminate, etc).

As if it blew in on the wind, and could infect any ohia anywhere at any time...

[terracore]

"What is the fatality rate once infected?"

"Where the disease is present, annual mortality rates average 23%"

http://www2.ctahr.hawaii.edu/forestry/do...0.2016.pdf

I'm not sure why they just didn't come out and say "eventually they will all die" but it seems that once infected a tree is either dead or dying.

[Guest]

Kalakoa, good morning to you sir and thank you for providing another important thread regarding this ROD. Very sorry to hear that your property has been infected with the ROD, start cutting and burning the dead branches. Your soil has been contaminated and the ROD fungus spreads from tree to tree within the root system, it also spreads by water, insects, and wind. This ROD may also be affecting other trees or crops in the area, the studies are still ongoing for this. If we don't find the source or cause and then try to correct it, I am afraid the ROD may return at anytime or spread to what ever you decide to reforest with.

P.S. Be very careful around your remaining healthy Ohia, if they receive a broken branch or twig they will be much more likely to be infected with the ROD. This ROD also can lay undetected in healthy Ohia for 1-3 years before showing signs of dying. Take plenty of pictures of the healthy Ohia you have left before they to become infected, in 6-8 years it will be much different. Jmo.

[Guest]

concerned that if the ROD fungus is indeed in our soil, it may pose additional environmental or health impacts in the future too.

Articles like this one help explain some of the dangerous fungi found in soils, also helps explains how the spores can be carried by the wind.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/770540

Should folks with breathing difficulties or young children in Puna be concerned about any of these invisible ROD spores in their water, soil, or blowing in the wind.

[kalakoa]

afraid the ROD may return at anytime or spread to what ever you decide to reforest with

Planting a wide variety so they're not all susceptible to the same diseases -- part of the problem with ROD is that there's basically one kind of ohia.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

There is a GMO American Chestnut waiting for regulatory approval.

Here's a little more info on that process, with some history about how the Chestnut die off began. It could be similar to what is happening to our Ohia:

Then, in 1904, the chief forester at the New York Zoological Park—now the Bronx Zoo—noticed that some of the chestnut trees in the park were ailing. The following year, so many trees were turning brown that the forester appealed for help to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the New York Botanical Garden. Within five years, chestnut trees from Maryland to Connecticut were dying. The culprit was identified as a fungus, which had been imported from Asia, probably on Japanese chestnut trees, Castanea crenata.

The article at the link is about both coral and chestnut trees. Scroll more than half way down (it's a long read), to the large, bold capital H, "Half a hemisphere away...":
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/0...nd-forests

“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
-Joseph Brodsky