04-14-2026, 09:53 PM
Good Horrible article from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. The article is excellent, but the subject matter is more budget cuts that affect every single person in Puna.
3/4’s of forest service research stations are being closed. Raise your hands. How many of you have an ohia tree in your yard? Every day, more madness.
The outlook in Hilo, Hawaii.
Although the tropical forests of Hawaii may not be the first thing to come to mind when one thinks about the Forest Service, the agency has been conducting research there since 1957—work that has only become more urgent in recent years, as the islands battle fires, floods, and invasive species.
The ohia tree, a flowering evergreen that makes up around 90 percent of Hawaii’s tree canopy, has been besieged by a fungal disease that causes rapid ohia death, threatening to wipe out vast swaths of native forest. Native plant species are rapidly being replaced by nonnatives like strawberry guava—a water hog that sucks up groundwater resources. In more arid regions of the islands, invasive grasses spread rapidly during the wet season and then dry out, creating more fuel for devastating wildfires like the one in Lahaina in 2023.
The Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry has been working on all these issues and more. Closing the station will have enormous ramifications for local communities who depend on that research to protect the islands’ watersheds, prevent wildfires, and conserve the native forests for wildlife and the tourism economy.
https://thebulletin.org/2026/04/its-just...-stations/
3/4’s of forest service research stations are being closed. Raise your hands. How many of you have an ohia tree in your yard? Every day, more madness.
The outlook in Hilo, Hawaii.
Although the tropical forests of Hawaii may not be the first thing to come to mind when one thinks about the Forest Service, the agency has been conducting research there since 1957—work that has only become more urgent in recent years, as the islands battle fires, floods, and invasive species.
The ohia tree, a flowering evergreen that makes up around 90 percent of Hawaii’s tree canopy, has been besieged by a fungal disease that causes rapid ohia death, threatening to wipe out vast swaths of native forest. Native plant species are rapidly being replaced by nonnatives like strawberry guava—a water hog that sucks up groundwater resources. In more arid regions of the islands, invasive grasses spread rapidly during the wet season and then dry out, creating more fuel for devastating wildfires like the one in Lahaina in 2023.
The Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry has been working on all these issues and more. Closing the station will have enormous ramifications for local communities who depend on that research to protect the islands’ watersheds, prevent wildfires, and conserve the native forests for wildlife and the tourism economy.
https://thebulletin.org/2026/04/its-just...-stations/