10-21-2007, 06:52 AM
Thanks HPP Person, that's what I had read but couldn't remember where. ;-)
Setting aside the question of how far back a species must go to be called native -- can't we agree that it's a bad thing for our ecostystem when we have species that reproduce very quickly and have no natural predators?
These islands have limited land size, thus the food sources are finite. All these coqui frogs eat, and before they got here, other species were relying on that food. And on through the chain. How could the onset of millions of frogs not upset the balance?
Re the effect of not being bothered by the frogs:
I watched our Hilo property become coqui'd when it was entirely preventable if all the immediate neighbors were of the mindset that the invasion needed to be stopped.
At first there was one frog in our giant hala. We spent hours and hours getting that frog. And we had quiet again.
But when a frog came and sat in the bananas on the other side of the property line, that neighbor didn't care AND wouldn't let us deal with it. Two out of three of the neighbors said it was useless to fight the frogs and the noise didn't really bother them. They let so many frogs invade their property that we constantly had frogs hopping onto ours and when they finally got to the 30 foot high trees and sat at the top, with a monstera jungle underneath to protect them by day -- not much we could do if we didn't want to tear up our beautiful landscaping.
It was sad. The whole attitude that the `aina is just a series of discrete yards rather than a unity to protect. by the way, these neighbors were hardly malihini, and their families had lived in those houses since the 1930's.
They just dealt with the change by turning up their TV's louder.
Before we could begin to reclaim the island from frogs, in the more densely populated areas, we would need some sort of ordinance that requires everyone to at least report infestations or be cited for harboring a nuisance, and after that to allow control measures -- yeah, I can't see that happening.
Nor do I think it would work out well to have the County invading everyone's property -- I'm just saying there won't be a coqui eradication unless everyone gets involved and decides that it matters.
Setting aside the question of how far back a species must go to be called native -- can't we agree that it's a bad thing for our ecostystem when we have species that reproduce very quickly and have no natural predators?
These islands have limited land size, thus the food sources are finite. All these coqui frogs eat, and before they got here, other species were relying on that food. And on through the chain. How could the onset of millions of frogs not upset the balance?
Re the effect of not being bothered by the frogs:
I watched our Hilo property become coqui'd when it was entirely preventable if all the immediate neighbors were of the mindset that the invasion needed to be stopped.
At first there was one frog in our giant hala. We spent hours and hours getting that frog. And we had quiet again.
But when a frog came and sat in the bananas on the other side of the property line, that neighbor didn't care AND wouldn't let us deal with it. Two out of three of the neighbors said it was useless to fight the frogs and the noise didn't really bother them. They let so many frogs invade their property that we constantly had frogs hopping onto ours and when they finally got to the 30 foot high trees and sat at the top, with a monstera jungle underneath to protect them by day -- not much we could do if we didn't want to tear up our beautiful landscaping.
It was sad. The whole attitude that the `aina is just a series of discrete yards rather than a unity to protect. by the way, these neighbors were hardly malihini, and their families had lived in those houses since the 1930's.
They just dealt with the change by turning up their TV's louder.
Before we could begin to reclaim the island from frogs, in the more densely populated areas, we would need some sort of ordinance that requires everyone to at least report infestations or be cited for harboring a nuisance, and after that to allow control measures -- yeah, I can't see that happening.
Nor do I think it would work out well to have the County invading everyone's property -- I'm just saying there won't be a coqui eradication unless everyone gets involved and decides that it matters.