Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?

[Kapoho Joe]

quote:

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Originally posted by gypsy69

These scientists discuss the Ohia wilt fungus or disease here.

http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2015/1...-response/

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So did you count how many times these scientists blame the wilt on the geothermal?

[pbmaise]

alohaarborist.com/index.php/pest-of-the-month-october-2011-ohia-psyllid/

www.malamamaunakea.org/library/reference/index/refid/1213-the-biological-control-of-psylla-uncatoides-ferris--klyver-homoptera-psyllidae-on-hawaii

[hotinhawaii]

Gypsy69, I "believe" that you have personally caused the ohia wilt with your negativity and until you prove otherwise, that's the truth. Do you see how beliefs like this are unscientific and impossible to disprove? One can say and believe anything. That doesn't make it true. And because two things happened consecutively doesn't mean the first thing caused the second. There is absolutely no evidence that geothermal has had any influence on ohia wilt.

[geochem]

Please don't feed the troll - it just encourages him to post more ridiculous nonsense. If you ignore him, maybe he'll go away - at the very worst, his posts will drift off the top threads. His strategy is to resurrect his ignored threads with goofball posts and try to re-ignite more pointless dialogue.

[Guest]

Hotinhawaii, great point.
Yes you are correct this Ohia wilt fungus may not have anything to do with geothermal? Then again our community should have had some promised environmental health studies done, a few working air monitors, an improved geothermal relocation process to help quell these uncertainties of living within a mile or two from this Geothermal experimental power plant,jmo.

Geothermal makes a little money from puna's resources(water and steam), yet Ormats geothermal power plant or good nieghbor has offered no help to this current situation. I did talk to many including Mike K(manager at geothermal) about the possible ways this disease could be spreading. Every time a bulldozer was used around the geothermal power plant it was spreading this fungus. The disease ran very fast up helco-geothermal power line roads, even faster when they had them recleared recently during this ohia wilt outbreak. I did invite Mike K and others to take an early look at this disease about five years ago, he must have been to busy?
Geothermal Health or environmental impact studies should have been ongoing during this outbreak so we would be able to have things like pictures, data, and tests to compare with,jmo. Until I mentioned the possibilities of it being caused or spread by geothermal it fell on deaf ears including our Mayors. While some here may have opinions or want to blame or Mame other community members like Bob P for his harvesting of wood technique's. I choose to think county, state, and experimental geothermal lava drilling may have contributed to this dire situation Puna is currently living with,jmo. My point is we are all in this together. While Geothermal power plant may not have started this outbreak it does sit on ground zero and has continued to help spread this fungus.

[leilaniguy]

Or maybe it was (is) being spread by bulldozers clearing lots in Leilani.

[lavalava]

quote:

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Originally posted by gypsy69

Every time a bulldozer was used around the geothermal power plant it was spreading this fungus. The disease ran very fast up helco-geothermal power line roads

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the fact that you are this stupid and you have kids is really disturbing. hopefully your kids are smarter than you gypsy, for their sake...

[geochem]

Mr. Gyp is a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them. He's playing you guys like a $5 keyboard - he pushes your buttons and you dutifully respond. And then he gets to spout more loony tunes BS about geothermal and you respond, and he then spouts more nonsense. Ignore him - he'll keep it up, but if no one responds, his posts will just fade into the ether.

[Guest]

Yes lavalava.
All my kids are smarter than myself, thankfully much smarter.
I think the fungus moves several ways including root to root, insect, wind, and or by simply hitchhiking on a bulldozer, chainsaw, helicopter, or boot. So This has been very frustrating to watch because I mentioned to many including helco's and geothermal managers several years back that all future land clearing or electric powerline helicopter flyovers around these parts should not be continued until we knew how this dieback was spreading? I also asked folks like Jay, Mike, and Billy's assistant Kevin if they could find the funds for a few fly overs to take pictures of the already dead and dying Ohia trees to compare with later? I asked J.B some off the wall questions like if he thought green harvest could be spreading this disease with there yearly helicopter raids in lower Puna? I basically got the run around or Geochem ways of treatment by all these folks, I thought could make the biggest difference at maybe the most important time. Now here we are years later still waiting on those mentioned funds for flyover mapping and pictures or proper handling of the soil and dead ohia trees.
P.S. I still have many notes from several years ago on how this ohia wilt seemed to spread and where we were first seeing it, I would be happy to share them. I also am pretty sure those gentleman I mentioned above could have recorded several of my calls to them years ago regarding this ohia wilt outbreak. Those early calls from residents like myself may be able to give a better time line to when or where this outbreak got started? One Positive side to this is we MAY be able to save Oahu's Ohia trees?

[Kapoho Joe]

quote:

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Originally posted by lavalava

quote:

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Originally posted by gypsy69

Every time a bulldozer was used around the geothermal power plant it was spreading this fungus. The disease ran very fast up helco-geothermal power line roads

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the fact that you are this stupid and you have kids is really disturbing. hopefully your kids are smarter than you gypsy, for their sake...

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Foul ball! Leave the poor children out of this.