Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?

[Guest]

Update here on the ROD.
The ROD has unfortunately been discovered in the Hakalau forest reserve which is a national wildlife refuge. scientists also fear that the ROD has caused a once common native bird to now go onto the endangered species list.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/honolulu...1398831990


Where, or how did this ROD come about in the first place?
Why was Puna the first place in the World to see this ROD outbreak?

[kalakoa]

Where, or how did this ROD come about in the first place?

Let's devote time and resources to analysis and research. Eventually we'll know exactly where ROD comes from, but the island will be uninhabitable because there's no watershed. Only then can we qualify for the big Federal bailout.

[Kapoho Joe]

Nail on the head glinda!

[Guest]

Very cool article here of what the hundred plus year old Ohia trees look like and their importance to other forest creatures.

http://hawaiianforest.com/wp/giant-ohia-lehua-trees/

Places like leilani estates in Puna may really miss these large Ohia trees in the future as trees like the albesia and miconia take over instead. here is what the Miconia look like.

http://wildlifeofhawaii.com/flowers/1037...lvet-tree/

[kalakoa]

trees like the albesia and miconia take over instead

Exactly -- without any reforestation effort, the invasives will win.

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...sive-plant

[Guest]

Maybe glinda is right about the spaceport in Kaimu having something to do with the ROD outbreak around the PGV power plant.
Personally I feel that the PGV power plant had a leaking production well for several years and the leaked production was rising up from the porous surrounding soil and being blown through the areas Ohia trees via the trade winds. Why does our state allow a Geothermal power plant to operate without any contingencies or studies if an environmental issue arises in it's area, such as ROD. The PGV power plant is in the middle of the ROD's ground Zero area and yet no study to see if the power plant could be the cause. A fungi mutation happened in the PGV area or just above its water reservoir. Maybe ground soil, rock or water warmed a few degrees from the leaked PGV production?
Maybe chemicals added to create the enhanced PGV production?
Why doesn't the states health department, county, or OHA care to find out what may have caused this ROD outbreak to begin with?
Here is an article that shows how gas leaks could be a hidden culprit for killing near by trees.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania...ead-trees/

This older article sheds light onto possible PGV hazards.
http://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=3857

Mike Kaleikini explains Geothermal's incident during a Tropical storm in 2014. The leaking production well was discovered around this same time. The leak may have been ongoing for years is which would explain the missing productivity. The new well that was drilled day and night has been out producing the former well up to this point in time. jmo's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FuwbrrEETU

The Ohia tree is a very sensitive tree that grows nowhere else in America as does the ROD fungus. jmo's

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Personally I feel that the PGV power plant had a leaking production well for several years and the leaked production was rising up from the porous surrounding soil

And how was this alleged leaking steam near PGV different from the vapors we see rising all around Puna, from natural cracks in the earth sending tons of emissions into the air yearly? Near Steam Vents and many other places?


The Ohia tree is a very sensitive tree that grows nowhere else in America

It is also the first tree to colonize the new lava flows, where nothing else except a few ferns have managed to get a foothold. Wouldn't the newly hardened lava contain some of the same elements and compounds in it as steam from lava cracks? They're both derived from the same source of magma before it emerges from beneath the earth.

[Guest]

HOTPE, you do ask some very good questions. Does our Puna Geothermal power plant add or have added anything to enhance their production, maybe a Proprietary mix? The mix or production waste may contain something that could mutate a fungus or kill a sensitive tree like Ohia only.
Why not have the PGV and it's surrounding area studied anyway since this is ground zero for the world's first ROD outbreak?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Does our Puna Geothermal power plant add or have added anything to enhance their production

What do you think they added?
Have they said they added anything?

On the fifth day - the scientists who studied the rivers - were forbidden to speak - or to study the rivers. -Jane Hirshfield's poem on creation

[Rob Tucker]

Maybe this, maybe that. Maybe it is the stench of essential oils permeating the district that kills the ohia.