Jimbo2017, Thank you for caring as well as your time, effort and informative links.
I became very discouraged about the dying Ohia for a couple years after first noticing it, my warnings were only finding authorities with deaf ears. Once I claimed the "possibility" of PGV causing the death of Ohia trees in our area of lower Puna. I finally received a few calls back from those authorities, even had a visit from J.B friday himself.
I had called J.B Friday a few times prior to his visit onto my property but J.B was either to busy or had no class that semester to come out and take a look for himself. Once J.B did have time and look at the dead, dying or next ohia around lower Puna he could tell right away something was not right with these Ohia trees fatalities.
Among many questions I had asked J.B that day, one I asked was if the dead Ohia could be caused by a fungus? His answer was "no" fungus has ever been known to kill Ohia. My wife asked J.B if the Bore Beetles could be causing the Ohia to die? J.B's answer for her was no beetle has ever been known to kill any Ohia's larger than 8 inches in diameter. My wife and I were also concerned about our kids brushing their teeth or showering with the dead Ohia matter that was now in our water catchment. J.B assured us that the dead Ohia tree matter would not harm the kids.
A few months later we heard they had named it "ROD" and that it "WAS" caused by a fungus after all. A year after that we read that the spread of ROD "WAS" being helped by the bore beetle. Thankfully, we have not heard anything about the dead Ohia matter being harmful to digest or wash with. We are still hoping that the health of our children will not be effected by the mass Ohia tree death we have experienced.
Mass tree death's in other areas of the united states or world have been linked to cause near by communities an increase of health issues. Leilani estates has certainly seen thousands of trees die in only a few years so it does continue to worry us some to say the least. Not sure why our area which is "ROD's Ground Zero" has no health studies for people's health started or in the works to be started?
I found This article as well as others interesting and relevant to our areas tree death experience.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...ie/267322/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/can-...ou-faster/
Jimbo2017, Mahalo again and I apologize for my continued rants and opinions to how this ROD may have been started. It's been 7 long years since my first calls for Ohia tree help went out to the proper authorities. jmo's
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