Ohia trees are dying rapidly, Why?

[kalakoa]

those who are adversely affected by heavy industry in a residential area

I find it difficult to sympathize with those who moved in after PGV.

Anyone who was already there is entitled to relocation.

I maintain that the fake plastic zoning contributes heavily to the problem; somehow both Leilani and PGV are "agricultural" even though they look more like "rural residential" and "industrial" uses...

[Guest]

Obie to the rescue, great response. You are in some way correct Obie, if the county, state, and feds spent even 10% of the marijuana eradication fund on this ohia fungus epidemic, Puna may not have lost so much. Marijuana is still growing and may become legal where as the ohia are dying and may become extinct. What a waste of millions with messed up priorities, jmo though.
How many pot raids or dollars were spent or done in puna the last 5 years, how many ohia's died due to lack of county, state effort or funds the last 5 years?. The fungus theory was thought and brought up by my wife almost 5 years ago. This was ignored and discredited for a couple years, while studies were more towards earthquakes or gasses. Obie you yourself probably thought it was a phenomenon Puna was blessed with?
Why has the natural gas phenomenon that stank like rotten eggs and sat so thick 2-6 feet high, across the streets from geothermal not been seen as regularly this year as in the past? Those gasses were so regular in the early morning hours as was the acid rain around 1:30a.m, I thought we had another old faithful in the back yard at times. The gasses were inundated throughout this area for weeks at times due to the stagnant or variable winds, then a few weeks later more death to the Ohia. After the hurricane the death rate increased yet again like the winds spread the spores, or maybe the blowout of poisonous geothermal gas that evening helped spread more death?

[Obie]

The high concentration of cesspools in Leilani is the reason for the rotten egg smell you are experiencing.It is also causing all of the ohias to die off.

This is my expert opinion as a retired plumber and septic installer.

I am starting a campaign to get the health department to ban all cess pools in Leilani .

They should start in the upper part of Leilani because most of the still healthy ohias are there and need the most protection.

[TomK]

None of my ohia trees have died during the recent drought. However, the coquis have been quiet. When my ohias died in the past, it coincided with the coquis being noisy. Therefore, the coquis are the cause of ohias dying. My cat is also a dog.

[pbmaise]

The vector that causes the spread of a virus. Cocci correction fungus from tree to tree, and area to area. is likely

wind

or

insect.

Or rather a small insect blown by the wind. That is exactly why 300,000 plus acres of Florida have recently been devastated.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/...glades.htm

Michigan recently also lost trees.

Infected packing crates and pallets are most likely way SE Asian bettles find their way to US.

Frogs are prone to die off and carriers of a fungus that can also attack plants.

See: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chytridiomycota

Did some well meaning person bring a fungus to Hawaii to wipe out coqui frogs? Are Ohia trees primarily affected in areas of high concentrations of this frog?

If these Ohia forest areas die and are simply left to be taken over by albesian trees, other problems facing Puna will look minor. Imagine road conditions along highway 130 after a storm.

Is there any talk of replanting a replacement at this point? Or just let nature take its course since long term consequences can never be predicted and it is best government does nothing?

If Koa won't grow fast enough to out pace albesians. How about Philippine mahogany as seen along the Red Road?

[TomK]

What is an albesian? Just asking on a morphophonological level.

Thanks.

[rainyjim]

The vector that causes the spread of a virus from tree to tree...

You do know Ceratocystis is a fungi not a virus right?

[Guest]

Interesting thought about the frogs possibly being carrier's of this fungus p.maise makes.
First heard the frogs around the keaau dump and up around kurtistown, this was within a couple of months from the time Walmart opened their garden section. I always felt the frogs came in plants sold at our new million dollar Walmart. The ohias started dying years later and in areas like steam vents, upper seaview, and the power line road from geothermal, between tangerine acres and leilani. Now several albezia look to be dying in these areas also.
The spreading of these dying ohia trees has been remarkable. We took a drive about three years ago down past the geothermal towards 4-corners. Saw hundreds of trees of all ages dying on the right side of the road below geothermal yet not one did we see on the left side of the road. We would see the death in parts of leilani but not Hpp or nanavale. Then a year later we started seeing it in many more places but not up in mountain view or higher in volcano near the vent.
I really thought this black looking fungus I found on most dead ohia trees grew on it after they died. We would see our trees stop flowering first then the leaves turn slightly silver or grey for a few weeks with no signs of new tips. Then the orange and brown color takes over the leaves and within two weeks the tree is dead left standing. We asked J.B Friday about this fungus that was killing the rose apple or wili wili. He said never has a fungus been known to kill such large ohia as we showed him that had died recently. He also mentioned the beetle had never killed that size either.
This fungus has changed our views around our property so much, we bought in a rain forest 15 years ago where everything was green and anything would grow. Now we see dead ohia's out every window, our black raspberries have developed some kind of rust, most of our coconut and mountain apple trees have also died in the last three years. We now have a new weird circle of death in our grass out back. We have watched for the past 6 months this circle grow from an inch wide to over a 8 inches wide and some 50 yards long. Showed a few friends who work many yards and they have never seen anything like it. We feel our ground may have cracked during that hurricane cause it first appeared about a week later. My Friends think I should take samples to be tested, where should I take the samples?

[pbmaise]

gypsy
Based on your observations I am leaning away from fungus or coqui theory.

Fire ants can fatally damage some plants by tunnelling through roots. Ohia have sensitive shallow root systems.

Your observations of a long narrow line sounds like a trail of insects. Fire ants would eat all roots along the way.

If it is a fungus, and I now doubt it, it sounds like the fungus starts at the top of biggest trees.

Birds and a change in diet?

There is a small pond up at the steam vents, and of course we have Green Lake. These are naturally places for many types of fungi.

Suppose a coqui frogs when at these fresh water sources got fungi infections.

These in turn were directly eaten by birds, or rats ate the coqui and birds ate the rats. I am thinking of owls in particular.



In Mountain View near that coffee shop I am aware of a property about a mile up. Large warehouse, left side. The property also has a freshwater pond. Are trees dying up there?

As for your observations, it almost seems like by the scope and variety of plants affected that someone has sprayed round-up around your place.

However, your observations are wide spread.

Dirt samples to the Ag extensive office at the University? Will tell you not much more than soil acidity.

Was there a dead tree laying on the ground where this line appeared?


A different line of thought is fire ants


http://msucares.com/insects/fireants/biology.html

[TomK]

Sometimes I just despair.