Government officials at levels from Hilo to Washington, D.C., are calling for increased resources and collaboration to fight rapid ohia death.
The disease has affected more than 36,000 acres of native ohia trees on Hawaii Island as of April. It has not spread to other islands and researchers and officials are hoping to keep the outbreak contained.
The Hawaii County Council last week unanimously passed a resolution specifying measures to be taken by county departments, emphasizing proactive efforts to keep the disease from spreading.
These include increased public education from the Department of Research and Development, ensuring ohia is kept out of green waste mulch made by the Department of Environmental Management and taking precautions to keep the Department of Public Works’ equipment uncontaminated.
“This is a significant issue on the Big Island,” said Councilman Greggor Ilagan, D-Puna, who introduced the resolution in order to “really bring (ROD) to a platform.”
In addition to signing the resolution, council members took up the ROD call by conducting informational meetings locally and traveling to Oahu to keep state legislators up to date.
Ilagan said the county also is hoping to hire an arborist to deal with identifying dead and diseased trees, and that Councilman Aaron Chung has been working to get an emergency declaration issued for rapid ohia death by Gov. David Ige.
An emergency declaration would free up additional federal funding that could be used to research the disease.
Rapid ohia death is caused by a strain of Ceratocystis fimbriata, a type of fungus. Infected trees show tell-tale stains on their bark. Once infected with Ceratocystis fimbriata, an ohia tree will turn brown in a matter of weeks and can die shortly after. Mortality rates are more than 20 percent, and there is no preventive treatment.
The threat to ohia does not only impact Hawaii’s native ecosystems.
“I was looking into the impact to our environment, and when this (resolution) was brought up there was a testifier (who) brought up the cultural aspect of the ohia,” Ilagan said.
The resolution (which also is available in Hawaiian language) notes that for Hawaiian cultural practitioners, ohia lehua is a physical manifestation of deities, most notably the goddess of hula, Laka.
Councilman Daniel Paleka has been exploring cultural practitioners’ methods of managing dead ohia trees, Ilagan said.
“For example, doing a pule before cutting it down, or having an imu-style way to burn the trees,” he said.
Calls for action also have taken place at the state and federal levels.
This year, for the first time, the state Legislature appropriated $300,000 to the state Department of Agriculture for further ROD research.
And earlier this week, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz reached out to Department of the Interior Secretary Sally Jewell with a request for more federal support from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service, comparing the ROD outbreak to another type of natural disaster.
“If this were a forest fire, we would have no hesitation mobilizing whatever assets and resources were necessary,” he wrote in a letter. “The scale and scope of the danger from ROD warrants the same coordinated response.”
The letter came as a follow-up to a similar request for DOI collaboration written last summer that was signed by all four members of Hawaii’s congressional delegation.
“Since our conversation (last year), scientists have concluded we have a narrow window of opportunity to get ahead of this crisis and prevent the spread of ROD from Hawaii Island to the rest of the state,” Schatz wrote.
A temporary quarantine on transporting ohia between islands has been in effect since the beginning of the year. The state DOA is in the process of deciding whether the quarantine will be permanent.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono also called for increased federal funding to address the ROD threat. Last year, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden toured Puna with Hirono to get a sense for how the disease was affecting Big Island trees.
Reached for comment Tuesday, Hirono said she would continue to “push for greater federal resources in order to protect Hawaii native forests.”
“Rapid ohia death poses a serious threat to Hawaii’s ecosystem,” she said in a statement.
U.S. Reps. Tulsi Gabbard and Mark Takai could not immediately be reached for comment, although both signed the 2015 letter calling for more federal action.
For more information about rapid ohia death, visit www.rapidohiadeath.org.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
