Knowing your enemy is the key to winning any battle, and Big Island groups are ramping up efforts to educate residents about invasive little fire ants.
The County Council on Wednesday approved $10,500 in transfers from four districts’ contingency relief funds to create a grant for the Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council.
The money will be used to help fund the Big Island Invasive Species Committee’s community training programs.
The programs are “targeted towards residential areas and groups that really self-identify as having (little fire ants),” said BIISC project manager Springer Kaye during Wednesday’s meeting. “We’re targeting people who are already motivated in that area.”
Programs teach residents how to identify infestations as well as how to treat their land so the ants will not return. Because an infestation on one property often means the ants spread to neighboring land as well, the community aspect of the training is emphasized.
“At a lot of these trainings, (people) say they don’t have little fire ants and are there for information, but they’re surrounded on all sides (by infestations),” Kaye said.
The community training programs also will allow participants to receive voucher coupons for free pesticide treatment. That initiative, funded by a $96,589 grant from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of Forestry and Wildlife, is still being finalized by Hawaii County Research and Development.
“I’m glad that we’re addressing the educational and training component that has been missing,” said County Council District 1 (North Hilo, Hamakua, portion of South Hilo, portion of Waimea) representative Valerie Poindexter. “This is a critical, critical component to address the situation, not just buying (pesticide). They both go hand in hand.”
Council member Dennis “Fresh” Onishi, who represents District 3 (portion of South Hilo, portion of Keaau), said that while the appropriations would be helpful, “we need hundreds of thousands of dollars” in order to fully address the problem.
“It is true that we need a lot more funding for this,” said council member Daniel Paleka, District 5 (western portion of Puna) representative. “At least we are making a small step.”
For more information about the BIISC little fire ant training programs, call 933-3340 or email biisc@hawaii.edu.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
