What’s slowing forest restoration at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge?

The next Maunakea Speaker Series presentation will shed light on the question “What’s slowing forest restoration at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge?”

The presentation is slated for 7 p.m. April 4 in Room 108 at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Science and Technology Building, 200 W. Kawili St., in Hilo and will be given by Evan Rehm with the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Everyone is welcome to the free evening presentation.

Starting nearly 30 years ago, managers at Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge planted more than 400,000 koa trees in abandoned pastures to facilitate forest regeneration. Their goal was to restore native forests in order to increase native bird populations at an altitude where avian malaria is rare.

While planted trees seem to grow well, there has been very little natural recruitment of native understory plants. During this discussion, Rehm will discuss the various barriers that inhibit the development of native forests, hindering restoration efforts.

Rehm earned his PhD from Florida International University and has worked in a variety of tropical systems, including investigating climate change effects on montane forest in Peru, how an invasive snake disrupted bird-plant interactions on Guam, the role habitat loss is playing in reducing bird populations in Puerto Rico and mating systems of fairy-wrens in Australia. He currently is a post-doctoral researcher with UC Santa Barbara but is based at the Institute for Pacific Island Forest in Hilo.

He is interested in how different drivers of global change such as climate change, habitat loss and invasive species have negative impacts of native plants and animals.

The Maunakea Speaker Series is a monthly scholar-focused presentation offered as a partnership among the Office of Maunakea Management, ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center and the University of Hawaii at Hilo Department of Physics and Astronomy. It is a venue for scholars to share their stories and learn from discussion.

The series promotes understanding and collaboration across all sectors of the community while addressing the goals of UH-Hilo.