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(KŌKE‘E STATE PARK, KAUA‘I) –A muddy and weary team from the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project (KFBRP), arrived here in time for the annual blessing of the field season for conservationists working against the clock to save numerous species of Hawaiian Honeycreepers from extinction.

For more than a decade, the hālau from Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei Institute have performed ‘oli and chants to kick off the annual forest bird field season. Kumu Keahi Manea commented prior to last Friday’s blessing, “We made the commitment years ago and we’ve learned a lot about the birds we didn’t know. They’ve learned a lot about hula, and chant, and mele, and things Hawaiian they didn’t know. They inspired us to create new ‘oli, mele, songs, and hula. We love doing it.”

Tyler Winter, a field crew leader with KFBRP, spent the first four-day long field excursion with a team doing predator control work and bird captures. The teams are trying to bring as many of the extremely endangered birds into safety as possible, while efforts to control avian malaria-carrying mosquitos ramp up. Once the disease threat is under control the hope is to return honeycreeper species to the wild, like the remote mountainous areas in the Kōke‘e, Waimea Canyon, Alaka‘i Plateau regions of Kaua‘i.

“I think it’s important to have these blessings. As the populations of these birds diminish and we must go further and further into the field to access them, so much of our time is spent in the field, we don’t have much time to interact with people. Being at a blessing like this is super important, because it’s one of the few times we get to see the impacts these birds have on people and their important cultural significance. It also helps with our new hires we take into the field to have them see the engagement that’s going on with the forest birds.

On Friday’s blessing day, KFBRP and the Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee (KISC) had outreach and education displays set up under tents, along with experts to answer visitors’ questions.

Kim Rogers of KISC said, that while her organization typically deals with issues like Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD), there’s a clear nexus between forest health and biodiversity and the plight of Hawai‘i’s forest birds.

“When people think about fauna in our forests, they think about our precious forest birds. ʻŌhiʻa and the forest birds have a very reciprocal relationship in that the trees provide homes, food, and nectar. In return the forest birds help pollinate ʻōhiʻa lehua. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. You can’t have one or talk about one without having the other.”

The hālau performed several original mele, including one that describes the beauty and characteristics of several at-risk species like, ‘akikiki and kiwikiu, two of the honeycreepers expected to completely disappear from Hawaiian forests imminently.

Governor Josh Green, M.D. and Kaua‘i Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami have both proclaimed Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele, The Year of the Forest Birds. That recognition along with Friday’s blessing is giving encouragement and hope to the teams working to save the birds.

Winter explained, “This season is going to be really cool. We’ll be traveling a lot across the Alaka‘i Plateau. Last season we did a really focused recovery effort for the ‘akikiki, as such we spent a lot of time in areas that we knew were good habitat and high quality for those birds. This year we’re doing more of a survey of the entire plateau. The dream would be if there are ‘akikiki still out there or other pockets of endangered species we’ll be able to encounter them and hopefully gain more information on how to protect them.”

All the researchers and conservationists involved in forest bird recovery projects, especially on Kaua‘i and Maui say they are realistic but hopeful. To work in conservation and to protect these species you have to be hopeful. We’ll have keen eyes and ears out for them. That’s what we’ll be doing this year.”

 

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RESOURCES

(All images/video courtesy: DLNR)

 

HD video – Kaua‘i forest bird field season blessing (March 1, 2024):

https://vimeo.com/919279997?share=copy

(Shot sheet/transcriptions attached)

 

HD video – Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei full mele and hula (March 1, 2024)

https://vimeo.com/919283327?share=copy

(Recorded as live)

 

Photographs – Kauaʻi forest bird field season blessing (March 1, 2024):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/0lf0zs955ss6n7ls8qftr/h?rlkey=t7dt4vm55gwvz1g2vvexndant&dl=0

 

Media Contact:

Dan Dennison

Communications Director

808-587-0396

DLNR.comms@hawaii.gov

2024 is Ka Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele: The Year of the Forest Birds, a time to celebrate the jewels of our Hawaiian forests. Our native forest birds are uniquely Hawaiian: they exist only in the Hawaiian Islands and nowhere else in the world. These birds have critical ecological roles as pollinators, seed dispersers, and insect managers of Hawaiian forests. Our forest birds are an inextricable part of Native Hawaiian culture in their roles as ʻaumakua (family deities) and messengers between akua (gods) and kānaka (people). Nā manu nahele are celebrated in mele (songs) moʻolelo (stories), ʻōlelo noʻeau (proverbs), kaʻao (legends), and in the creation of feather adornments including lei hulu.

Our nā manu nahele are at risk: of 84 forest bird species known from either the fossil record or human observation, an astonishing 58 species have gone extinct. Of the 26 species that remain today, 24 are listed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as vulnerable, near-threatened, threatened, endangered, or critically endangered, including the ʻio seen here (PC: Bret Mossman). To learn more about why Hawaiʻi has lost so many native birds and what is being done to save those that remain, explore below and come to one of our Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele events this year to meet the manu experts who help prevent extinction.

Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele is brought to you by a partnership of manu enthusiasts from DLNR Forestry & Wildlife, Kamehameha Schools, Kauaʻi Forest Bird Recovery Project, Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project, the ʻAlalā Project, the University of Hawaiʻi Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death outreach group, Bishop Museum, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Birds Not Mosquitoes, the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, the Invasive Species Committees, Hawaiʻi Association of Watershed Partnerships, and the Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi.

Find all news and more information here: https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/dofaw/manu/

HONOLULU — The Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) are one step closer to protecting forest birds from mosquito-borne diseases in key high-elevation native forest bird habitat on Kauaʻi, with their proposal to employ Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) to reduce mosquito populations. A jointly prepared Environmental Assessment (EA) has been finalized and issuance of a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) at the state and federal levels.

 

Introduced diseases, particularly avian malaria spread by invasive mosquitoes, are the greatest threat to forest birds.  Just one bite can kill a forest bird. Implementing mosquito control is urgently needed to prevent extinction of Hawai‘i’s forest birds and is part of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Hawaiian Forest Bird Keystone Initiativeand supported with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding.  The DOI offices and bureaus, working alongside the DLNR, the Native Hawaiian community, and many public and private partners are leading a comprehensive initiative to prevent extinction of additional Hawaiian forest birds. The use of IIT mosquito control is a critical component of a multi-pronged initiative and the DOI Strategy for Preventing the Extinction of Hawaiian Forest Birds.

 

IIT is a way to control insect pests, like mosquitoes, without using harmful chemicals. In Hawaiʻi, this technique involves releasing male mosquitoes that carry a different, incompatible strain of bacteria (Wolbachia) than what is present in the wild mosquito population. When these incompatible male mosquitoes mate with the wild female mosquitoes, the resulting eggs do not hatch, decreasing the mosquito population over time. This approach does not employ genetic engineering and does not involve or result in the genetic modification of either mosquitoes or bacteria.

 

“Already, 10 of the 16 native honeycreepers of Kaua‘i have gone extinct, and three of the remaining six species are endangered or threatened, with research documenting that the ʻakeke‘e and ʻakikiki would be driven to extinction within the next decade unless immediate action is taken.”, said Earl Campbell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office; “The Service’s purpose and need for the project is an urgent matter and directly supports DOI’s strategy that contributes to the recovery and conservation of several federally listed species, including the ‘akeke’e, ‘akikiki, puaiohi, and ‘i’iwi, as well as other avian species with concerning declines in population and range.”

 

The Service and DLNR jointly produced the draft EA, released on June 23, 2023, for a 31-day commenting period that concluded on July 24, 2023. On July 11, 2023, the Service, DLNR, and their partners, held an open house on Kauaʻi to dialogue with members of the community, receive public comments, and answer questions.

 

On September 22, 2023, the Service issued a FONSI to conclude the National Environmental Policy Act process and document the decision of the final EA. A FONSI is issued when environmental analysis and interagency review during the EA process find a project to have no significant impacts on the quality of the environment. The statements and conclusions reached in the FONSI are based on documentation and analysis provided in the final EA.

 

The DLNR, a cooperating agency on this project, has prepared its own finding covering actions on state-managed lands and private lands within the project area. Today, the  Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources approved and issued a State FONSI, which concludes the Hawai‘i Environmental Policy Act process and enables DLNR to move forward with IIT mosquito control on State lands.

 

“Native honeycreepers like the ‘akikiki have literally crashed in their native habitats in the montane regions of Kaua‘i. The latest surveys conducted by the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project, only detected five remaining ‘akikiki in the wild,” said DLNR Division of Forestry and Wildlife Administrator David Smith.

 

Hawaiʻi’s native forest bird species have undergone precipitous declines and extinctions since the arrival of humans to the archipelago, particularly Europeans; 39 of the 56 native Hawaiian honeycreepers have gone extinct and 11 of the remaining 17 species are endangered or threatened. Although several factors have led to declines of these remaining species, the main threat to Hawaiian honeycreepers is currently avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) and avian pox (Avipoxvirus spp.); nonnative diseases that are principally spread by the nonnative southern house mosquito (Culex quinquefasciatus). Until recently, there were no viable means available to control mosquito vectors at the landscape scale within natural areas in Hawaiʻi.

 

The DLNR manages 22 natural areas comprising the most intact habitats on Kauaʻi with the intent of safeguarding these habitats and species, as well as the cultural heritage associated with them. The proposed project would occur on approximately 59,204 acres (23,959 hectares) of forest reserves, state parks, and private lands in the Kōkeʻe and Alakaʻi Wilderness areas of Kauaʻi. This project is consistent with the statutory missions and responsibilities of the Service and DLNR.

 

To find the Final EA, the FONSI, Q&As and more information on IIT mosquito suppression in Kauaʻi, visit:

https://www.fws.gov/project/saving-kauai-forest-birds 

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov/pacificislands, or connect with us through any of these social media channels at https://www.facebook.com/PacificIslandsFWS, www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/,  https://medium.com/usfwspacificislands or www.twitter.com/USFWSPacific.

 

Artwork by Joanna Maney