i appreciate syd because i think his main concern is that our decisions need to reflect a care for nature’s balance. the decisions of gov’t often see things in terms of in short term solutions which may further imbalance the situation. he asks for transparency, for clarity, and gets people talking and, hopefully, thinking things through more deeply. he wants to protect. this is an important role in the community. and, he gives a voice to what many people experience; mistrust and hurt about how different things are said and done by some people who use their political/economic power to serve their own greed, or who are in service to those that do this, consciously or unconsciously.

also, i wanted to get some clarity about the idea that water is effected by the waiwai issue. are our watersheds being affected by loss of old forests/ecosystems? is this an area of priority to protect? I would think cutting of the plant life, whatever it is, would present problems, but how does the spread of waiwai affect this?

and, why do asian and african bees deal with the mites quite well?

First, let me say that my father was the one who held the State logging permit for Hawaii for over 25 years and had a degree from the university of Minnesota, Albert Lee, in horticulture. I grew up on the island of Hawaii under his tutelage and walked many of our forests here with him, many of which are now GONE, due to HUMAN intervention!

The ohia is endangered not by the waiwi, but by human clear-cutting, something my father NEVER did in his logging and hardwood business. Pin-to-pin bulldozing of properties even as small as 1/5th acre is a sign of an inept bulldozer operator and/or contractor. Bulldozers can turn on a dime! My father used one in his day-to-day operations (D9). It’s more “get it done as fast and as cheaply as possible” ideation.

I miss the pink and white ohia blossoms, as well as now how rare the bronze and orange ohia blossoms are. When I walked forests with my dad, they were present. I have spoken with only ONE other person who remembers seeing these beautiful ohia blossom colors. Now they aren’t. Why? Humans have bulldozed them away to build their homes clearing pin-to-pin.

I have problems accepting information touted by a “professor” who uses the word “there” (meaning “location”) instead of the word “their” in reference to people. JP, maybe you need refresher English coursework? Also, much of what “professionals” tout nowadays is JUNK SCIENCE. Statistics manipulated to appear to validate the papers’ authors. I have read scientific papers myself and find their summaries in complete disagreement with their tables. Prime example is one I read for my own health (breast cancer survivor) in reference to the drug, Tamoxifen, the doctors were insisting I take to prevent “recurrence.” Not only did this drug, per the tables, NOT prevent recurrence (less than 10%), but it caused other forms of cancer (endometrial) in approximately 25%, taken as little as over two years. It was the drug manufacturer’s own study, but its summary claimed 80% prevention? Drugs are killing people, when there are real cures in nature!

By the way, I have an Associate’s Degree in General Studies and a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Arts and Sciences, so have a wide education (studies focused mostly on writing). One thing I refused to “lose” in educating myself in college was common sense. But many I see with professional degrees seem to have discarded common sense, trading it for greed, especially those with PHDs.

It might be of interest to those of you who read this thread regularly that the source of one of Puna’s biggest problems was the US Forest Service manager, back in 1889 or so. He took it upon himself to “reforest” Puna with the dangerous albizia trees (fast growing trees native to Indonesia, with very little use value) after they had allowed the deforesting of Ohia here to use as railroad ties. Unfortunately, after cutting all those trees down, wiping out our forests over most of Puna, they NEVER used the ohia logs! Humans can be so stupid sometimes. It’s GREED that manipulates most of what humans do. If profit isn’t attached to a project for someone, it doesn’t get done.

To settle an argument in reference to flora on this island, I have news for you all. Less than 10% of the flora (plants, flowers, trees) occurring here are endemic (native). Most have come here through means including nature (coconuts floating in, as an example) or more importantly, human intervention. Not even the kalo and ulu are endemic. They are indigenous, meaning they have acclimated to our region; “naturalized,” much like people do who immigrate. If we took away all the non-native species, our island would be denuded… virtually baren. We’d have NO agriculture (nothing grown for ag is native!), no food, no natural cooling, very little rain… think about it.

It is my opinion that the “powers that be” in regards to what they are trying to do on this island with their junk science is to detract us from the real issues… the REAL causes of our problems in nature; that of allowing in dangerous insects (30 new invaders per year, according to Discovery Channel) because of inadequate monitoring at our ports of entry. Hello?! Linda Lingle wanted to CUT our inspectors?!!! Why are they doing this? Our island home is being used as a TEST LABORITORY! We’re so isolated that nature does very little to influence evolution, so these pseudo-scientists are taking advantage of our isolation to run their tests by releasing (intentionally, as well as unintentionally) all their pet projects.

The more we confront… the more we learn. MJW 2001

Christy, I can tell you as an environmental studies professor and someone who has worked with both farmers and conservation types in a professional capacity, that there is creativity going on here. A lot. It is very frustrating to hear people like Mr. Singer make vicious accusations about people not doing there jobs or thinking things through. There has been a tremendous amount of effort on many aspects of the situation (which I admit is not an easy one with black and white solutions). The reality is that a wide variety of control methods tried over the years are neither effective nor savory. Cut down strawberry guava, and it sprouts back from the stump and seeds sprout everywhere. Herbicides cna kill the resprouts, but doing that on a large scale is pretty nasty, and the new seedlings take over anyway. Plant ohia and koa where the guava is removed and they are eventually overrun with few surviving. Solid research with solid numbers. And this is in very costly trials at the scale of a few acres – consider the island-wide expanse of strawberry guava. Again, a lot effort, a lot of thought, a lot of money, and a lot of people who dedicate their lives to this and are trying to do the right thing.

The organic-compatible solution we are working on is a formic acid hive fumigant treatment (bees are tolerant of formic acid, in fact honey contains small amounts of the compound). The mites die en-mass from formic acid treatment. The product being tested should be available in HI very shortly, thanks to UH efforts, HDoA very efficiently dealing with labeling the product for special local need, and the manufacturer being extremely supportive. Organic labeling of the product is in process, I am unsure where we stand on that currently.
We are looking at various options that may be used in a sustainable integrated strategy to manage the mite, the new formic acid treatment will be a component of this strategy.
Please feel free to contact me at markwrig@hawaii.edu for more information.

We need to develop a policy where forest management does not interfere with agriculture, and vice versa. The honey bee causes a dilemma. There is a conflict of interest in the government.

Also, JP, you say the honey bee is listed as an agricultural pest because they can be a stinging nuisance. It seems that that makes them a health threat, and the Department of Health should deal with that, not the DOA. As I see it, the ag people have no business listing the most important friend of ag as a pest.

As for the issue at hand, I would like to support what Singer is saying.

The Department of Ag says they are wanting food sustainability. And yet, if you look at their website, you will see that wild wood is never mentioned as a food source in Hawaii. All the waiawi, guava, and other fruit trees in the forests are considered weeds by the government. And they want to destroy waiawi fruit all over the state with a scale insect because they don’t want waiawi fruit in the forests.

Is food ever a weed?

We rely on imports for most of our food. Anywhere else in the world there would not be wasted food littering the forests and roadsides. People would value this food more. As it is now, it seems like unwanted rubbish.

But that is because we don’t appreciate what we have. And we have been brainwashed to think that only native species count. The bee article shows this conflict between native and desired exotic.

I heard that the honey bee was placed on the list of invasives in order to facilitate destroying hives infected with varroa mites. I guess there’s less red tape with that approach, and more ability to respond to the crisis. I keep bees and know many beekeepers, and destroying hives is accepted as wise management when the alternative is losing nearly all hives to mites.