birds affected by the die-off of native trees in Hawai’i

Good evening all. Some of you may have heard of the die-off of trees in Hawai’i. Here are a couple of reports.

“Since its discovery in 2010, rapid ohia death has devastated thousands of acres of native forests throughout Hawaii Island. Ohia, one of the most important forest trees in Hawai’i” .

The Nature Conservancy puts the number of tree deaths at 100 000, half the trees on the Big Island www.nature.org/ourinitiatives/regions/northamerica/ unitedstates/hawaii/explore/ohia-wilt.xml.

Indigenous Hawai’ian elder, Leilehua Yuen has just written: Pretty much all forest birds (are affected). The ʻōhiʻa-lehua is a keystone tree, comprising up to 80% of a given forest stand.

The culprit is a fungus Ceratocystis fimbriata. I don’t know if Australian members of Myrtaceae are at threat. Can anyone on Birding Aus tell me?

Thanks

Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow
PO Box 71
Darwin River, NT, Australia 0841
043 8650 835

PhD candidate, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW.

Founding Member: Ecotourism Australia
Nominated by Earthfoot for Condé Nast’s International Ecotourism Award, 2004.

With every introduction of a plant or animal that goes feral this continent becomes a little less unique, a little less Australian.