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”
<http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/state-considers-permanent-ohia-transport-ban>.
The Nature Conservancy puts the number of tree deaths at 100 000, half the
trees on the Big Island
http://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.
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