WAILUA — It’s around 8:30 a.m. on a wet, rainy Thursday when Eric John-Garcia spots the culprit’s dark green and purple leaves shining through a small opening of thick vegetation just off the trail.
“Miconia!” he shouts, causing the rest of the Kauai Invasive Species Committee field crew to stop hiking.
Larry ‘Mugs’ Kaneholani, the KISC field crew supervisor, congratulates John-Garcia on his sharp eye. Then the group hacks through the head-high brush with machetes until they reach their target, an 11-foot-tall miconia tree — considered one of Hawaii’s worst invasive species and KISC’s No. 1 target priority.
“It’s a beautiful plant,” Kaneholani reluctantly admits. “It’s scary to think it can grow into such a monster.”
Every two weeks, weather permitting, the crew — including Kaneholani, John-Garcia, Cleve Javier and field crew leader Joseph Aguon-Kona — hikes up Moalepe Trail and into a 300-acre section of forest. Here, the plants are believed to be limited to three populations in that area, which include Wailua River State Park, Wailua Homesteads and the Wailua Game Management Area.
KISC’s goal is to not only keep it from spreading, but eradicate it altogether.
It’s an uphill battle — a tough, wet and dirty job. Unlike other invasive species on the island, however, miconia is a winnable battle.
“The one thing that’s good is all our targets are early detection,” Kaneholani said. “So, it’s the ones we can get rid (of).”
Sometimes the crew finds what they are looking for. Other times they hike for hours without spotting a single miconia plant. And it’s hard to say which scenario is preferable, Aguon-Kona said.
While KISC is tasked with finding and destroying the plants that are there, not finding any is considered a sign of progress.
“You need to get them before they seed,” Aguon-Kona said.
If KISC doesn’t, it’s a big step in the wrong direction. And one that could prove costly.
A major menace
Native to South and Central America, miconia calvescens — often referred to as the “purple plague” — was introduced in Hawaii as an ornamental garden plant in 1961. The tree’s large, oval-shaped leaves shade out native species and quickly take over moist and wet forests, according to the KISC website.
In addition, miconia causes erosion and reduces the amount of rainwater that seeps into the watershed.
In Tahiti, it has overwhelmed two-thirds of the forests, and is directly responsible for threatening 25 percent of its native forest species with extinction, according to KISC.
A mature tree, which KISC hasn’t found on Kauai since 2012, often produces up to 3 million tiny seeds several times per year. And those seeds can remain dormant for up to 20 years.
“It keeps going up,” Kaneholani said, referring to the number of years the seeds are thought to remain in the ground before sprouting. “We try to attack where known trees were.”
In addition to being on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Hawaii State Noxious Weed list, miconia is listed among the world’s 100 most invasive alien species in the Global Invasive Species Database.
During their April 24 survey, the KISC field crew found and destroyed nearly 20 miconia, ranging in size from 12-feet tall to small seedlings. To put that in perspective, KISC found only six immature plants in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014, according to its quarterly report.
Between October 2011 and October 2013, KISC spent 636 man hours surveying — by ground and helicopter — 2,566 acres for miconia. In that time, they found and controlled 201 immature plants and one mature plant, according to KISC’s annual report.
Hang ‘em by their roots
On survey days, the crew meets early — around 7 a.m. — at the KISC baseyard, located at the top of Kuamoo Road in Wailua Homesteads.
Before making the short drive up to the trailhead, they stop in the “miconia room” to outfit themselves with clothes, boots and hunting vests designated solely for dealing with the invasive plants. This ensures seeds aren’t spread.
Armed with machetes, canisters of herbicide and GPS devices, the crew hits the trail. About a mile in, they veer off down a hidden hunting path.
Aguon-Kona, a 10-year KISC employee and an expert in the field, leads the way, chopping through a tangled mess of invasive grasses and vines.
“We just the go-getters,” he said.
His coworkers call him a “charger” — always first to scale a steep hillside to reach a hard-to-get miconia.
The first plant the crew spots requires two men to remove it by its roots. They hang it upside down in the trees to make sure it dries out, scour the immediate area to remove any smaller seedlings, then move on.
Javier maps the coordinates of each plant found on his GPS, which allows the crew to pinpoint problem areas for future monitoring. Over the years, Javier said he has seen significant progress.
“What we’ve noticed is most of our plants are concentrated in hot spots. They’re not scattered like we thought they would be,” he said. “It’s not overwhelmingly taking over the forest.”
Thursday’s survey, however, saw a high count, which Javier said is likely a result of winter rain causing the plants to quickly pop.
“We don’t usually tend to get that much,” he said, adding that while it’s nice not to find any, removing such a large number of immature plants in a single day is certainly considered a success.
Each plant they find is mapped, pulled out by its roots and hung upside down. The crew usually leaves the hard-to-reach ones to Aguon-Kona.
Eradicating by air
However, safety comes first for the KISC field crew. And sometimes it is simply too dangerous to access a plant by foot.
That’s where KISC’s latest tool in the fight against miconia comes in.
In 2012, KISC began using Herbicide Ballistic Technology, herbicide-filled capsules fired from helicopters using a standard paintball gun. The method involves a pilot, spotter and applicator. Once a plant is spotted, the helicopter moves in and capsules are fired into the plant’s large leaves.
By allowing KISC to survey and treat at the same time, HBT saves both time and money, and helps ensure plants are eradicated before the reproduce.
During their recent survey, the field crew decided trying to reach one plant growing from the top of a steep ridge wasn’t worth the risk. Instead, they left it for HBT. KISC conducts HBT operations on a quarterly schedule.
“The helicopter is the most important part,” Kaneholani said.
Accompanying the field crew April 24 was Amanda Skelton of the Plant Pono, a program developed to prevent the introduction of potentially invasive ornamental plants.
“KISC does an amazing job of containing (and in some cases eradicated) invasive species that have been found on Kauai,” she wrote in an email. “Some of the most challenging species (such as miconia and Australian tree fern, even the coqui frog appears to have come from a nursery shipment) were brought in with good intention, but got out of hand.”
With miconia, eradication is still possible. And KISC says it is seeing a lot of progress, especially from the air.
“It looks nice and all,” Javier said of miconia. “But it will take over.”
• Chris D’Angelo, environment writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or cdangelo@thegardenisland.com.
