The two-woman, in-the-field team of the Kauai Invasive Species Committee (KISC) were in Niumalu Friday afternoon to continue work on eradicating the cattails that have started taking over the marshland. KISC project coordinator Keren Gundersen and natural resource management assistant
The two-woman, in-the-field team of the Kauai Invasive Species Committee (KISC) were in Niumalu Friday afternoon to continue work on eradicating the cattails that have started taking over the marshland.
KISC project coordinator Keren Gundersen and natural resource management assistant Sarah Newton were in their swamp-tromping gear. But because they couldn’t access the small strips of dry land across local artist Carol Yotsuda’s backyard or anyone else’s backyard in the area, they had to just take a count of the cattail plants they sprayed with aquatic herbicide. Spraying herbicide in the area often presents a challenge because of off-shore winds that blow towards the homes. Since March, KISC has eradicated at least 500 plants in that area.
Cattails can’t be eradicated by just breaking off the leaves and stems above the water or even below, they said, because the plants can continue to sprout. The cattails are reproducing in lands once used for rice and taro cultivation, and is creating a deep marsh in an area that used to flow freely.
In partnership with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife and Kokee Resource Conservation Program, the KISC is also working on other programs, namely studying the spread of kahili ginger into the Alakai.
KISC continues working on the ivy gourd in Anahola; false kava, which has a different vein pattern on its leaves than “real kava”; pampas grass, a grass with sharp blades; and giant reed, or arundo, which has been seen in Kekaha.
Also, the fireweed that KISC and DOFAW are trying to control from spreading past Halfway Bridge (yes, those people picking things from the hillside next to the highway), has been spotted on a private lot in Kilauea. The grass is poisonous to cattle, horses and livestock. They said it was most likely spread through hydro-mulch, a mixture of grass seed being sprayed along certain highway construction sites around the island.
ON THE WEB For more information about invasive species, access http://www.hear.org, http://www.hear.org/kisc, or http://www.state.hi.us/dlnr/dofaw/hortweeds.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at mailto:kmanguchei@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
