WAIMEA — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, will be holding a series of statewide talk story sessions about methods to control and eradicate invasive rodents and
WAIMEA — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, will be holding a series of statewide talk story sessions about methods to control and eradicate invasive rodents and mongooses.
Two sessions will be held on Kauai: March 7 at the Waimea Neighborhood Center, and March 8 at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School Cafeteria. Both events will be 6-8 p.m.
The two entities are co-leads in developing a draft programmatic environmental impact statement, or EIS, which will analyze the impacts of and alternatives to controlling these invasive animals for the protection of native flora and fauna, as well as their habitats.
“Introduced rodents and mongooses in Hawaii pose a significant threat to many of Hawaii’s native plants and animals,” said Suzanne Case, chairperson of DLNR, in a news release. “It is important that we have a discussion with a wide variety of interested people so we can comprehensively address the damage these rodents and mongoose have on Hawaii’s ecology, culture and way of life.”
In January, Bill Lucey, project manager for the Kauai Invasive Species Committee, told TGI that they’ve caught two mongooses in traps on Kauai, but that’s not enough for a reproducing population, which means that Kauai doesn’t officially have a mongoose problem — yet.
“If mongoose get established here, the ground nesters, all those birds, would get hammered,” Lucey said.
Currently the EIS is open for public comment online at www.regulations.gov, and will be available until the extended deadline of April 7. Comments that have already been registered are available to view on that website as well.
