LIHU‘E — The Biden administration is investing nearly $16 million into a multi-year, multi-agency initiative aimed at preventing the imminent extinction of Hawai‘i’s ecologically and culturally crucial forest birds.
Announced on Tuesday by Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the funds will be put toward the Hawaiian Forest Bird Conservation Keystone Initiative, a Department of the Interior project utilizing multiple strategies to combat growing existential threats for the birds.
“Hawaiian forest birds are a national treasure, and represent an irreplaceable component of our natural heritage,” Haaland said. “Birds like the i‘iwi, kiwikiu and ‘akikiki are found nowhere else in the world, and have evolved over millennia to adapt to the distinct ecosystems and habitats of the Hawaiian Islands.”
While evolution has allowed Hawai‘i’s native honeycreepers to thrive in the islands’ isolated environments, it has also left them particularly vulnerable to invasive diseases — in particular, avian malaria.
Because the honeycreepers have only come in contact with the disease within the last century, evolution has provided them with little to no immunity against it, resulting in high mortality rates when infected. Avian malaria is the single greatest threat to the survival of Hawai‘i’s forest birds, according to the Department of the Interior.
Additionally, climate change has exacerbated the crisis even further. While the honeycreepers have largely moved to higher elevations where it’s too cold for invasive, malaria-carrying mosquitoes to survive, rising air temperatures allow the mosquitoes to march farther up, shrinking what little safe habitat is left. This has hit forest birds on Kaua‘i and Maui particularly hard, as there’s less vertical space to flee compared to Hawai‘i Island.
While there’s historically been over 50 Hawaiian honeycreeper species, only 17 remain today, with four additional species (Kaua‘i’s ‘akeke‘e and ‘akikiki and Maui’s kiwikiu and ‘akohekohe) in danger of exctinction in as little as one to two years. The ‘akikiki is particularly vulnerable, as experts anticipate the bird will most likely face extinction in the wild this year.
“These birds are only here,” said Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project Field Supervisor Justin Hite during a May field mission. “They’ve been here the whole time, long before people arrived in the islands. They’re quiet, unassuming and wonderful. If we lose them, it’s a huge loss. It’s terrible.”
To protect the ‘akikiki and the state’s 16 other remaining honeycreepers from extinction, the Department of Interior announced in December 2022 the Hawaiian Forest Bird Conservation Keystone Initiative. Comprised of several short- and long-term objectives, the multi-pronged initiative plans to cull mosquito populations while shielding the birds from infested areas in the interim.
To protect honeycreepers in the long term, the department plans to use biological control measures to limit the mosquitoes’ ability to reproduce using a bacterium called wolbachia.
While wolbachia has no impact on humans, certain strains have a strong sterilizing effect on mosquitoes, shrinking the insect’s population size over time.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and state Department of Land and Natural Resources teams plan to release male mosquitoes carrying the bacterium over approximately 59,204 acres of forest reserves, state parks and private lands in Koke‘e and the Alaka‘i Plateau.
The Environmental Protection Agency authorized in April an emergency exemption for use of wolbachia on Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau and Hawai‘i, Honolulu and Maui counties, concluding no human health or ecological risks of concern. Additionally, USFWS and DLNR released on Friday a draft environmental assessment for wolbachia biocontrol on Kaua‘i, while a final environmental assessment on Maui was approved in March.
The Department of the Interior has stated that wolbachia provides the greatest chance to control mosquitoes with available technology. However, the technology likely cannot be deployed quickly or effectively enough to prevent the extinction of several forest bird species.
To protect honeycreepers in the short term, the department intends to bring the islands’ most at-risk birds into captivity. While Hawai‘i currently only has two captive-care facilities, the department intends to expand capacity if possible rather than transporting the birds to the mainland, as doing so would damage biocultural connections under traditional Hawaiian thought.
“We will have to assess things as stuff is ongoing, what our options are,” said Earl Campbell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Island field supervisor, when the initiative was first announced. “But our very strong preference is, if things are held, that they would be held here.”
Additionally, the department is studying the feasibility of relocating species to Hawai‘i Island, where malaria-free higher elevations exist in larger quantity.
The initiative is expected to cost over $55 million in investments over the next four years, with over $15 million already spent during the 2022 fiscal year. The nearly $16 million invested by the Biden administration this week is anticipated to cover most of the initiative’s financial needs for fiscal year 2023.
•••
Jackson Healy, reporter, can be reached at 808-647-4966 or jhealy@thegardenisland.com.
