Big Island News: Tuesday, July 7, at 10AM, the County Council will reconsider a resolution 80-09 to ban biocontrol

Aloha Friends,

On Tuesday, July 7, at 10AM, the County Council will reconsider a resolution 80-09 to ban biocontrol against relatives of the o'hia tree. The o'hia is in the myrtle family, and the concern is that insects and fungi that are used in biocontrol against other myrtle trees, such as the strawberry guava, guava, paperbark tree, surinam cherry, eucalyptus, and many others related to the o'hia, could evolve very quickly to pose a threat to the o'hia, which is the dominant tree of Hawaii's forests.

Insects are known to evolve and adapt within a few years up to a few decades to change host preferences and even change mouth parts and other anatomy. To see how fast this can happen, do a Google search of the term "insect rapid evolution". Fungi evolve even faster than insects. It is only a matter of time (within 30-50 years) until these evolve and adapt to attack the o'hia as they look for new hosts. In fact, we may soon be seeing the negative impact of the dozens of insects and fungi released over the past 20-30 years as they begin to evolve. (These were released without an environmental assessment, and post-release monitoring to see the negative impacts has not been done! Claims that biocontrol over the past 30 years has not resulted in attacks on non-target species is a blind hope, not a scientifically supported fact. Those insects are just beginning to evolve.)

In addition, making our forests infested with insects and fungi creates a sick forest environment ripe for attack by other invasive pests, which can also pose a threat to the o'hia. And once released, these insects and fungi are here to stay, changing our environment forever.

There are other ways to manage the forests than experimenting with releasing alien insects and fungi. Please contact your Councilperson and voice your opinion SUPPORTING THE BAN on biocontrol against relatives of the o'hia. You can submit testimony by email, as well, or come to the meeting on Tuesday, July 7, at 10AM to testify in person. County Council contact information is below.

To see the resolution, go here:http://records.co.