A muddy and weary staff from the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project arrived Friday at Kōke‘e State Park in time for the annual blessing of the sphere season for conservationists working in opposition to the clock to avoid wasting quite a few species of Hawaiian honeycreepers from extinction.
“I think it’s important to have these blessings,” stated Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project area crew chief Tyler Winter. “As the populations of these birds diminish and we must go further and further into the field to access them, so much of our time is spent in the field, we don’t have much time to interact with people. Being at a blessing like this is super important because it’s one of the few times we get to see the impacts these birds have on people and their important cultural significance. It also helps with our new hires we take into the field to have them see the engagement that’s going on with the forest birds.”
During Friday’s blessing, Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project and the Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee had outreach and education displays set up under tents, along with experts to answer visitors’ questions.
The hālau from Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei Institute, which has carried out ‘oli and chants to kick off the annual forest chook area season for greater than a decade, additionally carried out throughout the occasion.
The hālau carried out a number of unique mele, together with one which describes the wonder and traits of a number of at-risk species like, ‘akikiki and kiwikiu, two of the honeycreepers anticipated to utterly disappear from Hawaiian forests imminently.
“We made the commitment years ago and we’ve learned a lot about the birds we didn’t know,” stated kumu Keahi Manea earlier than final Friday’s blessing.
Kim Rogers of Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee said that while her organization typically deals with issues such as rapid ʻōhiʻa death, there’s a transparent nexus between forest well being and biodiversity and the plight of Hawai‘i’s forest birds.
“When people think about fauna in our forests, they think about our precious forest birds,” stated Rogers. “ʻŌhiʻa and the forest birds have a very reciprocal relationship in that the trees provide homes, food and nectar. In return the forest birds help pollinate ʻōhiʻa lehua. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship. You can’t have one or talk about one without having the other.”
Winter spent the primary four-day lengthy area tour with a staff doing predator management work and chook captures. The groups are attempting to deliver as most of the extraordinarily endangered birds into security as potential, whereas efforts to regulate avian malaria-carrying mosquitos ramp up.
Once the illness risk is underneath management, the hope is to return honeycreeper species to the wild, such because the distant mountainous areas within the Kōke‘e, Waimea Canyon, Alaka‘i Plateau areas of Kaua‘i.
“This season is going to be really cool. We’ll be traveling a lot across the Alaka‘i Plateau. Last season we did a really focused recovery effort for the ‘akikiki, as such we spent a lot of time in areas that we knew were good habitat and high quality for those birds,” Winter stated. “This year we’re doing more of a survey of the entire plateau. The dream would be if there are ‘akikiki still out there or other pockets of endangered species we’ll be able to encounter them and hopefully gain more information on how to protect them.”
Hawai‘i Gov. Josh Green and Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami each proclaimed 2024 as Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele, or The Year of the Forest Birds. That recognition and Friday’s blessing are giving encouragement and hope to the groups working to avoid wasting the birds.
All the researchers and conservationists concerned in forest chook restoration tasks, particularly on Kaua‘i and Maui, say they’re reasonable however hopeful.
Winter added that to work in conservation and defend these species, you need to be.
“We’ll have keen eyes and ears out for them,” he stated. “That’s what we’ll be doing this year.”
