3/4/24 – BLESSING FOR THE START OF FOREST BIRD FIELD SEASON ON KAUA
Posted on Mar 5, 2024 in Main, News Releases, slider
| JOSH GREEN, M.D. GOVERNOR |
DAWN CHANG |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2024
BLESSING FOR THE START OF FOREST BIRD FIELD SEASON ON KAUA‘I
Click on picture to view video
(KŌKE‘E STATE PARK, KAUA‘I) –A muddy and weary workforce from the Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project (KFBRP), arrived right here in time for the annual blessing of the sphere season for conservationists working towards the clock to save lots of quite a few species of Hawaiian Honeycreepers from extinction.
For greater than a decade, the hālau from Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei Institute have carried out ‘oli and chants to kick off the annual forest bird field season. Kumu Keahi Manea commented prior to last Friday’s blessing, “We made the commitment years ago and we’ve learned a lot about the birds we didn’t know. They’ve learned a lot about hula, and chant, and mele, and things Hawaiian they didn’t know. They inspired us to create new ‘oli, mele, songs, and hula. We love doing it.”
Tyler Winter, a subject crew chief with KFBRP, spent the primary four-day lengthy subject tour with a workforce doing predator management work and chicken captures. The groups are attempting to carry as most of the extraordinarily endangered birds into security as attainable, whereas efforts to regulate avian malaria-carrying mosquitos ramp up. Once the illness menace is beneath management the hope is to return honeycreeper species to the wild, just like the distant mountainous areas within the Kōke‘e, Waimea Canyon, Alaka‘i Plateau areas of Kaua‘i.
“I feel it’s essential to have these blessings. As the populations of those birds diminish and we should go additional and additional into the sphere to access them, a lot of our time is spent within the subject, we don’t have a lot time to work together with folks. Being at a blessing like that is tremendous essential, as a result of it’s one of many few occasions we get to see the impacts these birds have on folks and their essential cultural significance. It additionally helps with our new hires we take into the sphere to have them see the engagement that’s happening with the forest birds.
On Friday’s blessing day, KFBRP and the Kaua‘i Invasive Species Committee (KISC) had outreach and education displays set up under tents, along with experts to answer visitors’ questions.
Kim Rogers of KISC mentioned, that whereas her organization sometimes offers with points like Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death (ROD), 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. 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.”
The hālau carried out a number of authentic 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 fully disappear from Hawaiian forests imminently.
Governor Josh Green, M.D. and Kaua‘i Mayor Derek S.K. Kawakami have both proclaimed Makahiki o Nā Manu Nahele, The Year of the Forest Birds. That recognition along with Friday’s blessing is giving encouragement and hope to the groups working to save lots of the birds.
Winter defined, “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. 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.”
All the researchers and conservationists concerned in forest chicken restoration initiatives, particularly on Kaua‘i and Maui say they are realistic but hopeful. To work in conservation and to protect these species you have to be hopeful. We’ll have eager eyes and ears out for them. That’s what we’ll be doing this yr.”
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RESOURCES
(All pictures/video courtesy: DLNR)
HD video – Kaua‘i forest chicken subject season blessing (March 1, 2024):
HD video – Ka ʻImi Naʻauao O Hawaiʻi Nei full mele and hula (March 1, 2024)
(Recorded as stay)
Photographs – Kauaʻi forest chicken subject season blessing (March 1, 2024):
Media Contact:
Dan Dennison
Communications Director
[email protected]
