The Kaua‘i Watershed Alliance Projects: Wainiha Preserve |
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| (Updated on July 27, 2008) BACK |
| In 2007, the upper portion of the Wainiha watershed, owned by McBryde Sugar, was removed from the State's Forest Reserve System and made into a TNC (The Nature Conservancy) Preserve. TNC is coordinating all management actions within the 7050 Acre preserve, most of which is comprised of steep walls where manegment is difficult. Planned management activities include pen trapping of pigs and weeding of guavas, kahili ginger, and ATF and are scheduled to begin in the 2009 fiscal year. A small fence is planned to help better regulate ingress of pigs from the lower portions of the preserve. Contained inside is said to be some of the best remaining native lowland wet forest left anywhere in the state. "It's really a neat place" says Nicolai Barca of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). "Once you get up there you start to see a lot of diversity- it's a very different landscape- all lowland forest species- plenty of insects you've never seen before- that's a good sign that en ecosystem is still functioning property is when you still have the insects." Although relatively pristine, it is still under emediate threat from weeds such as Australian tree fern (ATF) and Kahili Ginger. Meanwhile, feral pigs continue to degrade and alter understory conditions to the benefit of a handful of invasive weeds and to the detriment of native floura and fauna. Kahili Ginger In 2005, an outbreak of Kahili Ginger was discovered near the back of the north fork on a cliff face. Within just two years, the infestation had increased exponentially. "At the epicenter, it's all ginger and barely anything else. It's somewhat of an emergency, a tipping point- now or never. It's been spreading exponentially. It's scary." TNC is planning on controling the infestation with mechanical and herbicidal means. Each ginger stem is cut and each cut stem receives a drop of herbicide. "It's a tedious process and herbicide is nessesary to kill the rhizomes, which otherwise would resprout, even if hung in the trees." Barca reports that Guava is not a major problem there, except near the river bed and in the lower reaches of the preserve. "We hope to reduce the guava, at first to around our trapsites, aiding in attracting pigs down out of the hills. Eventually the guava will be phases out, starting with the upper reaches and working down, theoretically. There are other weeds which pose more emediate threat." TNC has been working with Dr. James Leary to find new methods of herbicide treatment to use on ATF and other weeds found on steep slopes and cliffs, areas which have been out of reach by conservationists due to terrain. Dr. Leary has also been developing what he has dubbed as "Herbicide Balistics Technology" (HBT), which makes use of recreational paintball guns to deliver herbicide filled balls to weeds. "I was sceptical at first but it's prooving to be a very promissing tool, especially with cliffs" It's also the only method we have to hit these cliff gingers. The original ginger found in the back was located on a cliff face and couldn't be treated. Another outbreak runs from the Alakai plateau, all the way down the cliffs to the bottom." Australian Tree Fern Through working with Dr. Leary in herbicide trials, an herbicide product called Habitat, has been found to be highly effective on ATF and relatively environmentally friendly. "It got first place in the lot. They tested a bunch of herbicides and it blew them all away." With 100 percent kill on ATFs at just 5%, Habitat is also approaved for aquatic use. Barca chooses his words carefully "we want to make sure that we use the smallest, most environmentally benign amount of herbicide nessesary to get he job done while still being efficient enough to stop the spread of any weed threat." With high tech, high velocity, high accuracy, automatic painball guns equipped with red dot scopes, crews can now shoot precise burst of shots directly to the growing tip of an ATF. "The other method which is going to take place involves a hanging herbicide nozzle from the belly of a helicopter which is maneuvered over the top of the tree fern. I think we can be a lot more efficient with HBT right from the chopper but we'll see if they let us do that." Barca explains how well meaning people are always trying to shut them down. "They think we're spraying dangerous amounts of herbicide all over the watershed..." He emphasises lowest dosage nessesary and proper choice of herbicide. "It's a nessesary evil. ...we need to be efficient enough to get the job done or else long term water quality will be far worse." Feral Pigs Trapping for pigs is scheduled to occur throughout the 2009 fiscal year. "We're gonna salvage the meat so that we use up what's left of the resource. It's going to be a big job." Barca believes there to be at least 50 pigs in the valley and explains how his number is probably a very conservative estimate. "On our first trip in, we saw perhaps 20 pigs and on our second and third, I think we saw only one. They might be migrating up and down the valley with seasonal food sources such as guava." Talk of Migration patterns leads into the next discussion about pigs fitted with GPS tracking collars. "We got three out there right now- in the valley. So long as the data is good, we should get a lot of useful information- home ranges, daily habits, and scientific evidence of any seasonal migration patterns. That's all pretty useful and interesting stuff..." "Eventually, we'ld like to build a small fence at a squeeze point in the valley." Barca continues "If we know that pigs migrate down-valley during part of the year, then we can erect a fence at a time that fences many pigs out and save ourselves a lot of work." When asked about feral goats, Barca said he doesn't know of any goats in the valley but explained that neighboring Lumahai valley has goats. |
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