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VIDEO: Volunteers plant rare silverswords on Mauna Kea

by Big Island Video News
on May 14, 2013 at 7:19 pm

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STORY SUMMARY

VIDEO courtesy Office of Mauna Kea Management, voice of Stephanie Salazar MAUNA KEA, Hawaii – Volunteers traveled up Mauna Kea this weekend, where they helped pull invasive weeds and planted a hundred Mauna Kea silverswords. Organized by the Office of Mauna Kea Management – the primary agency responsible for the University of Hawai‘i management areas […]

VIDEO courtesy Office of Mauna Kea Management, voice of Stephanie Salazar

MAUNA KEA, Hawaii – Volunteers traveled up Mauna Kea this weekend, where they helped pull invasive weeds and planted a hundred Mauna Kea silverswords.

Organized by the Office of Mauna Kea Management – the primary agency responsible for the University of Hawai‘i management areas on Mauna Kea – Saturday’s effort focused on restoring native habitat surrounding the Visitor Information Station at the 9,500 foot elevation. An ideal spot, according to Springer Kaye, manager of the Big Island Invasive Species Committee.

Springer KayeSpringer Kaye

“Its protected from goats and sheep so we can really get a population established that everyday people can drive right up and see these plants and get to know them.”

Natural Resources Program Manager Fritz Klasner explained the partnership with the State Division of Forestry and Wildlife.

Fritz KlasnerFritz Klasner

“DOFAW, the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, has a grant from the federal government to propagate keiki silversword at a nursery lower down on Mauna Kea. And then they plant them every spring. And they had plants and needed to put some more in the ground, and the Office of Mauna Kea Management has a volunteer program… [DOFAW] contacted us and asked if we were interested in planting silverswords in here in this enclosure. This enclosure… is actually Department of Land and Natural Resource land, its part of the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve, fenced off for silverswords.”

A record number of more than thirty-five volunteers helped on Saturday. It was the first replanting of native habitat, after 1,500 volunteer hours of invasive weed pulling on the mountain.

Volunteer Thomas Chun also serves on the Kahu Ku Mauna council, named by the Mauna Kea Management Board.

Thomas ChunThomas Chun

“Having a day like today provides us the opportunity to give back. So often we consume, we take… even the vistas we have here. But these plants wont be here unless we help them.
”

Springer KayeSpringer Kaye

“Our main target species out here is fireweed, mullen, and some of the invasive grasses that really do a lot to suck up the water. Water is the biggest issue out here for native plant regeneration.

One of the questions people always have is what is the purpose of going out and hand-pulling a weed on a mountain that is so big? And what we find is that for the rare native plants the weeds in the immediate area really hurt them. They suck up all the water, they keep them from growing, and they keep them from having babies.

We really appreciate having the volunteers come out. They do make a difference. They cut back on the seed bank. And what we see is over time, less and less of these weed plants regenerating in these areas.

Its just inspiring and it gives everyone a lot of hope.”

Fritz KlasnerFritz Klasner

“On a landscape scale, were not going to stop fireweed or mullen from moving up the mountain. What we want to make sure is that we… aren’t spreading invasive species.

… also, by removing the invasive plants, we remove a food source for invasive insects. The summit of Mauna Kea is really an insect dominated ecosystem.”

Springer KayeSpringer Kaye

“We are just so excited because the silversword have been so rare they have been kind of kapu for the longest time. Most people in Hawaii have never seen a silversword, at least not a Mauna Kea silversword, and they certainly have never held one in their hands. So this is a really unique and – I think – first time event.”

The Mauna Kea silversword is a member of the silversword alliance, a group of endemic Hawaiian plants that scientists believe all evolved from a single plant species which originated in North America several million years ago.

Springer KayeSpringer Kaye

“The Mauna Kea silversword is so unique because its only found on Mauna Kea, it s only at high elevation. It cant survive down low. It became very rare when the mountain became over-run with sheep, goats, and feral cattle. So now that we have fewer animals on the mountain and we have areas like this that are fenced off, we can bring up their numbers and hopefully they can start to spread out into the wild.”

Thomas ChunThomas Chun

“These silverswords werent around even twenty years ago. They had to find them in some of the gulches along here. Because they were protected and the goats couldnt get to ’em, they provided us with the seeds.”

A Mauna Kea silversword grown naturally in the wild can live for over fifty years. Once they establish a firm root system, which should take about a year, these plants are expected to live on Mauna Kea for decades to come.

Fritz KlasnerFritz Klasner

“We’ll be watering in these silverswords twice a week for the next month or so. And then after that we will continue to water once a week for another five months, or until we get some real rain or fog up here. The Big Island – and much of the rest of the state – has been in a pretty severe drought for the past few years. You can see that with all the brown vegetation up here right now.”

Springer KayeSpringer Kaye

“Just seeing these kids get their hands on these plants and they learned about them in school from outreach programs and now they get to really come up and see it and help out. That means a lot to me.”


Filed Under: Feature Tagged With: fireweed, Fritz Klasner, Hale Pohaku, Mauna Kea VIS, Office of Mauna Kea Management, silversword, Springer Kaye, Thomas Chun

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