(BIVN) – The federal employee who oversaw the effort to keep the destructive brown tree snake out of Hawaiʻi has been fired. 

U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D, Hawaiʻi) criticized the firing of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employee responsible for coordinating the Brown Tree Snake Program in Hawaiʻi, one of the thousands of federal workers who have been dismissed under Trump administration cuts. 

Photo of brown tree snake from video by the U.S. Navy

“Thankfully, this snake does not yet exist in Hawaii or anywhere in the continental U.S., but that is not by accident or chance — it is because of the tireless work of federal employees from several agencies,” said Senator Hirono. “But the firing of just one individual… threatens to nullify all of that successful work.” 

From the office of the U.S. Senator:

The brown tree snake is one of the most destructive invasive species in the world and has been wreaking havoc on Guam since its accidental introduction during World War II. The snake kills native and domestic animals—causing the extinction of at least a dozen animal species in Guam—and is responsible for thousands of power outages since its introduction, costing Guam $4.5 million in repairs each year. Despite years of various attempts to control the brown tree snake population in Guam, its population is currently estimated to be in the millions and it is highly unlikely that this invasive species will ever be fully eliminated from the island.

“Trump and Elon Musk think they can just take a chainsaw to our federal workforce and budget, hacking away with no consequences,” said Senator Hirono. “But in ten years, when brown tree snakes have decimated Hawaii’s ecosystem, and wreaked havoc in other states across our country, it will obviously be too late.”