Vacant Seats: The Office of Environmental Quality Control has been headless since the departure last May of Ginny Salmonson. Larry Lau, deputy director of the Department of Health, is filling in, but has his hands full with his normal duties. Until recently, the OEQC, authorized to have five positions, was down by four, with a secretary and two planners having left as well. Now, the office has a new secretary and two new planners, but it will be some time before they learn the ropes.
The Office of Planning has been without an administrator since Laura Thielen took over the position of acting administrator of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The important post of deputy director for land at the DLNR has been vacant since Bob Masuda departed in May.
`Ohi`a Rust Rule – At Last: The state Board of Agriculture has finally approved an interim rule limiting imports of plants in the Myrtaceae family – the family to which Hawai`i’s `ohi`a trees belong – from areas which are known to be infested with Puccinia psidii, a rust fungus. Those areas include California, Florida, and South America.
The action had been sought for the better part of two years, ever since the rust was first noticed in the spring of 2005. Since then, it has caused widespread damage to rose apple trees. Although the particular strain of rust found here does not seem to affect `ohi`a, the rule was needed to reduce the likelihood of an introduction of a strain of the rust that could be more damaging to `ohi`a (Metrosideros polymorpha), a key species in native Hawaiian forests.
The rule, which was approved at the Board of Agriculture’s August 28 meeting, is good for one year. Violators are subject to a fine of not less than $100 or more than $10,000 for a first violation; penalties for repeat offenders are a minimum fine of $500 up to a maximum of $25,000.
At the same meeting, the board approved another interim rule prohibiting the inter-island shipment of honey bees, whether alive or dead, and bee-keeping equipment, unless the Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine branch manager determines that the movement is from or within an area uninfested by the varroa mite.
The rule is intended to lessen the chance that the mite, which has recently been discovered on O`ahu honeybees, could spread to other islands.
Flying to the Rescue of Wiliwili: The state Department of Agriculture is seeking comments on the proposed release of a parasitic wasp that it hopes will control the erythrina gall wasp that has been so devastating to Hawai`i’s native wiliwili trees.
As we reported in September, the parasitic wasp was found in Tanzania by Mohsen Ramadan, the state’s exploratory entomologist. According to the DOA, the parasitic wasp, Eurytoma sp., is “highly specific in targeting and propagating on the EWG,” or erythrina gall wasp. During testing, the parasitoid wasp “showed no interest in other representative gall-forming insects, strictly targeting and preying on the immature stages of the EWG.”
The DOA goes on to say, “it is strongly believed that the field release of Eurytoma sp. will have no non-target (unintended) effects and will effectively suppress EGW population densities to levels where the pest will no longer threaten the survival of Erythrina trees, especially the native wiliwili, in Hawai`i.”
Volume 18, Number 4 October 2007
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