Restoring Lehua: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has published a draft environmental assessment for restoring the ecosystem of the 284-acre islet of Lehua, three-quarters of a mile off the north ern shore of Ni‘ihau, at the western end of the Main Hawai ian Islands. Lehua was inhabited by Polynesians in pre historic times, but it is now a bird sanctuary.
But the native birds, including both Laysan and Black-footed albatross, are being threat ened by non-native rabbits and rats. The preferred alternative outlined in the EA calls first for eradicating rabbits by trapping and hunting, timed to avoid peak bird nesting seasons. The second step would use aerial broadcasts of a rodenticide to eradicate the rats. The final step in restoration involves restoration of native plants.
Lead agencies in the project are the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Hawai‘i Depart ment of Land and Natural Resources’ Divi sion of Forestry and Wildlife. The deadline for comment on the draft EA is July 8.
The document is available online: [url=http://www.fws.gov/pacific/pacificislands/]http://www.fws.gov/pacific/pacificislands/[/url] LehuaDraftEA.pdf
Taking the Garbage Out – Way Out: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is con sidering amending its rules to allow garbage to be shipped in plastic-wrapped bales from Hawai‘i to landfills on the continental United States. “The major landfill on O‘ahu … is reaching capacity,” says a draft environmen tal assessment prepared for the rule change. “If the agency adopts the amendments to its regulations … Hawai‘i will have other alter natives for dealing with disposal of its munici pal solid waste.”
According to the environmental assess ment prepared by APHIS, the state Depart ment of Health asked the agency to assess the feasibility of shipments of baled waste. The environmental assessment and risk analysis examined the prospects that the waste might introduce undesirable weeds or insects to the mainland. It concluded that the risk was negligible. Even if the waste contained seeds, they were unlikely to germinate under the circumstances of the bales’ eventual burial.
The deadline for public comment was June 20.
Animated Aquifer: Is the Pearl Harbor aqui fer shrinking? According to a U.S. Geologi cal Survey study that modeled a century of change in what may be the state’s most important source of fresh water, between 1880 and 1980, the aquifer shrunk signifi cantly as the transition zone between fresh and saltwater moved landward and rose. The study, says Stephen Gingerich, a re search hydrologist with the USGSin Hono lulu, used state-of-the-art technology in developing three-dimensional models illus trating changes to the aquifer.
And more is yet to come. Gingerich and his colleagues found that the aquifer takes half a century or more to respond to changed conditions. “Parts of the ground-water sys tem may still be readjusting to ground-water withdrawals made 50 years ago,” he wrote.
Links to aquifer animations illustrating the changes described by the model are avail able on the USGS website.
Volume 16, Number 1 July 2005
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