Jack and Kathy Ewel Depart Hawai`i; Helped Build Forest Service Institute

posted in: May 2005 | 0

By the time John and kathy Ewel retired this spring from the Institute of Pacific Island Forestry, a research unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, they had left a deep, lasting impression. They came to the institute at a time of opportunity when the Forest Service, answering a congressional mandate, undertook to strengthen the capacity for forest research in Hawaii and the affiliated Pacific islands. Their vision for sound science in the service of forest conservation became manifest in the institute they built, in the lives they touched, and in hte work they did. The cause of good stewardship for the natural patrimony of the Pacific islands is healthier today because of their efforts.

The Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry had its beginnings in the Hawaii Forest Research Center established in 1957 (and given its present name a decade later). In 1992, Congress passed the Hawaii Tropical Forest Recovery Act, which directed the Secretary of Agriculture to expand the institute and estab lish a Hawaii Tropical Froest Recovery Task Force. A year-long series of meetings followed, engaging every sector of the community interested in natural resource conservation and culminating in the develompent of the Hawaii Tropical Forest Recovery Plan.

In response to the plan, the Forest Servfice amended the institute’s structure and its charter. In 1994, Jack Ewel was brought to Hawaii to head the institute and to give life to the vision expressed in the Forest Recovery Plan. Kathy Ewel, meanwhile, came to lead a new tropical wetlands research unti.

Before coming to Hawaii, both Jack and Kathy had been professors at the University of Florida — Jack in the Department of Botany and Kathy in the School of Forestry and Wildlife. There, each had earned international recognition for their research on the ecology of tropical forests and wetlands.

Under Jack’s leadership, the institute’s research budget more than doubled, more funds became available to island clients through Cooperative Forestry than ever before, and construction of a spacious office and laboratory in Hilo is nearing completion. The institute itself now has four programmatic teams — for restoration, wetlands, invasive species, and forest management services — as well as administrative support personnel. Employing broad, national, affirmative-action searches, Jack was able to bring many bright young scientists and professionals to the institute’s staff.

The institute stands apart from most other Forest Service programs in that research and technical assistance teams are united administratively and programmatically. This means that resource management concerns are brought to the table early on in the design of research and that management recommendations embrace state-of-the-art science. Jack passonately believed in this approach; the interweaving of the research arm with the hands-on technical transfer missions of the institute reflects this.

Another Ewel legacy is the institute’s contribution to the next generation of forest managers and research scientists through the University of Hawaii Hawaiian Internship Program, theMicronesia American Samoa Internship Program and the National Science Foundation’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The guilding principle for the internships has been to develop professional leadership skills among island residents. For their achievements in this area, Kathy Ewel and Katie Friday, another institute employee, received the Forest Service Chief’s Multicultural Award in 2002. Over the last nine years, 66 students have benefited from the internship program.

Jack’s personal research was carried out in the Costa Rican rain forest at La Selva Biological Station. At the research center there, he established experimental tropical forest communities by studying species selected to represent particular functional groups, such as large herbs and fast-growing pioneer trees. He wanted to understand how species diversity affected ecosystem services such as nutrient retention, water use, soil erosion, and resistance to invasions by exotic species. While there is a common belief that species diversity improves ecosystem services, Jack’s research has shown that the kind of species in a given plant community probably matters more than just the number of species present. His studies have an immediate bearing on restoration projects where the rehabilitation of core ecosystem processes is a necessary precursor to re-establishying healthy populations of native species.

Kathy applied her work in the mangrove and cypress forests of the Southeast to helping Pacific Islanders manage the forested wetlands that sustain their lives. She focused her research team on understanding the connections between freshwater swamps and mangrove forests of Kosrae, in the Federated States of Micronesia, on factors that limited forest growth, on the dynamics of the mangrove crab populations and on the socioeconomic values of these forests. Her objective was to give residents the tools they needed to appreciate and conserve their forests.

The Ewels left Hawaii without fuss or fanfare. While many are unaware of their departure — to say nothing of their very presence in the islands — they legacy they have left behind will redound to the benefit of Pacific Islanders for generations to come.

— Julie Denslow

Julie Denslow is a research scientist at the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry in Hilo.

Volume 15, Number 11 May 2005