When science backfires
Remember all the rose apple trees that were once scattered along the Hamakua Coast? They are all dead now, wilted away by an accidental release of a created bug by the scientists of Hilo University. All the healthy rose apple trees died standing: all the leaves, both old and new died.
Remember the “bug” that scientists want to introduce and release into our environment to wilt away the waiwi, a.k.a., strawberry guava? In our many meetings with the scientists of the “experimental forest” of Laupahoehoe, the federal scientists told us they planned to release the “bug” in our Laupahoehoe Forest. They assured us that only the waiwi leaves would be attacked by the “bug” and the tree would slowly but surely die while still standing; with no leaves, old and new: just bare branches.
We noted to the scientists that the waiwi and the ohia leaves were somewhat similar in shape and size. Also noted was that both the waiwi and ohia leaves have identical scaly round brown bumps on them. Scientists again reassured us that the foreign introduced insect would not jump from the targeted waiwi tree to its distant cousin, the ohia tree. In their slide show presentations, the scientists test plots were somewhere in the Hilo and Puna areas.
Today our healthy ohia trees are wilting away the same way all of the rose apple trees wilted away and died: standing, bereft of leaves, both old and new.
The introduced waiwi killer bug, the Brazilian scale insect, Hemiptera tectococcus ovatus, has already been released into our environment by the U.S. Forest Service in 2012. So far, 51 biocontrol agents have been released into our environment by the U.S. Forest Service scientists.
All I can end with is this: remember when scientists introduce and released the mongoose in Hawaii to eradicate the rat? We all know how that has never ended and here we go again!
Everett Franco
Paauilo