It’s hurricane season, and the war against albizias has hit a lull.
The invasive trees are resented across the island for their rapid growth and brittle branches, which break easily in windy weather and caused an estimated $20 million in infrastructure damage during Tropical Storm Iselle in 2014.
Nine years later, and after several agencies invested millions more dollars into removing the trees from sensitive areas, the campaign against albizias has slowed.
Franny Brewer, program manager at the Big Island Invasive Species Council, said BIISC is seeking additional funding from the state and other sources to continue a tree removal project on Kahakai Boulevard in Hawaiian Beaches.
“We got the last grant-in-aid two years ago, and we haven’t been able to get another one,” Brewer said, adding that, at a rough cost of $300,000 per mile, removing the trees from populated areas is expensive.
Because of their propensity to shed branches, albizias must be treated with more care if they are near infrastructure or homes. While a 200-foot-tall tree standing alone in a field can be poisoned cheaply with no risk to anyone, a 40-foot tree overlooking a road has to be handled by an arborist at much greater expense.
Brewer said that critical transit corridors — roads and highways identified by the state Department of Transportation as primary targets for albizia removal — remain clear of the hazardous trees.
Hawaiian Electric spokeswoman Kristen Okinaka said via email that HECO spent $17 million in 2022 alone to clear trees and vegetation around electrical infrastructure, and received another $2 million from DOT in June for additional tree removal.
“Right now, the bigger issue for infrastructure is from trees on private properties,” Brewer said.
The private property dilemma has been a bugbear for BIISC and Big Island residents for years. The wide shade of a mature albizia means that a tree growing on an adjacent property can still endanger other properties, but if the owner of the betreed property cannot be reached, the tree cannot be removed.
Brewer said a state bill passed in 2019 does allow landowners to be protected from trespassing charges if they remove a dangerous tree on an adjacent property, provided they take steps to attempt to contact the neighboring property owner first. But, she added, that law does nothing to alleviate the cost of removing a problematic tree, which can reach five figures.
“It’s kind of a social, environmental justice issue, because people don’t necessarily have 3, 5, 10, 12 thousand dollars,” Brewer said.
Brewer said hundreds of hazardous trees along county roads are reported to county authorities, but added the county also lacks funding to take down the trees.
There is at least some cold comfort, however: Brewer said that if someone informs a property owner that a tree on their land is dangerous, that property owner can be held liable if that causes damage to a neighboring parcel.
Brewer said BIISC is working with HECO, Hawaiian Telcom and other stakeholders to update a 2015 Albizia Emergency Tree Mitigation and Management Plan, which outlined a five-year plan to remove trees from critical areas.
“We want to update it for current cost projections and new priority roads,” Brewer said.
Meanwhile, the next generation of young albizias is growing older. Young trees sprouting in areas already cleared of mature trees threaten to become dangerous if not nipped in the bud.
“You see these younger trees along Highway 11, and along the belt road north of Hilo,” said Brewer. “Right now they’re small and easy to manage, but if they get bigger, they’re a lot more expensive to deal with.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
