Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Hilo are taking an innovative approach to forestry in an urgent attempt to save low-elevation forests in Hawaii threatened by human activity and invasive non-native flora.
Working in the Keaukaha Military Reservation in Hilo, the research team is clearing out invasive species and replacing them with a combination of native and non-native plants, creating what they have termed "hybrid ecosystems."
The non-native plants used to replace the invasive species were selected because they complement the native plants without being invasive.
The five-year, $1.5 million project, called Liko na Pilina, is being undertaken as a collaborative effort with Stanford University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service’s Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry, and the Hawaii Army National Guard.
UH-Hilo biology professor Rebecca Ostertag said the goal of the project is to create a self-sustaining forest in which native species can regenerate and thrive on their own.
"Our idea is that we will create better functioning forest that will be better at keeping out invasive species," Ostertag said in a news release.
Ostertag acknowledged that incorporating non-native plants in an effort to regenerate native forest is "unique and pretty controversial."
However, if successful, it could offer conservationists a means of reclaiming a battle long believed lost.
According to the researchers, lowland wet forest ecosystems have been devastated by aggressive non-native species to the point where even constant weeding may be insufficient to restore a functioning all-native ecosystem.
"Not only are we just asking some management questions; we are asking questions about fundamentally how different plant communities assemble," Ostertag said.
The project has also provided a unique learning opportunity for UH-Hilo students, interns from other universities and local high school and middle school students who help with clearing, planting and data collection.
The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program.
