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Murashige, Laura
From: Sydney Singer [ssinger@coconut-wireless.net]
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 12:35 PM 2009 APR 17 PM ?p
To: counciltestimony@co.hawaii.hi.us
Subject: Testimony Re: 80-09 Ban on biocontrol against O'hia relatives ;GLINT`' !1 H::NAII
Attachments: Testimony Regarding Biocontrol Ban.pdf
Good Shepherd Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 1880, Pahoa, Hawaii 96778
(808) 935-5563
April 17, 2009
Testimony Re: 80-09 Ban on the release of biological control agents attacking species related to the
O'hia
Please support this resolution banning the use of biocontrol agents against myrtle relatives of the
O'hia. Consider the following:
1. Our forests will be destroyed if our O'hia are attacked by invasive insects or fungi released as
biocontrol against related myrtle trees. The O'hia is in the myrtle family, which included the rose
apple, mountain apple, surinam cherry, guava, strawberry guava, paperbark tree, and many other
trees in Hawaii. Attacks against one myrtle species can lead to attacks on other myrtles as
biocontrol agents adapt and evolve. Right now, the O'hia are under attack by a fungus, called
Puccinia psidii, or O'hia rust, which is also attacking other myrtles and has destroyed the rose
apple. The Puccinia fungus is being used as biocontrol for paperbark trees in Florida.
2. The O'hia is already weakened by fungi and competition, making it more susceptible to attack by
new biocontrol agents.
3. Biocontrol agents are alive and evolve. A biocontrol agent can evolve and adapt as it looks for
new food sources. Fungi can evolve within months, and insects within a few years.
4. Biocontrol agents are introduced without any of the natural predators and diseases that control
their populations. This means that, if they get established, they will explode in population and can
do this very fast. Keep in mind how fast the wili wili wasp spread across the state and decimated
the wili wili tree. And the O'hia rust has also spread lightening fast across the state.
5. Biocontrol is experimental, and the experiment is irreversible and irrevocable. Nobody can predict
the outcome of these experiments with certainty, and if it goes bad, it will be too late to stop it.
The damage could be devastating to our O'hia forests.
6. Biocontrol agents should be considered invasive species until proven otherwise. When it comes to
the introduction of non-native insects, we are told to assume the worst by the invasive species
council. This should be the case when it comes to biocontrol insect and fungus experimentation,
Comm. No. ~.O . Z
4/17/2009 Ref. To: ti P W 1 R'~'
Ref. Date APR 21 002
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as well.
7. Consider the worst case scenario. If the O'hia does get attacked, what can be done about it? The
answer is spraying our forests with chemicals, or releasing more biocontrol agents to attack the
old biocontrol agents. Both of these are bad options, except to the agencies that will get more
funding to deal with the damage caused by their experiments.
8. Biocontrol is not a final solution to "saving our native forests". At best, biocontrol will weaken
weed species that are attacked. But the weed will still be there, and new aggressive weeds will
take their place. Meanwhile, the O'hia can be attacked by the evolving biocontrol agents.
We need methods of native forest management that do not pose a risk to the native trees we are
trying to save. According to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, at least 33 biocontrol introductions
have resulted in unintentional attacks on native and beneficial species. Biocontrol has threatened the
extinction of 15 species of native Hawaiian moths, according to UH's Francis Howarth, Ph.D.. And most
adverse impacts are not reported, since only about 2% of biocontrol releases have had post-release
monitoring to see the unintended consequences.
Often you can't tell the damage until decades after the release was done. Therefore, claims by
biocontrollers that their new methods have had no bad effects for the past 30 years is misleading. We
may soon see the bad effects of biocontrol experiments from 30 years ago.
I realize that the government employees who have grant money for biocontrol research think very highly
of their efforts, and are trying to do their best. But Hawaii is not their laboratory. And if their
experiments back fire, as many do, we all suffer, and our forests could be destroyed. Limit biocontrol to
species unrelated to the O'hia. Meanwhile, let's come up with methods of weed control that do not risk
killing the patient as part of the treatment.
Sincerely,
Sydney Ross Singer
Medical Anthropologist and Wildlife Conservationist
Director, Good Shepherd Foundation, Inc.
4/17/2009