ʻŌhiʻa Love Fest

Staff Writer Clara Scheidle
Photos courtesy of Mirei Sugita and Leah Wyzykowski

Spreading love and awareness in the name of one of Hawaiʻi’s most beloved native plants

Sunday, Oct. 21, 2018 marked the second annual ʻŌhiʻa Love Fest, which took place at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center. Despite having been rescheduled from its original date of Aug. 26 due to heavy rainfall from Hurricane Lane, thousands showed up to participate in this event.

So what is this event? It’s busy, and there are children everywhere, sporting paper crowns with pictures of flowers and finger puppet birds. The parking lot is full and both sides of the road are flocked with cars all the way past Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, UH Hilo’s College of Hawaiian Language.

“It’s all about raising awareness for keiki all the way up to adults about taking care of our ʻŌhiʻa tree,” says Melanie Dorado Wilson, Dean for Liberal Arts and Public Services at Hawaiʻi Community College, who was volunteering at the event. “Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death is a problem that we’re facing on our island, and it really is up to all of us cooperating together to help defeat it: by not spreading it, and by learning about it.”

ROD is caused by the fungus Ceratocystis fimbriata, and was found on Hawaiʻi Island in 2014. ROD has been devastating towards the population of ʻŌhiʻa trees and, since its discovery, it has spread throughout the entirety of the Big Island. Although there have been efforts to assure that ROD would not spread to other islands, in May 2018 the first off-island case was found in Kauai.

This fungus has two ways of spreading: airborne through the wind or by sticking to people or animals who happen to come in contact with it. It can only affect an ʻŌhiʻa if the tree is injured in some way, allowing the fungus to penetrate with ease. From there, the ʻŌhiʻa is infected and will eventually die.

The ʻŌhiʻa Love Fest emphasizes that we can all help stop the spread of ROD. The first thing you get as you enter the center is a warm smile, a pamphlet complete with the top five things you can do to prevent spreading ROD, and a kit that actually helps you do so. The kit has a spray bottle filled with cleaning alcohol and a heavy duty scrub brush.

Wilson points out that the kit is highly portable and is conveniently designed to be kept in a car for maximum usage. She advises to “clean your shoes before you go into the forest so you don’t track anything in, and then again when you leave.”

Since ROD spreads only to wounded ʻŌhiʻa, another thing we can do is simply not injure the ʻŌhiʻa trees we come in contact with. This includes taking clippings or trimming the trees. If you’re creating a trail, find a different way of marking it besides slashing an ʻŌhiʻa with a machete, as this will certainly harm the tree and encourage the spread of ROD.

Jill Wagner has another, more long-term way of helping out ʻŌhiʻa; collecting their seeds. She runs the Hawaiʻi Island Seed Bank, which collects seeds from native plants as well as agricultural crops and stores them. There are seed banks on every Hawaiian island that work similarly, collecting seeds to ensure we have a sustainable future. The seeds can be used for research, as well as restoration. “A lot of ʻŌhiʻa trees are dying,” she expresses, “so we have to save these seeds for future propagation.”

The seed bank here offers free, public workshops in which people of all ages can go and learn how to properly collect seeds for the bank. “We need help,” Wagner states. “We need to collect a lot of seeds, and it’s much easier if there are a lot of people helping.” If you wish to know more on how to get involved in this initiative, Wagner encourages going to their website to find out more, including workshop dates and contact information.

The ʻŌhiʻa Love Fest isn’t only about raising awareness about ROD; there are a lot of conservation efforts groups set up in and around the center, hoping to do the same. Because ʻŌhiʻa are so prevalent in Hawaiʻi, these conservation efforts often overlap.

The Big Island Invasive Species Committee is one of these groups. Set up in a back corner, with dead snakes in jars of formaldehyde on their table, the BIISC booth attracted a lot of attention from children and--surprisingly enough--adults who wanted to find out ways to get rid of their invasive fire-ant problems.

“This whole thing is about conservation,” says Jade Miyashiro, a member of BIISC. “We believe that ROD came in on some kind of import by accident, which sort of makes it an invasive species.” In her words, Miyashiro says that it’s BIISC’s job is to keep track of “things that we do have and things that we don’t want.”

Miyashiro reveals that BIISC wants to spread awareness about invasive species because it’s becoming an increasingly pervasive problem, due to the fact that Hawaiʻi has no biosecurity. “When you fly in from the mainland, all you do is fill out that paper. That’s all we have, and that’s a horrible system,” she states.

When asked what someone who lives on island can do about preventing invasive species, Miyashiro answers: “Pay attention to politics. Last year they tried to push a bill to start biosecurity and it didn’t pass. We definitely need stronger biosecurity because that’s how this stuff got here in the first place.”

So there are several things you can do to help stop the spread of ROD--and it all starts with becoming aware of the problem. The festival is, after all, advertised for children and families, which accentuates the importance of the next generation caring about these issues and growing up learning how to solve them.

Wilson believes that they will be key in making a difference in our future, stating: “I think it’s really important they understand that everything that we do is connected to nature and affects nature--whether it be in a positive or negative way. So it’s really important for them to come here and interact with the exhibits so that they understand they’re connected to our environment. That’s the biggest thing.”