A group of Molokai residents are urging the state to set a quarantine to prevent the spread of coconut rhinoceros beetles to their island.
The invasive beetle is devastating to coconut trees, burrowing into the palm hearts and feasting on the young fronds, which severely damages or kills the tree.
The pest was first detected on O‘ahu in 2013 and has become firmly entrenched over the years. Since then, specimens have been detected on each other Hawaiian island, except for Molokai.
Two island coconut farmers, Kunani and Ipo Nihipali, filed a petition to the State Department of Agriculture in July. The petition calls for an interim rule that would, for one year, set a quarantine on the transfer of potential CRB host material such as compost, mulch and woodchips to Molokai.
Anyone who violates the proposed rule would be fined between $100 and $10,000 on first offense. A second offense within five years of the first would require the offender to be responsible for clean-up and decontamination fees along with a fine of up to $25,000.
“Molokai is a small island, approximately 260 square miles in size,” read the petition. “If CRB is detected anywhere on Molokai, it could spread rapidly across the island, impacting agricultural interests … the treatment of coconut trees will significantly impact the usability of our coconut trees … imperil native and endemic palms and potentially interfere with important traditional and cultural practices.”
But although the Department of Agriculture’s Plant Quarantine Branch acknowledged in August that additional measures are likely necessary to prevent the spread of CRB to Molokai, it warned the proposed quarantine is too restrictive and could set a dangerous precedent.
“Should this be approved … it would enable other petitioners to essentially ban large swaths of commodities, regardless of their risk of spreading a particular pest,” wrote Jonathan Ho, manager of the Plant Quarantine Branch.
Ho wrote that the proposed quarantine doesn’t even allow for the possibility of decontamination treatment of certain items, even though such treatments exist and are proven to be effective. It also prohibits the movement of such items even from areas not known to be infested with the beetles.
And despite this, Ho argued that the quarantine would still not be an absolute protection for the island, writing that the prevailing theory about CRB’s introduction to the state was “likely as a hitchhiker on an aircraft from an infested area,” something the Plant Quarantine Branch can do nothing about.
“The only truly preventative measure would be [to] not have any interisland movement to Molokai,” Ho wrote.
But residents of Molokai and beyond urged the Board of Agriculture to adopt the petition. At a late August meeting, scores of people spoke for hours about the need to protect the island.
“We do know that prevention doesn’t guarantee CRB won’t eventually get here, and that interim rules don’t eliminate every risk,” said Molokai Rep. Mahina Poepoe. “But that’s not a reason to not try every single possible thing we can. Inspected goods have brought pests to Molokai in the past … there’s no capacity on-island for heat treatment or fumigation or quarantine or inspection of high-risk materials.”
Poepoe said the quarantine will allow the island to develop such systems so that, in a year’s time after the quarantine lifts, there will be a more effective barrier to screen out CRB.
Molokai farmer Malia Nolan wrote to the Board, warning that negligent owners of Molokai vacation homes either don’t know or don’t care about the risks of CRB.
“We have had multiple very unfortunate incidences of non-residents with vacation homes … looking only for the cheapest deal, shipping in literal container loads of mulch from O‘ahu,” Nolan wrote. “That is literally a ticking time bomb for invasive species … With CRB eggs being the size of a grain of rice, no one can actually sift through that much mulch.”
Despite misgivings from the Plant Quarantine Branch, the Board of Agriculture voted to accept the petition, thereby requiring the Plant Quarantine Branch to develop an interim rule that the Board will either adopt or reject at a future meeting.
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