The Erythrina gall wasp has been driving people nuts all across the state, said Kaweka Duvauchelle, resource specialist at the Moloka'i Plant Materials Center on their open house day, Tuesday, April 18.
Now working around the wasp, which has decimated conveniently windbreaking and native wiliwili trees throughout the state by planting it’s eggs in the , has become the primary focus for the creative team of agricultural experts.
"We're working to replace the wiliwili as a windbreak, and we have a potential replacement," said Duvauchelle.
The PMC team has found some success with a tree known as panex, however there is a small problem - literally.
"It's not as fast growing," said Duvauchelle. "It was a month before we started seeing shoots."
That means cuttings can't be made until much later on than with the wiliwili, which springs up seemingly overnight.
While the team works on replace the wiliwili in purpose (windbreak), other scientists search for a biological control agent, which would likely be another wasp or insect that eats the gall wasp.
“Of course when you talk about bringing in other bugs, you get whole other host of issues,” said Duvauchelle.
Another topic at the PMC open house was the pili grass that is grown for the reforestation project on Kaho'olawe.
As you'll recall, The Moloka'i Island Times visited the former bomb-targeted island for a special feature last year.
Growing pili grass for the Kaho'olawe project has been a time-consuming effort for USDA employees, who must supply the whole island with vegetation.
Efforts to commercialize this production hinge on USDA contracts and supply and market demand, which is currently uncalculated.
A handful of times each year, a chopper rented by the Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) make as many trips as possible to re-supply the barren island with baled pili grass and seed.
PMC employees can’t tell you enough how valuable the knowledge they discovered in the efficiency of baling pili grass is to them.
Because of the pili's sticky, thorny characteristics, it was very difficult for them to work with before they thought to bale it.
Another plant that has been a PMC veteran for a while is the Indian Vetevier, which is designed to control soil erosion in rainy areas. According to PMC Manager Glenn Sakamoto it is not very palatable for fauna found on Moloka'i.
Debra Kelly of the Moloka'i Watershed Partnership is investigating to see if it might be a possibility to control Moloka'i's East End erosion problem. Even though it isn't a species native to Moloka'i, she said her priorities were on stopping the mud from coming down the hill.
PMC experts also gave demonstrations of their weed control trials and showed off their impressive seed sorting devices, and their refrigerated seed storage facility. The seed for the Auli'i plant is so small that it takes 88,000 seeds to make one pound. Not surprisingly, the PMC produces just 11 pounds of seed annually.
If you're interested in getting any seeds produced through the USDA Plant Materials Center, please contact their field office on Maui at (808) 244-3100.
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