Conservation Issues in the Hawaiian Islands

golf cart sign     To build or not to build, that is the question. Nowhere is the issue more plainly spelled out than when you are on an island. The Hawaiian Islands are, indeed, a tropical paradise. It seems, however, that many people would like to re-create the Islands to better match their image of what such a paradise should look like. In some areas those ideas include high-rise hotels and hectares of golf courses. Significant economic forces constantly push the issue to the forefront of conservation issues.

    For example, golf is a favorite pastime of tourists. Ample applications of water, herbicides and insecticides are required to keep the courses green. The favored location of the courses is on the dry, sunny sides of the Islands, meaning extensive waterworks are required to divert the water from its natural course and bring it to the golfers. Chemicals applications run off or leak into surrounding territories and bodies of water with reprocussions to the surrounding environment.


Telescopes on Mauna Kea summit

    The summit of Mauna Kea illustrates the tug-of-war between competing interests in the Islands. The mountain contains significant archeological artifacts of ancient Hawaiian culture. It is the home of unique biota in a unique environment. The indigenous Hawaiian culture upholds it as a sacred place. It is also reverred by modern astronomers as perhaps the finest location on earth for their high-tech telescopes.


Garbage, garbage, garbage

    At least the salt air helps the old autos rust away quickly, but it still seems like piles of junk can be seen too frequently in this tropical paradise. The economics of shipping recycled materials 2500 miles to the mainland for processing discourages such practices, so virtually all the materials used by the Islands' population of 1.2 million must find a final resting place there, straining landfills and too frequently ending up along the roadsides or on beaches. Plastic junk is ubiquitous on otherwise pristine beaches. Indeed, on Midway Island garbage is burned in an open dump because there is no land for creation of a landfill. Reduction of the waste stream is vital in an island ecosystem.


The Cardinal was brought to Hawaii from the eastern U.S. in 1929. It now appears everywhere.

Alien versus native species.


Modern travel has allowed species of all kinds to invade Hawaii. The native flora and fauna cannot cope with the new threats while the exotic species are free from their usual enemies. Even well-intended introductions have wreaked havoc on native species.
Feral goats love to eat the silversword plant, uniquely found only at high elevations on Maui and the Big Island. Without strict goat control this plant would soon be gone.