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https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-oahu-native-forest-wildfire-e676c5bd5384554bc100ca5208bacf43>
"HONOLULU (AP) — A wildfire burning in a remote Hawaii rainforest is
underscoring a new reality for the normally lush island state just a few months
after a devastating blaze on a neighboring island leveled an entire town and
killed at least 99 people.
No one was injured and no homes burned in the latest fire, which scorched
mountain ridges on Oahu, but the flames wiped out irreplaceable native
forestland that’s home to nearly two dozen fragile species. And overall, the
ingredients are the same as they were in Maui’s historic town of Lahaina:
severe drought fueled by climate change is creating fire in Hawaii where it has
almost never been before.
“It was really beautiful native forest,” said JC Watson, the manager of the
Koolau Mountains Watershed Partnership, which helps take care of the land. He
recalled it had uluhe fern, which often dominate Hawaii rainforests, and koa
trees whose wood has traditionally been used to make canoes, surfboards and
ukuleles.
“It’s not a full-on clean burn, but it is pretty moonscape-looking out there,”
Watson said.
The fact that this fire was on Oahu’s wetter, windward side is a “red flag to
all of us that there is change afoot,” said Sam ’Ohu Gon III, senior scientist
and cultural adviser at The Nature Conservancy in Hawaii."
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
