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Loope, Lloyd L. and Donald W. Reeser. 2001. Crossing boundaries at Haleakala: addressing invasive species through partnerships. From Crossing Boundaries in Park Management: Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Research and Resource Management in Parks and on Public Lands, edited by David Harmon (Hancock, Michigan: The George Wright Society, 2001).
Increasing globalization, involving proliferation of pathways for potentially invasive species, poses the ultimate threat to Hawaii's parks, jeopardizing their very survival. This same fear is now being voiced for all biodiversity worldwide. But oceanic island ecosystems in general and the Hawaiian Islands in particular are especially vulnerable. Hawaii is an evolutionary showcase, with very high local endemism and many textbook examples of adaptive radiation. We at Haleakala National Park are involved in many excellent partnerships, detailed below, to address invasions, but we are increasingly realizing that Hawaii is overwhelmed: more federal and state resources are desperately needed. Haleakala National Park, encompassing 44 sq mi, or 6% of the 728-sq-mi island of Maui, Hawaii, is one of the most important reserve sites in the USA for conservation of biodiversity. Stretching from the sea to 10,023 ft above sea level, it is still overwhelmingly dominated by native species. Roughly 90% of its plant and invertebrate species are Hawaiian endemics and 20% are single-island endemics. Conservation International recently included Hawaii in its 25 biodiversity hotspots (Mittermeier et al. 1999), and Haleakala is arguably the prime reserve on Maui. Maui has other important state and private reserves, so that the total area of land managed or soon to be managed for biodiversity conservation approaches 15-20% of the island. We believe that Maui is the most intact Hawaiian island and has the most promise for long-term native species and ecosystem protection. The two [co-authors of this paper] have focused much effort outside park boundaries in the past decade, working with partners and partnerships which have promise for improving efforts on Maui and statewide for prevention, detection, rapid response, and containment or biocontrol of invasive alien species. [adapted from the introductory paragraphs]
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HEAR bibliography
