Killing with Kindness

A nice example of a large landowner in Oahu taking charge and being a steward of his own aina by reviving native plants and animals.

From the Source:

"Mr. Zweng envisions a day when some of his forest will be returned to the natural state it was in before 20,000 kinds of invasive plants and animals arrived, carried by explorers, tourists and indefatigable birds. He likes to point out that what he's attempting is much harder than the discipline known as forest management. 'Here, we're recreating the native forest," he said...

...Already, these three and various other volunteers seem to be making a difference: there are signs of hope in the forest. In meadows thinned of invasive trees and shrubs, new shoots of indigenous koa trees are sprouting, along with the flowering mountain naupaka and the palaa fern. The bright yellow kookoolau, a flower found only in Hawaii, is flourishing here, too...

Still, Mr. Zweng worries about his own mortality and how many years he has left to work in the forest. He dreams of the day the land is restored enough that he might see a bright red apapane or an orange-and-red iiwi, native birds that haven’t been in evidence in the valley for years.

Because in all likelihood, he said, the true verdict on his work will come not from environmentalists or the community, but from nature: 'Nature will tell us we’ve made a difference.'"

"Once fields are thinned of competing invasive plants, and more sun gets through, koa seedlings sprout on their own." - Photo courtesy of Laure Joliet for The New York Times

A Tragic Year for Wildland Firefighters Ends in Reflection (AUDIO)

From the Source:

"'This was an unusual year, and so part of this may be due to just the fact that it was an unusual year, and part of it may be due to the growing footprint of the wildland-urban interface,' Rideout says.

That interface is where homes and even whole cities are being built into the forests, and it's where most of today's high-profile fires happen — Yarnell Hill included. The homes in these zones are being built safer, and Rideout says that comes with some unintended consequences.

'As we take measures to try to make the wildland-urban interface a nice and safe place to be and to occupy, the incentive for it to grow gets even larger, so it's kind of a self-perpetuating situation,' he says."

Above: "The wildfire in Yarnell, Ariz., last June destroyed homes and killed 19 firefighters. Experts say expansion into wildfire-prone areas has created new challenges for firefighters." Courtesy of NPR.