With climate change and vast lands dominated by invasive grass species, experts say Hawaii needs to fund its own wildfire fuel reduction program to lessen the threat of wildfires.

Michael Walker, state protection forester of the Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, plans to request at least $1 million from the state Legislature next year to establish a wildfire fuel reduction program. “We really need to be taking care of our fuel management. I’m hoping that I can successfully work with the Legislature to address it,” Walker said.

The objective of fuel reduction is to remove enough vegetation so when a wildfire burns, it is less severe and can be more easily managed, according to the National Park Service.

“When vegetation, or fuels, accumulate, they allow fires to burn hotter, faster, and with higher flame lengths. When fire encounters areas of continuous brush or small trees, it can burn these ‘ladder fuels’ and may quickly move from a ground fire into the treetops, creating a crown fire,” NPS said.

The $1 million Hawaii program would support equipment and grazing contractors, supplies and other fuel management actions for state and county lands. If all goes well, Walker would like to expand efforts to aid private landowners.

A recent massive wildfire on Hawaii island scorched at least 40,000 acres of land in Waimea and South Kohala. The fire, believed to be one of the biggest wildfires in state history, killed animals on pastureland and destroyed two homes.

Fuel management in the state is underfunded because it competes for federal grants with 13 other Western states where massive wildfires are highly publicized. Walker said, “We really need our own fuel reduction funds that are provided by the state to address these areas of significant wildland fire fuels.”

Climate change is a major contributing factor in the frequency of wildfires. Heavier rainfall periods in Hawaii contribute to the growth of non-native guinea and fountain grass.

Compounded by drought conditions and strong winds, Walker said the recent wildfire on Hawaii island in the Waimea and South Kohala areas scorched about 100 acres an hour July 31 and Aug. 1 due to 50 mph gusts. “It was really fast-moving, really dangerous.”

The decline in large-scale agriculture and ranching also contributed to the increase in wildfires with fallow lands covered with non-native guinea or fountain grass. In the summer of 2019, wildfires swept through more than 10,000 acres of former sugar plantation fields on Maui.

“We’re not using the lands like how we used to,” said wildland fire expert Clay Trauernicht of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

He emphasized that the average amount of land burned by wildfires has increased to 20,000 acres a year in the past decade from an estimated 5,000 acres a year in the past century.

Two enormous wildfires in years past have occurred on Hawaii island: a 25,000-acre fire in Waikoloa in 2005 and a 47,000-acre fire in the northwest in 1969.

Andrea “Nani” Barretto, co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildlife Management Organization, said wildfires have broad, long-lasting impacts on communities and natural resources. The recent fire on Hawaii island was the largest to occur in the Waimea-South Kohala area. “Fires of this magnitude are becoming the new norm and need to be addressed,” Barretto said.