Following recent failed releases of the Hawaiian crow into the bird’s historical home of Hawaii island, officials are aiming for better success on the island of Maui.
The state Division of Forestry and Wildlife has prepared a draft environmental assessment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describing a pilot release of the alala in East Maui.
The draft EA is available for public comment until Nov. 29, and a public meeting will be held on Maui Wednesday.
Releasing the alala on Maui will allow the birds to avoid the predator largely responsible for the previous failed attempts to establish a wild population — the io, or Hawaiian hawk, which is found only on the Big Island.
The draft EA names the Kipahulu Forest Reserve and Koolau Forest Reserve as potential release sites and also considers impacts to adjacent private and National Park Service lands.
While alala are known to primarily have existed on Hawaii island in historical times, there is subfossil evidence of alala or a similar species within Maui Nui, officials said.
Partners in the Maui project are Haleakala National Park, the Maui Forest Bird Recovery Project and ‘Alala Project, which is a coalition of the Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Fish and Wildlife Service and the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
The project, as outlined in the draft EA, aims to evaluate whether the alala will breed in the wetter forests of East Maui and experience better survival rates in an area where io are absent.
The alala arrived in Hawaii before humans and adapted to the unique environments here. The intelligent bird is one of the few species known for using tools and is revered in Hawaiian culture.
But the alala currently survive only in captivity at two conservation breeding centers, one on Hawaii island and the other on Maui. The good news, officials said, is there are some 110 alala in captivity, which means there is a sustainable source of birds for release.
Officials say the species is a forest builder that spreads the seeds of native forest plants. If allowed to thrive in the wild, they can help revitalize and restore Hawaii’s forests, they said.
Wildlife biologist Lindsey Nietmann with the Division of Forestry and Wildlife said the potential impacts of alala on Maui’s environment were thoroughly analyzed in the EA, and the agencies anticipate issuing a finding of no significant impact, since the potential effects are likely to be minimal.
All released alala will be trained to respond to an auditory cue so that they can be easily recaptured and returned to captivity in the event they are causing unforeseen impacts, Nietmann said.
“I believe the risk of not releasing them is high, since then we will continue to have overcrowding and low breeding success in the conservation breeding centers and they will continue to lose their wild behaviors. We need to develop release strategies and evaluate east Maui as suitable habitat for ʻalala, which is exactly what this pilot project will accomplish,” she said in an email.
There have been a number of attempts to establish a population in the wild on Hawaii island. From 1993 to 1998, the crows were released on the leeward side of the island.
There were a couple of recent releases using different approaches at Pu‘u Maka‘ala Natural Area Reserve in windward Hawaii from 2016 to 2019, but only five of the 30 birds released survived, with many of them having been picked off by the hawks.
The draft EA is available at the DOFAW website: dlnr.hawaii.gov/dofaw/comment/. The website contains a form that may be used to submit comments on the draft.
Public comments may also be emailed directly to thealalaproject@gmail.com or mailed to the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Attn: ‘Alala Project, 1151 Punchbowl St., Room 325, Honolulu, HI 96813.
A public meeting will be held 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kula Community Center, E. Lower Kula Road in Kula. Officials will be present to speak with community members about the project and provide technical assistance with submission of public comments.
