More than 20 native plants and insects on Oahu have been added to the list of federal endangered and threatened species, joining 437 threatened and endangered species already designated in Hawaii — the highest number of any state in the nation.
Some scientists have called Hawaii "the endangered species capital of the world."
The introduction of alien species and diseases that destroy habitat, consume native species and compete for food sources are having a devastating effect in the state, officials say.
Three of the 23 newly added species are native damselflies, and the remaining 20 are native Hawaiian plants.
Under what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service described as an ecosystem-based approach to saving imperiled plants, animals and habitat on Oahu, the agency said it also designated habitat critical to the survival of threatened and endangered species.
There are fewer than 10 of some of the plants in the wild, said Loyal Mehrhoff, field supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office. Seven are receiving special conservation efforts through the state Plant Extinction Prevention program targeting plant species with fewer than 50 remaining in the wild.
Two plants, the akoko and the Ewa hinahina, had already been added to the endangered list. But critical habitat for them has now been designated on the Ewa Plain, including on Navy land at Barbers Point, Mehrhoff said.
The Ewa hinahina is not as rare as the akoko.
Prior to the development of the boat harbor at Barbers Point, scientists counted thousands of akoko plants. The plants, growing on old raised limestone and reef structures, have been reduced to fewer than 200 in the wild.
Mehrhoff said federal wildlife officials hope that if the Navy transfers land where akoko remain, measures will be put in place to assure that a new landowner will protect and maintain them.
"The akoko is very rare," Mehrhoff said.
"Protecting these Oahu species and identifying the habitat they and other native threatened and endangered species need to survive enables us to work with our state and federal conservation partners, private landowners and other groups to address the threats," he said in a news release.
Mehrhoff has previously said scientists have identified some 42,804 acres in seven different ecosystems on Oahu as essential to the conservation of endangered and threatened plant species.
Of the total acreage, 47 percent belongs to the state, 11 percent to the federal government, 9 percent to the city and county, and 33 percent is on private land.
Mehrhoff said the critical-habitat designation included a landscape or ecosystem approach to identifying habitat for the 23 newly listed species and the revision of critical habitat for 99 previously listed plant species.
He said although private and nonfederal lands have been identified as containing habitat essential to the species, activities on these lands will not necessarily be affected unless an activity requires federal action, funding or permitting.
The areas identified as critical habitat do not include U.S. Department of Defense lands covered by an "Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan," including six Army training installations on Oahu totaling 8,098 acres and 380 acres of Navy lands at Lualualei.
The 20 plants include an annual herb, shrubs, trees and a fern.
The final rule can be downloaded from the Service’s website at www. fws.gov/pacificislands.
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