From: Kim Tavares, Operation Miconia Hilo

Emergency Environmental Workforce HILO Progress Report

01 February – 07 February 2002

Field Work: Miconia Control in Mountain View & Kurtistown

EEWF crews are moving away from the high-density core areas of the Kurtistown-Mountain View Miconia infestation. Sweeps are moving faster now, and more ground is being covered, while fewer plants are found and destroyed. Although there are fewer plants per acre being found than in prior weeks, those isolated, outlying plants are the most important ones to destroy. Preventing plants on the perimeter from flowering and shedding seeds keeps the infestation from spreading.

Finding fewer plants, especially fewer mature plants is great news. Better still are the results where sweeps were conducted over 300 acres and NO plants were found at all. The crews are helping to define outward extent of the infestation. This week 460 acres were covered, with just over 1 plant per acre, average. Only 10 of the 508 plants destroyed had flowers or fruit.

THIS WEEK:

Maintained Acres / Seedlings / Saplings / Trees / Largest DBH (cm) / Flowers or Fruit
460.8 / 246 / 246 / 16 / 24 / 10

Since DECEMBER 2001:

Maintained Acres / Seedlings / Saplings / Trees / Largest DBH (cm) / Flowers or Fruit
1,757.6 / 29,933 / 11,854 / 1,056 / 30 / 215


Training: While crews maintain their steady pace in the field, a few EEWF staffers are learning more about behind-the-scenes tasks and duties than they had expected. The challenge this week is to keep ahead of the 60 field workers with property access and permission from the owners or occupants, and creating field maps with current property access information.

To start off, Operation Miconia and BIISC (Big Island Invasive Species Committee) initiates a process of mass-mailing to taxpayers within a mile of the infestation. The mailing was financed by Hawaii Dept. of Agriculture (HDOA) and took place several weeks before this project began. While the permission requests were being received and considered, Op Mic staff visited the area, hung specimens and posted flyers around the neighborhood, alerting folks to the coming work ahead. Many of the permission requests have been signed and mailed back to the office, but not enough for this productive group.

The crews swept out everything that had approved access, and are averaging 250 acres per week. A second EEWF office position was created to fill the need for logistical support. The primary logistical task is to contact owners / occupants by phone to obtain access permission. It takes more time to accomplish as the parcel sizes get smaller, since there are more people per square mile to contact. Basic and specialized office skills are accomplished in these office positions. An office or administrative assistant that can read taxkey maps and databases is a bonus, and training for this is provided. Confidence, courteous telephone skills and enthusiastic public outreach are developed by answering calls on the Miconia Hotline, and from talking with affected land owners.

Permission to access properties is recorded on to field maps. Signatures are kept on file. Crews need these maps with them when they go out each day, and at 50 to 100 acres per day, they frequently need new maps. These maps also need to include navigational information. Another logistical task now being performed by EEWF staff is GIS/GPS support. Office staff make maps that the crews can use to navigate property boundaries. The maps include waypoints, X and Y coordinate locations that mark property corners, a Miconia tree infestation, or any number of special features or points of interest. Numbers matching these coordinates are put into the GPS, and the unit tells the crew what range and bearing ( the course they need to take ) to arrive at the desired point on their map. Maps are being made almost daily now by EEWF office staff, with navigational points on every property corner. The files are stored in a form that makes it possible to automatically upload all the points into the GPS unit via a cable to a desktop computer. EEWF staffers are also training to create navigational files that utilize Global Positioning Satellite Receivers (GPS’s) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology.

Logistics: Operations has a need for reliable 4wdr vehicles. The two army-surplus diesel pick-up trucks break down constantly, causing lost time for field workers and administrators each time it happens. HDOA has vehicles available from time to time, but a few more dedicated, reliable vehicles are needed. They will be essential to future plans that split the workforce into smaller groups working sites in different directions.

Office space is also contributed by HDOA, but has not increase since the project began in 1996. It was cramped before the EEWF project with the increase of regular staff from 3 to 10, and now increased again with the workforce. Additional office space with more telephones and internet access would also benefit the program tremendously, by increasing efficiency and productivity.

Supplies: Crews remain fully equipped, but not always with the most appropriate gear. The budget does not provide for each EEWF worker to have good work boots with ankle support. Rubber boots were supplied to all workers, and army surplus boot to those that could find the right size. A sturdy work boot will prevent twisted ankles and strains, and will allow the project to move into areas with more difficult terrain.

Performance: The anticipated percentage of drop-outs has not realized. Nearly every worker has found this work enjoyable and worthwhile. Crews are ready for work each morning. Only two persons left the project since it began, and the reason was to accept employment of a longer duration elsewhere.

Accidents & Injuries: No incidents occurred, and workers involved in last weeks injuries are now back to work. Vespula wasps were seen but not felt this week.

Next Week: Field crews are at the perimeter of the infestation. Plant counts are expected to be low again, as crews sweep parcels on the perimeter. If no mature trees are found, work at this site will conclude very soon. The work EEWF crews put into this site is valuable, and will need to be repeated two years from now.

The next site is Onomea. Access permission requests are also being processed for this work. This site includes roadsides, backyards, streams and deep gulches on the windward Hamakua coast of the Big Island. Its real claim to fame is “Miconia Ground-Zero”. Next!

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