Posted January 11, 2017 by Rachel Smith Ah, the New Year. Starting fresh. KISC has a lot on our horizon this year. For those of you who receive our Guardian of the Garden Isle emails, you know that we recently finalized our new five-year strategic action plan, which will be available on our website in February. […]

Posted November 23, 2016 by Rachel Smith  The holidays are here! Santa is coming! And Christmas trees are arriving to the islands by the boatload. It is estimated that around 200,000 Noble Fir and Douglas Fir trees are shipped to Hawaii each year, with the majority of them grown in the Pacific Northwest. These lovely trees, members […]

Posted October 11, 2016 by Rachel Smith  LIHUE – Live mongoose capture at Lihue Airport. On October 11, 2016 at 8:15am, Craig Kaneshige, Clyde Ragasa, and Eric-John Garcia of Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) and the Kauai Invasive Species Committee (KISC) Field Crew, captured a live juvenile mongoose in the aircargo bay at the Lihue Airport.

Posted October 3, 2016 by Rachel Smith It is the second annual Statewide Little Fire Ant (LFA) Awareness Month! While every month is important in the invasive species battle, this month we are offering additional activities for you to get involved in protecting Kauai from this nasty invader. It has been 1.5 years since we have […]

Posted August 11, 2016 by Rachel Smith The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is an international organization made up of over 10,000 members that facilitate global environmental solutions and provide governments and institutions with tools and guidelines to achieve universal conservation goals. Every four years the IUCN members, along with thousands of environmental […]

Posted July 25, 2016 by Rachel Smith Miconia calvescens, Velvet Tree, the Purple Plague, or Green Cancer; it has many names, is one of the worst invasive species in Hawaii, and one of the most destructive plants in tropical rainforests throughout the Pacific. While populations on Kauai remain minimal, we still take infestations of this […]

Posted May 6, 2016 by Rachel Smith As stated in the previous blog post, Springing into Action, KISC has been quite busy this year. Each department in our organization has been working diligently on different assignments. Outreach staff has finally paved the way for the Pono Endorsement Program launch, the field crew is closing in […]

Posted April 19, 2016 by Rachel Smith Spring is here! As the cool mornings drift away, and the warmer temperatures encourage you outside, you may notice there is a lot of work to do in your yard. Well, the same goes for KISC. The entire island is much like our backyard. While invasive species know […]

Posted February 22, 2016 by Rachel Smith Its the 4th annual Hawaii Invasive Species Awareness Week! Throughout the week, KISC would like to acknowledge all the hard work that has gone into invasive species management and removal, and also like to bring extra awareness to the persistent threat of invasive species in Hawaii. Invasive Species pose some […]

Posted January 28, 2016 by Rachel Smith Invasive Species have no boundaries, do not care about borders, and they aren’t picky. They thrive in high elevation ecosystems, on slopes of hills and mountains, alongside roadways, in state land, fed land, and yes, in your backyard. You may not think about it much, but the flora […]

Posted November 24, 2015 by Rachel Smith Hawai‘i is known as the endangered species capital of the world. Home to some of the worlds rarest plants and declining numbers of endemic birds, Hawai‘i’s ecosystem is delicate but rich in biodiversity. According to the Hawai‘i State Department of Land and Natural Resources, nearly 90 percent of […]

Posted September 22, 2015 by Rachel Smith Invasive species are increasingly becoming one of the greatest threats to healthy working ecosystems.According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), invasive species “represent the second most significant cause of species extinction, after habitat destruction, and in islands, they are undisputedly first.” To a biologist, conservation […]

Posted September 9, 2015 by Rachel Smith September is statewide Little Fire Ant (LFA) month. Government and conservation organizations are teaming up across the state to bring awareness to the LFA issue in Hawaii. Calling it Spot the Ant, Stop the Ant month, the Hawaii Invasive Species Council (HISC), Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA), and […]

Posted August 20, 2015 by Rachel Smith Guardian, defender, conservator, steward, caretaker, are all words to describe the residents of Kauai who make an effort to protect the beautiful garden island from impending threats such as invasive species. The Guardian of the Garden Isle network is KISC’s newest project, and is made up of concerned citizens […]

Posted August 6, 2015 by Rachel Smith To wrap up the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) blog series, today’s topic is Biological Control, otherwise referred to as Bio Control. Bio control is a method of controlling pests where natural predators are used as tools to manage an invasive species. This method relies on active human management, […]

Posted July 21, 2015 by Rachel Smith As previously presented in the foregoing blog posts, KISC uses Integrated Pest Management and a combination of methods to control our targeted plant pest species. I disclosed the process in which we use to choose a particular control method, and also have given insight into some of our operations where […]

Posted July 14, 2015 by Rachel Smith As previously stated in the “Walking the Line” blog posted July 2nd, I would expand in detail about how we implement the practice of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) when controlling invasive species. This is #2 of the 4 part blog series! When considering new introductions of invasive species, […]

Posted July 2, 2015 by Rachel Smith Disclaimer: This is the first of a 4 post series that will all relate back to this initial post. I will take you through the processes we use to effectively control our targeted plant species, starting today, with an explanation of why and how we make our decisions […]

Posted June 15, 2015 by Rachel Smith The Little Fire Ant population on Kauai is well on its way to being phased out. Last week the KISC crew, along side the Hawaii Ant Lab (HAL) crew, and Craig Kaneshige from Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA), visited the LFA infestation site on the north shore of Kauai and […]