RareHawaii




Rare Hawai‘i: It wasn’t meant to be a barnyard 70 million years of evolution. Thousands of plant and animal species found nowhere else in the world. Introduced pigs, goats, deer and sheep roaming freely over public lands. More than 265 extinctions and counting. (Note: If the format of this page looks strange, try another browser, like Firefox.)

Report about invasive species in Hawaii available online From The Hawaii State Legislative Reference Bureau (pdf file)

Environmental Valuation and the Hawaiian Economy takes a look at the financial and social costs of losing native Hawai`i.

USGS's Hawaii and the Pacific Islands page. Scroll down a few pages and look for Feral Pigs, followed by Feral Goats and so on.

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HOW DO YOU MAKE A DESERT? Start with any piece of land. Add goats.

Goats are one of the world's worst invasive species, known for eating plants down to the roots, leaving nothing but dust in their wake. This is a recipe for erosion that prevents the plants from recovering and chokes the reefs with silt. Above: December 2004. Restoration work on Kaho'olawe hardpan made by goats. Photo by Forest & Kim Starr, USGS.	After decades of grazing by goats, flash flooding sends mud rushing onto Kaho'olawe's reef. Photo by Forest & Kim Starr, USGS.

" . . . Since then, feral goats have reduced or eliminated whole populations of native plants, leaving remnant plant populations behind only on the steepest and most inaccessible cliffs, where even the sure-footed goat doesn’t venture. Such is the fate of this species, the dwarf iliau." The Center for Plant Conservation on the rare Kauai plant, Wilkesia hobdyi.