Hawaii Invasive Species Council
August 14, 2018, 1:00 p.m
Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Board Room (Rm 132)
1151 Punchbowl St, Honolulu, HI, 96813
AGENDA1.

Call to order – Suzanne Case/Co-chair at 1:02p

2.
Introductions – Suzanne Case/DLNR, Scott Enright/DOA, Leo Asuncion/DBEDT, Kelvin
Sewake/UH, Grace Simmons/DOH, David Rodriguez/DOT, Josh Atwood/HISC, Randy Bartlett/HISC, Rob
Hauff/DOFAW, Randy Bartlett/HISC, Cynthia King/DOFAW, Mark Fox/TNC, Lori Buchanan/MoMISC,
Rachel Neville/OISC, Chelsea Arnott/CGAPS, Christy Martin/CGAPS, JC Watson/KMWP (1:05P),
3.
Approval of minutes from January 18, 2018 meeting – Scott Enright/Motion to Approve, Leo
Asuncion/2nd, Approved Unanimously.
4.
Submittal: Requesting approval of a recommended budget for Fiscal Year 2019 – Josh Atwood
for Justine Nihipali/Resources WG Chair. See http://hisc.hawaii.gov for final award amounts and project
abstracts.
1. Hawaii Early Detection Program, BISH
2. Ballast Water & Hull Fouling, DAR
3. Jellyfish Biosecurity, DAR
a. Scott Enright: What do you get for $1907?
b. Josh Atwood: Supplies for DNA analysis.
4. Landscape Scale Mosquito Birth Control, DOFAW
5. Coconut Rhino Beetle, UH
a. Scott Enright: This is $51,000 less than requested. Will they be coming to DOA
for the balance?
b. Josh Atwood: Yes, possibly. The amount recommended here was arrived at aftera discussion on available resources weighed against the needs of otherproposed projects.
6. New Ant Baiting Tools, UH
7. Plant Informatics, UH
8. Invasive Plant R&T Capacity, UH
9. Sponge Detection & Monitoring, UH
10. BIISC Outreach, UH
11. BIISC ROD Response, UH
12. BIISC Core Targets, UH
13. CGAPS, UH
14. Hawaii Ant Lab, UH
15. KISC Core Targets, UH
16. KISC Outreach, UH

17. KMWP Albizia Control, UH
a. Suzanne Case: Which watersheds would be worked in under this project?
b. JC Watson: Waiawa & Helemano.
18. MISC Core, UH
19. MISC Outreach, UH
20. MISC LFA Nahiku, UH
21. OISC Outreach, UH
22. OISC Plants, UH
23. OISC Pests, UH
24. Weed Risk Assessment, UH
25. Biocontrol of Himalayan Ginger, USDA
26. Biocontrol of High Priority Plants, USDA
27. Mongoose Toxicant, USDA
Not Recommended for Funding
1. MISC Coqui Community Empowerment (absorbed into overall MISC award)
2. Rat & Cat Control for Kauai Forest Birds, DOFAW
3. ROD Outreach, UH
a. Scott Enright: How is this being taken care of?
b. Rob Hauff: DOFAW will match 50% of award from UH.
4. Spittle Bug Detection & Control, UH
5. Biocontrol of Albizia, USDA
6. Africanized Honey Bee Prevention, NCSU
a. SE: What was the proposal for?
b. JA: To do genetic analysis on older samples of bee swarms.
7. Building Canine Detection Capacity, HISC
8. Lobate Lac Scale Management, UH
9. Rat Lungworm, USDA
10. Snail Surveys for RLW, BISH
11. KMWP Leptospermum polygalifolium, UH
12. UH Trial Garden, UH
13. Banana Fusarium Wilt, UH
14. Toxoplasmosis Diversity & Hosts, Auburn U
15. Kauai Parakeets, UH
16. Biochar Production, UHa. Suzanne Case: Chair will entertain a motion to approve the FY19 budget asrecommended by the Resources WG.
b. Scott Enright: Motion to Approve.
c. Kelvin Sewake: 2nd the motion.
d. Approved Unanimously.
5.
Staff Presentation: Proposed work plan for HISC Support Staff in Fiscal Year 2019 – Josh Atwood(see presentation at http://hisc.hawaii.gov)

6.
Departmental Presentation: Update on efforts to develop landscape-scale mosquito control
technology - Cynthia King, Department of Land and Natural Resourcese. DLNR and USFWS continue to collaborate with American Bird Conservancy and otherpartners to explore the potential to develop lab-reared mosquitoes that contain a formof the naturally-occurring Wolbachia bacterium that is incompatible with wildtype
mosquitoes, making any offspring of lab and wildtype mosquitoes inviable. Researchand permitting are current foci.
i. Suzanne Case: Thanks for the presentation. Any comments or questions frommembers?
ii. Scott Enright: Let me know when you’re ready to apply for registration withHDOA and the Department will support it through the process.
iii. Kelvin Sewake: How do you insert the Wolbachia into the mosquito?
iv. Cynthia King: With a micro-pipette.
v. Grace Simmons: DOH was approached last year by OxiTech regarding support
for their GMO method of mosquito control. Cost was $5 million.
1. Cynthia King: Puerto Rico was able to get over $40m for mosquito
control from CDC.
7.

Public Comments –f.

Rachel Neville: Want to thank the HISC for support/approval of the budget and would
like to share some of OISCs successes:
i. Pampas grass efforts
ii. Miconia – only 6 mature individuals found. Removed over 1,555 immatureplantsiii. Expanded use of drones for surveys
iv. Supporting Mamalu Poepoe program at HNL.
g. Christy Martin:
i. For mosquitoes, CGAPS will conduct focus group surveys to identify public areasof support or concern.
ii. CGAPS is premiering a Rapid Ohia Death documentary.
1. Suzanne Case: Is the documentary available online yet?
2. Christy Martin: Not yet, but soon after the premieres are done showing
on the Big Island.
3. Scott Enright: Saw it on TV the other night. Congratulations on aprofessional production.
h. JC Watson:i. Albizia Plan – Mahalo for supporting, look forward to working on this issue.
i. Josh Atwood:i. Hawaii Ant Lab received the Conservation Innovation Award at the 2018 Hawaii
Conservation Conference for their work on little fire ants.
8.

Adjournment –j. Suzanne Case: Chair will entertain a motion to adjourn.
k. Scott Enright: Motion to adjourn.

l. Kelvin Sewake: 2nd the motion.
m. Meeting adjourned at 1:17p.