Non-native, fire-prone vegetation covers more than one million acres of the Hawaiian islands. But Clay Trauernicht of the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management believes that threat could be somewhat alleviated by restoring ecosystems with non-invasive and native plants.
Clay is leading a $4.6 million federally funded project to increase the availability of common “warrior” or “workhorse” plants through farm- or orchard-based production. His goal is to relieve wild harvest pressure and provide the capacity to scale up risk reduction and restoration efforts.
“Whether we’re growing out plants for landscape scale restoration on fallow lands or directly re-seeding after fire, the vision is the ability to make it rain native seeds,” he said.
Read the full UH News story.
Photo of green firebreak being established by the Waianae Mountain Watershed Partnership is courtesy of Yumi Miyata.
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In related news, Clay is a co-PI on a new effort to develop a new wildfire forecast system using artificial intelligence.
With a $1-million grant from the Hawaiʻi State Legislature, the goal of this early detection system is to allow authorities to issue timely warnings to enhance the preparedness of first responders and enable the broader community to take proactive measures. The AI will better predict the likelihood of wildfire occurrences, especially in Hawaiʻi’s diverse microclimates. Hawaiʻi has 10 of the world’s 14 climate zones.
Read the full UH News story.