Since 2013, CTAHR has been honored to be invited to Waimea Valley Botanical Garden’s Kalo and ʻAwa Festival on the North Shore of Oʻahu. This year, the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences and Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences participated once again byproudly hosting an educational booth that focused on educating participants about kalo plant parts, varieties, and groups. 

Want to hang out with your fellow CTAHR students, show your college pride, and make a memorable gift that graduates will treasure forever? Then join the Stole Society, a student group of the Fashion Design and Merchandising program, and make stoles for the next graduating class! The group meets afternoons in Heller 204.

Need to buy logo’d CTAHR Something for yourself or staff? Come Together and Oh! Darling please don’t delay, Because the close of Fiscal Year 2021-22 will be here sooner than you think. The Office of Communication Services has just the right regalia for Her Majesty, the Sun King and other royalty in your department – even Mean Mr. Mustard and Polyethene Pam. So without further ado, here’s what’s for sale in our Octopus’ Garden:

ʻUaʻu kani, or Wedge-tailed Shearwater, is a seabird species common in Hawaiʻi. Though historically found nesting along coastlines, human development in these areas has likely reduced the availability of nesting habitats, pushing the seabird colonies to nest in undeveloped islets. However, many coastal residents continue to observe ʻuaʻu kani nesting nearby – or on their properties – where they are unprotected and threatened by nest trampling due to human activity or construction; predation by rats, cats, mongoose, and dogs; and potentially, stress caused by proximity to human activity. Surprisingly, a new study from the Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Management finds no significant difference in nesting success of the Wedge-tailed Shearwater at an unprotected, popular beach park versus a site with restricted public access.

“Though nesting success at Kailua Beach Park was slightly lower than nesting success at the restricted-access site, it seems so long as their underground nests aren’t trampled and collapsed, and no major predation events occur, colonies in busy beach parks can be successful,” says Jessica Idle, a graduate student in NREM’s Hawaiʻi Wildlife Ecology Lab.

Still, their conclusions have convinced stakeholders to construct “symbolic fencing” around the seabird colony at Kailua Beach Park to encourage park-goers to avoid walking through the nesting areas.

“We thank the City and County of Honolulu, Department of Parks and Recreation, for their support and permission allowing us to install signage and symbolic fencing at the Kailua Wedge-tailed Shearwater colony,” says Jon Gelman of Hawaiʻi Marine Animal Response, which constructed the fence. “We also thank the University of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Pacific University, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Islands Coastal Program for their collaboration and support of our seabird conservation projects.”

Stephanie Araki, Honolulu City and County’s Department of Recreation, adds, “Kudos to Ms. Idle and her colleagues for their commitment to protect our precious wildlife and to teach the rest of us about our seabird ‘ohana. We are honored to have played an insignificant role in this significant study and hope that the protective fences enable the Wedge-tailed Shearwaters to survive and return to their Kailua home for many years to come.”

NREM and its partners hope to encourage Hawaiʻi residents with seabirds nesting in their neighborhoods, local parks, and back yards to consider similar temporary fencing and signage.

“Further steps that everyone can take include keeping dogs leashed near nesting colonies, minimizing noise and activity near colonies at dawn and dusk when the adult birds are coming and going from the nests, and turning off indoor and outdoor lights in November and December to protect young seabirds leaving the nest for the first time,” Jessica adds.

Read the full study, “Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Ardenna pacifica) nesting success in human-dominated coastal environments,” which appears in the latest PeerJ.

Photos courtesy of Alex Awo and Hawai‘i Marine Animal Response.

Weevils, nematodes, and soil-borne pathogens are the bane of sweet potato growers. Spraying with pesticides has adverse environmental impacts, yet farmers have historically been wary about whether consumers would pay a premium for organic sweet potato. With a new $740K grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative, several the Dept. of Plant and Environmental Protection Sciences will pursue improved yields, quality – and profitability of organic sweet potato production.

The goal is to develop an economical organic “Integrated Pest Management” (IPM) approach against the sweet potato weevil, nematodes, and soil-borne pathogens, while restoring soil health. The overall target is to present a decision-support tool and guidelines for small- to mid-size organic sweet potato farmers.

“Our multidisciplinary research and Extension team will partner with the USDA’s Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center in Hilo and Auburn University in Alabama,” says principal investigator Koon-Hui Wang. “We’ve also received strong support from new farmer training programs, like GoFarm Hawaiʻi, and local farmers in Hawaiʻi and Alabama.”

Specifically, the team will 1) develop organic IPM strategies against sweet potato weevils, using pheromone traps, entomopathogenic nematodes and fungi through proper spray nozzles; 2) prescribe soil health management strategies compatible with small- and mid-size farms through small-farm equipment, cover crops with allelopathic effects against plant-parasitic nematodes, and fertigation; and 3) estimate the economic return of soil health management and organic IPM approaches for sweet potato farmers.

“Growers in Alabama who follow good organic IPM recommendations report reducing their crop losses by 40-50%,” Koon-Hui says. “How to produce sweet potatoes organically and profitability is valuable information, and developing specific organic IPM and soil-health management strategies for sweet potato farmers is timely, especially as Hawaiʻi is trying to increase self-sustainability and meet its food security needs.” 

Read the full grant description.