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As Maui continues to cope with the recent catastrophic and heartbreaking wildfires that destroyed much of Lahaina and over 450 homes elsewhere on the island, rather than point fingers for what could have been done differently, I want to focus on a major, positive solution to prevent similar wildfires from reoccurring: getting rid of invasive, non-native grasses.
Non-native guinea, napier, and buffelgrass are widespread, covering around a quarter of Hawai'i's lands. However, because Hawai'i lacks large animal populations to eat them, and these areas lack sufficient rainfall to support extensive tree cover for shrublands, long drought cycles followed by pronounced rainfall allowed the invasive grasses to dominate the landscape.
Driving from Lahaina to Kihei, one can see how the invasive buffelgrass and kiawe can resemble an African savanna where wildfires have become an annual occurrence. Unfortunately, the predominance of these non-native grasses was a critical factor behind the catastrophic Lahaina wildfire.
It is imperative that a public-private partnership be created to eradicate these non-native grasses and convert them back to plants that are much less fire prone. These solutions have already been covered by USA Today, Washington Post and elsewhere.
Examples of native grasses and plants include Pili grass, 'A'ali'i, 'Akulikuli, Pa'uohi'iaka, and 'Ilima Papa. These plants are excellent candidates for serving as green fire breaks. Moreover, why not stop pumping raw sewage into the ocean and onto our precious coral reefs and instead divert the reclaimed wastewater inland for drip irrigation of these native plants? Urgent action is needed.
Barry Solomon
Waikapu