A team at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo is testing a new tool to find Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death and retrieve samples.
Ryan Perroy, a geography professor at the university, and a team of researchers have attached a chainsaw to a drone. They are calling it the Kūkūau system.
The system consists of a specially designed, small rotating chainsaw that has a robotic gripper claw mounted beneath the drone.
The drone cuts and retrieves branches so that scientists can test trees for fungal pathogens, especially those responsible for Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death.
"There are situations where there's trees that we suspect have the pathogen, but they’re either inaccessible or too dangerous for ground crews to access," Perroy said in a press release. "So having this one tool in our toolbox allows us to have a more complete understanding about the spread of R.O.D across Hawaiʻi."
Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death has killed hundreds of thousands of mature ʻōhiʻa lehua trees in Hawaiʻi since 2014.
"We watch a lot of trees die from Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death. We see the encroachment of invasive species and this system, the Kūkūau system, allows us to take a more active role in doing something about these things that we’re seeing in our forests," Perroy said.
The disease is caused by two invasive fungi and has the potential to irreversibly change some Native Hawaiian ecosystems.
