Dozens of palm trees along Oʻahu’s shoreline have been cut down to prevent further damage caused by invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle, or CRB, infestations.
The City and County of Honolulu has been inspecting palm trees along the island's coastline for infestations. As a result, crews have had to remove approximately 100 trees from the Leeward Coast to ʻEwa Beach.
On Monday, the city was in Haleʻiwa to remove several more trees infected by the invasive beetle. Over the next two months, surveys for the coffee berry borer will continue along the North Shore and down to Waimānalo.
“The unfortunate truth of this situation right now is it's going to get worse before it gets better. We're going to have to start removing more and more of these palms — really out of concern for public safety,” said Nathan Serota, a spokesperson for the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation.
“What we're really worried about is that when these palms get infested with coconut rhinoceros beetles and that it impacts the crown of the palm and could be a falling hazard for anyone that's underneath them," he added.
The invasive beetle is so prevalent on Oʻahu that it’s reached a saturation point in some areas, Serota said, but hasn’t fully infested the North Shore or Windward sides of the island yet.
“It's another sad day for us. We don't like removing trees. Trees like the coconut, not only is it the tree of life, but it’s culturally very, very important to the Hawaiian people. So, today's another sad day and there'll be more sad days, and we'll probably be back and we'll probably be removing more,” said Roxanne Adams, administrator of DPR’s Division of Urban Forestry, at a news conference on Monday.
CRB not only targets palm trees but also other food crops — many of which carry cultural importance in Hawaiʻi, including taro and banana.
The city, state and other local organizations don’t have a surefire method to get rid of the CRB and are testing various treatments to manage it.
Part of the issue, according to Keith Weiser of the CRB Response team, is that the beetles are relatively mobile and don’t spend their entire life cycle in one tree.
He said that means an infestation of one or a handful of trees results in an issue for an entire neighborhood.
“I think that's an important message for the public if you want to get things under control. It's not just your property or your neighbor's property — it’s your whole neighborhood and your whole region that has to be on board with management and treatment,” Weiser said.
He said the best thing the public can do is limit the amount of compost, green waste and decaying wood matter on their properties and in their neighborhoods.
More information about detecting or reporting CRB can be found at crbhawaii.org.
