Alarms sound whenever power to the drying chambers fails.
Inside the lab, some team members are separating fruit seeds by hand. Nearby, a machine is also works to sort seeds.
The Schofield Barracks U.S. Army Base is home to the only military seed bank in the country.
There, Tim Chambers is the head of the Rare Plant Program, protecting over 100 endangered plants and managing roughly 30 million seeds.
He said the $50 million the program receives from the U.S. Department of Defense has made a significant impact on conservation efforts.
“If we don’t have seed collections representing [endangered plants], we can’t use that diversity in our restoration efforts or reintroduction efforts ... and keep it from extinction,” Chambers explained.
The lab on Oʻahu’s North Shore shares its research on seed storage with its partners across the state, including the National Tropical Botanical Garden.
From there, all cooperators work to cultivate the endangered plants, many of which are native to Hawaiʻi.
“We know how to grow these thing,” Chambers said.
“We know how long they store, so when we pull them out, we can effectively and efficiently propagate them to reestablish them in the landscape.”
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 28, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This interview was adapted for the web by Emily Tom.
