#rod

The Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture is reminding travelers attending the Merrie Monarch Festival next week that quarantine restrictions remain on the transport of ʻōhiʻa from Hawaiʻi Island due to the fungal plant disease, rapid ʻōhiʻa death (ROD), which is devastating to native forests. The Merrie Monarch Festival takes place in Hilo from April 20 to 26.

US Rep. Jill Tokuda and US Sen. Mazie K. Hirono have introduced legislation to fight the spread of Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death in Hawaiʻi.

For more than a decade, land managers, scientists, and pathologists have been fighting and looking for ways to protect trees from a fungal disease, called Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death or ROD, that has killed over a million lehua ʻōhiʻa, considered the most ecologically and cultural significant native tree in Hawai‘i.

Travelers attending the Merrie Monarch Festival this week are reminded that quarantine restrictions remain on the transport of ʻōhiʻa from Hawaiʻi Island due to the fungal plant disease, rapid ʻōhiʻa death (ROD), which is devastating to native forests.

The Continued Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death Response Act of 2023 authorizes $55 million in federal funding over the next 11 years to support ongoing efforts by federal agencies including the US Geological Survey, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service, working in partnership with state agencies, to help combat ʻŌhiʻa tree death in Hawaiʻi.

Almost four years after Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death was first detected in a lower-elevation forest in northeast Kaua’i, the fungus known to exclusively infect the native Hawaiian tree has been found in a dead ʻōhiʻa in the pristine wilderness area of the Alakaʻi at 4,100-feet elevation.

The spread of a fungal disease killing off hundreds of thousands of mature ‘ōhi‘a trees on Hawai‘i Island could be exacerbated by the presence of animals with hooves, according to a new collaborative study led by a geographer at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo.

For the first time, the more virulent of two fungal pathogens known to cause Rapid ‘Ōhi‘a Death has been confirmed in the Kōke‘e area along Miloliʻi Ridge Road within Nā Pali Kona Forest Reserve on Kaua‘i.

Hilo’s annual ʻŌhiʻa Love Fest will be celebrating its fourth year virtually from Monday, Nov. 16 through Saturday, Nov. 21st. The week-long virtual event will celebrate Hawai‘i’s most ecologically and culturally important tree species, ‘ōhi‘a lehua.

The Kauaʻi Rapid Response Team’s recent helicopter surveys detected the presence of virulent fungal pathogens that cause the rapid killing of ‘ōhi‘a trees in two new areas on Kaua’i. The recent Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death discoveries were along the upper Hanalei valley and along the north side of Powerline Trail.

For the first time, researchers have shown that native ʻōhiʻa seedlings can survive for at least a year in areas that have active mortality from Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, or ROD, a fungal disease that is devastating to this dominant and culturally important tree in Hawaiian forests. Researchers from the US Geological Survey in Hawaiʻi say his information can be useful to land managers and homeowners as they prioritize conservation actions.

On the Big Island Rapid ‘Ōhi‘a Death has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of trees. The ‘Ōhi‘a species is considered the most important endemic tree in the state, comprising approximately 80% of Hawai‘i’s native forests.

Rapid ʻōhiʻa death has already killed more than 135,000 acres of ʻōhiʻa forest on Hawaiʻi Island.

State officials have confirmed a fourth detection of Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death on the island of O‘ahu. The discovery was made during an aerial survey of some 20,000 acres of forest in the Moanalua Section of the Honolulu Watershed Forest Reserve above Tripler Army Medical Center.

Now that Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death has spread to Maui and Oʻahu, the Department of Land and Natural Resources is hoping that raising awareness will help combat the epidemic. 

Rapid ʻŌhi‘a Death (ROD), a disease killing ʻōhiʻa trees, has been confirmed at two new locations on Kaua‘i. Since ROD was discovered in Moloa‘a State Forest Reserve in 14 trees earlier this year, a team of scientists from state, federal, and private organizations has been working together to survey the island and develop response plans […]

Work begins to remove several ‘ohi’a trees at the Kalōpā State Recreation Area on the Big Island that show symptoms of the fungal disease, Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death.

A new survey shows more than 48,000 acres identified in the July 2016, giving Hawai‘i island a potential Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death infestation of some 75,000 acres.

The rules impose permanent quarantine restrictions on the intrastate movement on ʻōhiʻa and other material that may spread Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death, also known as ʻŌhiʻa Wilt.