State to Receive Nearly $2M to Help Protect Native Birds, Bees

Hawai‘i’s native forest birds, water birds, seabirds and yellow-faced bees will benefit from federal funding in support of conservation projects throughout the state, including on Kauaʻi.

U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawai‘i Democrat, announced that the state Department of Land and Natural Resources will receive $1,723,698 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to help protect these birds and bees. The funding will support projects on the Big Island, Kauaʻi, Maui and O‘ahu.

“Our native bird and bee populations are in danger due to shrinking habitats, disease-carrying mosquitoes and expanding predator populations,” Schatz, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a press release. “This new federal funding will directly combat these dangers, helping to protect and save forest birds, water birds, seabirds and yellow-faced bees and their habitats throughout Hawai‘i.”

The funding comes from the Competitive State Wildlife Grant Program, which is designed to conserve species in approved State Wildlife Action Plans. The programs protect imperiled species and their habitats from further harm, in some cases even preventing them from going on the endangered species list.

The nearly $2 million includes:

• $587,337 to protect and monitor endangered seabirds and ecosystems on Hawaiʻi Island.
• $498,558 to combat the threat of avian malaria and protect Hawaiian forest birds on Kauaʻi and Maui.
• $249,477 to conserve the habitat and resources of yellow-faced bees on Maui.
• $219,258 to support enhanced mongoose control techniques that will protect Hawaiian water birds on O‘ahu.
• $169,068 to establish a protected breeding colony for the endangered ‘akeke‘e on Maui.

The state also received $14 million in federal funding last month to combat avian malaria and protect native birds, including the ʻakikiki and ‘akeke‘e on Kaua‘i and the kiwikiu and ‘ākohekohe on Maui.