Invasive Species and a Rising Tide

 

Annie Bonno is the lead at KIRMA (Kosrae Island Resource Management Association) for Invasive Species.  She and her colleagues took Nick's COM class on a field trip and invited me along.  I had gone last year also; this year we saw more and were told more, it seems KIRMA has grown into its role as field trip educator.  (Annie, two other female colleagues and I rode in one car at the start: this was the 'girls' car, the 'boys' were in the other car.  You might imagine the kind of chatter this led to!)

We got in the car at Tofol and drove to Utwe and beyond, to see our first invasive plant, Clerodendrum.  It was brought in as a decorative garden plant and took off.  In the spot they stopped, a small plot of land by a stream had been cleared of the invasive, and KIRMA was monitoring the success of the clearing.  They had used shovels and chemicals to remove the plant.  It straggles back in, and gets whacked back.

 

This invasive grass appears all along the roads and beyond.  It was brought in to stabilize the soil along the roadsides.  If I heard correctly, it is occasionally poisoned, but bounces right back.

  

This invasive 'mimosa' is appearing at the Lelu Marina.  Maybe also introduced as a garden ornamental, it is taking off.  There is ambivalence about it, as it is a nitrogen fixer, and pretty when in bloom.

 

 

Lelu Harbor is a very pretty place.  There are boats moored at the Marina, pleasure boats and fishing boats.  Many days there is tuna for sale, or reef fish at the Marina.  We stopped here to find the invasive OYSTER!  Really?!  Yep.  They are growing in the boulders used as support for the roadway.  Hard to dislodge from the boulders, but quite large and reputedly delicious once freed and roasted.  I was thrilled beyond belief to discover these invasives.  George (the Dean of the College of Micronesia, also on this trip) and I decided we would have a booth at Kosrae Culture Day, and roast oysters and serve up mignonettes and other oyster recipes.  

A view of the Sleeping Lady from the Lelu Marina, and a view of the Congregational Church where I go to church every Sunday.  More on the setting, below.

 

Our last invasive plant species was 'mile a minute' brought in by the Japanese to revegetate cleared land (are you hearing echoes of Kudzu?).  Guess how it got its name?  It can be found in great heaps along the roadsides.  But it's got nothing on Merremia, which is not even listed in the invasive species tour, or the party line from the FSM government on invasives, or from the Micronesian Conservation Trust which funds efforts to rid places of invasives.  (More on Merremia in a later post.  I have a suspicion they have declared it native so as not to have to deal with it.  There is a native species, but the M. pelata growing all over everything is not native, rather it is strongly invasive.)

We saw invasive lbb's (little brown birds, maybe sparrows) at the airport.  The story goes, two birds came in, and now there are zillions of little brown sparrows, endangering the native bird population.  In the photo, you might be able to see one in the background by the lampost beside the passenger waiting area at the airport.

 

Last week there was a combination high tide spring tide (do I have this right Nick?) which led to very high water for two days running.  Roads not usually affected were covered with debris.  At the church, when I arrived late on Sunday for a choir celebration, the men of the church were ringed around the parking lot in somber observation as the waves broke across the lawn and up to the road.  

This was a serious moment.  Everyone was thinking 'ice caps melting' and wondering what KIRMA was going to do about it.