SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (March 13, 2017) — Schofield Soldiers tackled a unique training mission last week: sling loading building materials to help protect Oahu’s endangered kahuli tree snail, also known as the Achatinella mustelina.
The snails were once plentiful in Oahu’s mountain ranges; however, today, biologists estimate the population at less than 4,000, and the snails are becoming “increasingly endangered,” according to Dan Sailer, a senior natural resource management coordinator with the Army’s Oahu Natural Resources Program.
To give the snails a fighting chance against the cannibal snails, Jackson’s chameleons and rats that eat them, the Army’s program is creating enclosures about an eighth of an acre in size, slightly larger than a basketball court, to keep the “bad guys” out and the kahuli in.
The result according to Sailer? “Really great success in terms of increasing populations.”
Constructing an enclosure in the mountains, with no road access, is challenging and costly. That’s why the natural resources program enlisted the help of the 25th Infantry Division.
Soldiers with the 25th ID’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade used Blackhawk helicopters to transport the roughly 64,000 pounds of needed fencing material, gravel and concrete to the site in the southern Waianae Mountains.
“It’s been a great benefit to work with the [aviation brigade],” said Joby Rohrer, a senior natural resource management coordinator with the program. “[The Blackhawk’s] 20 sling loads average about 4,000 pounds each. If we were to use a contract helicopter to do that, it would have taken us about 115 loads and probably about four days, so it’s a great savings.”
This is the Army’s fifth constructed enclosure. Plans are in the works for two more, so far. Overall, these efforts are part of the natural resources program’s mission to support military training and environmental requirements through habitat and rare species management.
“[The kahuli snail is] found on Army training lands here at Schofield Barracks, and also in Makua [Military Reservation],” said Vince Costello, a rare snail conservationist with the Army’s Oahu Natural Resources Program. “Because it’s on the endangered species list, the Army is required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage … this rare snail.”
From snails to insects, birds, bats and plants, the Army is responsible for managing more than 100 threatened and endangered species on Oahu and Hawaii. To learn more, visit https://go.usa.gov/xXCsV.
| Date Taken: | 03.13.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2017 19:57 |
| Story ID: | 226706 |
| Location: | SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, HI, US |
| Web Views: | 496 |
| Downloads: | 5 |
This work, Preserving Hawaii: Kahuli tree snails to get safe haven in Waianae Mountains, by Stefanie Gutierrez, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT