PALILA VERSUS N.R.A.

Image Gallery The Hawaiian native palila (right) is threatened by the introduced mouflon sheep (left).

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EARTH DIARY

On this particular issue, the rifle association is shooting its own foot.

By Tom Turner

THE JUNE 1988 ISSUE OF THE MAGazine American Hunter, a publication of the National Rifle Association, carried a provocative article concerning a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund on behalf of an endangered Hawaiian bird, the palila, and its human defenders. The article was based on a press release from a hunters' group called the Hawaii Wildlife Conservancy and its spokesman, John Carroll, a Honolulu lawyer who represented a number of Hawaiian sport hunters in the lawsuit. Having lost in court, Mr. Carroll evidently decided to take his arguments to the press. Given the accuracy of his press release, it's no wonder he did not prevail in a court of law. Here's a synopsis of the story behind the story.

The palila is a small honeycreeper, about the size of a sparrow. It, along with most other native Hawaiian birds and a horrifying number of endemic plants (an estimated 800 species), is endangered. Most of the plants have yet to be placed on the federal government's endangered-species list; the palila, however, was "listed" in 1967. The forces that have brought so much of Hawaii's wildlife to the brink of extinction—and pushed some species over—are many and varied. Over half of Hawaii's original native forests have been cleared by native Hawaiians for taro growing and by later residents for pineapple, sugar cane and other agricultural endeavors.

Spraying of pesticides and herbicides is a potent modern threat. But competition from exotic (Hawaiian conservationists prefer to call them "alien") species is also an important cause of extinction and near extinction. Plants and animals introduced to the islands from other lands have competed all too successfully with native species. The palila very nearly fell victim to this last threat.

Three decades ago, at the instigation of sport hunters, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources released on the Big Island a strain of wild European sheep known as mouflon, hoping that they would prosper, multiply and become a reliable game population. The mouflon gained a quick foothold, joining feral sheep and goats first brought to the islands by missionaries in the late 1700s. The introduced animals found the forage on the mid and upper slopes of Mauna Kea volcano quite satisfactory. Unfortunately for all concerned, the food preferred by the interlopers—tender leaves and shoots from the native mamane-naio forest—is precisely what the palila requires to survive. As the population of sheep and goats grew larger, their browsing began to tell on the forest, suppressing new growth to the point where the palila population began a precipitous plunge. The Endangered Species Act, which became law in 1973, forbids the "taking" of endangered species—taking being a catchall expression that includes outright killing as well as harming, harassing, trapping or wounding.

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