LAYSAN ISLAND TELLS A REMARKABLE TALE OF RESTORATION AND RECOVERY

After nearly 77 years since it was denuded of virtually all of its vegetation and 10 years since the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began a war on weeds at this remote northwestern island, Laysan Island can now be considered an ecological restoration success story.

West side beach and
vegeteation, Laysan Island

In just shy of one decade, a handful of dedicated staff and volunteers have been able to assist Laysan island to transform itself from weed-stricken place where wildlife were more challenged to survive, to a place where native plants are once again abundant and bird populations are on the rebound. During this period biologists estimate that the percentage of native plants found on the island shot up from less than 50% to over 80% of the total vegetation on island.

Aside from pulling weeds, biologists have also begun to grow and replant native species like bunch grass (Eragrostis) on the island, which provides critical nesting habitat for many seabirds that rely on the island to hatch and feed their young.

Eragrostis on Laysan Island

"The key recovery at Laysan has been active management," said Refuge Manager David Johnson. "When a commitment was made ten years ago to actively implement a weed control program on the island, things really began to change. It has taken years of continued presence on the island and the dedication of hardworking, committed staff and volunteers to tackle a very difficult weed species, sandbur (Cenchrus echinatus). When the work first began, no one quite believed that the plant could ever be brought under control. But as the weeds were brought into check, we began to witness an amazing recovery of an entire island.

Cenchrus which once took
over Laysan has now been
controlled by biologists and volunteers

"But I don't want to mislead anyone, the recovery of Laysan isn't yet complete. It still has a ways to go," reminded Johnson. "But we've cleared to first and most critical hurdle in getting alien weeds under control and opening up space on the island for native plants to grow and birds to nest again in larger numbers."

More weed control and native plant propagation are planned for the island. Just two days ago a new field crew of two was dropped off on Laysan for six months to continue this work and to get a native plant nursery up and running.

The next step for the resource managers in charge of the island is to figure out how far they want to go with restoration on the island and determine what's feasible. "We need to paint a picture of what we want Laysan to look like again, what plants and animals we'd like to see exist there again and what else is possible for the island in the long-term," said Johnson. "We know that once a place is so heavily impacted it can never be fully restored to what it once was. We lost some of the pieces of the puzzle when several species went extinct. So we look forward instead of backwards toward a future that may now be possible."

Described by many as the 'crown jewel' of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Laysan was once a target of exploitation and degradation. The island's relatively easy access and volume of seabirds made it a target for both guano traders and feather poachers at the turn of the century. In just 20 years, the poachers had killed over 350,000 seabirds including albatross, frigatebirds and terns. The camps set up by the guano traders had mined hundreds of thousands of tons of guano and their activities and development of the island dramatically altered the island's landscape.

To add insult to injury, the caretaker of the island during the guano trade released a variety of rabbits and guinea pigs on the island for food and sport for his family. Given the abundance of vegetation on the island and the ready-made burrows already dug by seabirds on the island, the rabbit population exploded. In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the island part of the Hawaiian Islands Bird Refuge. Concerned about the rabbits, an eradication team was sent to the island in 1912 to rid the island of these pests, but it was too late. Within less than 20 years, the rabbits had virtually wiped out all the native vegetation on the 913 acre island.

In 30 years, the impact of guano mining, feather poaching, and rabbits combined, caused a 97% crash in the Laysan albatross population alone, which went from an estimated one million in 1891 to about 30,000 in 1923.

In 1923, when a scientific expedition was chartered to study the northwestern islands, researchers aboard the vessel Tanager, were able to eradicate the last remaining rabbits -- but not before the devastation was so complete that on the same trip they witnessed the extinction of a native land bird, the Laysan honeycreeper. This bird relied on the native shrubs and coastal vegetation to survive. After losing their food source and habitat, the population crashed to the point that the last animals were too weak and shelterless to survive a sandstorm that erupted while the Tanager researchers were on island.

The Laysan millerbird, another native land bird, met its demise earlier. It is estimated that the millerbird had already gone extinct by 1918, before the vegetation had been completely denuded.

The complete degradation to the island also led to the extinction of a third species of land bird, the Laysan rail. Like the millerbird and honeycreeper, the rail was endemic to Laysan, meaning it only existed on the island and no where else on the planet. Some scientists consider these birds 'relic' species, those that survived the shift in an island's geology from a high volcanic island to a low sandy atoll.

Luckily, the island also had two other endemic land birds, the Laysan finch and the Laysan duck, which survived. Today, now that the vegetation has been restored, these ultimate survivors have fairly stable populations. By one estimate done in 1998, there were approximately 8,000 finches found on the island. This year, nearly 400 ducks were recorded, another indication that the island is really on the road to recovery.

Laysan Duck

Laysan Duck

Laysan Finch, note the banding

Why these birds didn't go extinct as well is a mystery. In the case of the duck, the population had crashed down to less than 6 individuals. In the case of the finch, the lowest recorded count was 100. The key to the survival of the duck may have been the existence of a unique hypersaline lake on the island. Perhaps because the lake is such a specialized and harsh environment, the alien species that found their way to the island did not have a huge impact on it. With the lake still intact, the animals that evolved to survive in that environment were also able to hang on, despite the changes to the rest of the island. Scientists have speculated that the survival of the finch resulted from its ability to change its feeding habits. Finches, which are normally seedeaters, had been recorded feeding on the carcasses of dead seabirds during the feather poaching days.

A visit to the island today provides a stark contrast to the other emergent islands in the northwestern chain. According to Gordon Nishida, expedition member who visited several islands over the past month, the difference in balance and feel of the island is striking. "When you step on the island, you can immediately sense the balance of the place. Plants are growing right and are spaced properly and no one plant is dominating over others. Although the island is not without remaining problems that still need to be addressed, Laysan is a positive example for us all that restoration and recovery is possible.

"Compared to other islands we've seen where weeds are taking over, Laysan demonstrates that these islands have been too heavily impacted by man to be left alone, unmanaged and expected to recover. Weeds, alien insects and other introduced predators like rats have become too big a problem on these remote islands to leave to mother nature," said Nishida. . "We've seen on all the other islands up here that instead of recovering, the native systems are losing more ground.

"The rest of the islands in the chain like Kure, Midway, and Pearl and Hermes can greatly benefit from active, on-site management that is now present on Laysan. They can also now benefit from the lessons learned on Laysan and the techniques that have been proven to work, like ridding large areas of invasive weeds. These lessons can also be transferred back to the main Hawaiian islands and applied to the more complex systems there," concluded Nishida.

"It's been interesting to be able to witness up close just how resilient some things can be. We've hammered the ecosystem at Laysan nearly to death and just about killed everything on the island. But with a little help and renewed isolation, Laysan is starting to make a comeback and express itself once again in its natural state," said refuge manager Johnson.

"Restoration and recovery isn't easy and it's not cheap, but it's well worthwhile," commented Johnson. "If we can't have even one untrammeled, unimpacted place at Laysan, we probably can't have one anywhere in the world. Laysan is about as isolated as a place can get.

"Usually the stories we tell about our refuges and natural areas are ones of ecological degradation. As a management agency we have few opportunities to improve the places we care for. Typically all we have time and resources to do is stem further decline. But here at Laysan we've been able to actually restore an island. Our work isn't done and it's not perfect, but Laysan is now well on her way to thriving once again," concluded Johnson.

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