Plants on verge of extinction destroyed by vandals in Hawaii. ‘It’s unfathomable’
Some of the world’s rarest plants moved a step closer to extinction days ago, when vandals broke into a highly specialized greenhouse in Hawaii and caused widespread destruction, state officials say.
In some cases, the damaged plants are so rare, only one example is known to exist in the wild, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources reported in a Facebook post.
It’s believed the vandals broke into the Waimano greenhouse on Oahu Friday night, and photos shared on Facebook show staff arrived to find rare plants and tree saplings in piles on the floor. Vandals are believed to have gained entry through a “gaping hole” they cut, officials said.
“These are not just run-of-the-mill plants that you find at a commercial nursery. They’re endangered and a lot of them are irreplaceable,”state botanist Susan Ching said in a statement posted Jan. 17 on Facebook.
“Some of these plants may not recover from this terrible destruction. Once the sole survivor of a family disappears, the species becomes extinct and is gone forever. ... It’s unfathomable to me that we’re trying to rescue these plants ... and then to see them just maliciously hurt.”
The greenhouse is part of a state-run Plant Extinction and Protection Program that attempts to grow rare plants in a nursery and then place them back into the wild, officials said.
“At least four species of extremely rare native Hawaiian plants are now in further peril,” including the o‘puhea, officials said. It has only been found in Oahu’s Waianae Mountains and “there’s one single wild individual remaining,” Ching said in the release.
It appears the damage “was done in anger,” based on the number of plants “snapped in two,” Ching said in the release Honolulu police and the state’s Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement are investigating, according to a release. A federal report is also being filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, because many of the plants are federally protected, officials wrote.
This story was originally published January 20, 2021 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Plants on verge of extinction destroyed by vandals in Hawaii. ‘It’s unfathomable’."