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‘Recipe for fires’: Invasive plants fueling Maui blazes, experts say
NY Post ^ | 08/14/2023 | Isabel Keane

Posted on 08/14/2023 1:01:55 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

Invasive highly flammable grasses in Hawaii have been key to fueling the deadliest wildfires in the US in more than 100 years, experts say.

While factors such as extreme weather events from climate change and the state’s local power grid have been blamed for helping to cause the blaze, large plots of land in Hawaii have been overrun by volatile non-native fire-prone grasses that are fueling the deadly flames, according to experts.

Land that was once occupied by irrigated pineapples and sugar cane was taken over by the grass species as those businesses began to decline, according to Elizabeth Pickett, the co-executive director of the Hawaii Wildlife Management Organization.

“The problem is at such a large scale, 26% of our state is now invaded by these grasses,” Pickett told The Associate Press.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Hawaii; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: fire; fires; hawaii; invasive; invasivealiengrasses; invasivegrasses; lahaina; lahainafire; maui; nocomment; plants; thebakedtater; whatascumbag
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To: Trumpet 1

Shhhh! That would be blaming elected officials.


21 posted on 08/14/2023 2:08:24 PM PDT by TheDon (Resist the usurpers! Remember the J6 political prisoners!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I’m still betting on arsonists.


22 posted on 08/14/2023 2:10:56 PM PDT by Rightwing Conspiratr1
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To: ChicagoConservative27
Invasive highly flammable grasses in Hawaii have been key to fueling the deadliest wildfires

So these are "invasive", but later in the article it says that The grasses — including guinea grass, molasses grass and buffelgrass — were brought to the islands from Africa...

So they were not invasive, they were brought to the islands to fill in areas of the agricultural plantations that were dying because of ???

So who brought them in and why did no one try to control them?

This is not a natural tragedy, this is a man-made disaster. Reminds me of the Mongoose population in Hawaii - there were too many rats, so the government brought in the mongoose to eat the rats. But rats are nocturnal and the mongoose is not (or vice-versa, I forget), so the mongoose ended up killing off most of the ground-dwelling birds.

23 posted on 08/14/2023 2:23:27 PM PDT by BruceS
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To: ChicagoConservative27
From 2022...

Why Hawai‘i’s Wildfires Are Growing Bigger and More Intense The unfolding disaster on Maui is a sign of things to come as invasive grasses spread across the landscape and extreme rain-drought cycles intensify their fuel loads. Here's the science behind Hawai‘i’s wildfires, and the experts who are fighting to stop them.

Wonder if Hawaii has defensible space rules the way CA does...

24 posted on 08/14/2023 2:28:51 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: All

.
Mandate two EVs for every driveway and garage in Hawaii.

Their Reps are huge proponents of Electric Vehicles. Fire Depts can’t even do anything about burning EVs. They watch them burn out over hours.


25 posted on 08/14/2023 2:31:10 PM PDT by AnthonySoprano (Impeachment is necessary since Deep State is blocking )
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To: mewzilla
From 2020...

Fires Consume More Hawaiʻi Forest in Recent Years

Fires burned more than 30,000 acres of forest and brushland in both 2018 and 2019 – far more than any other year in more than a decade, according to the latest State of Hawaiʻi Data Book...

26 posted on 08/14/2023 2:33:21 PM PDT by mewzilla (We will never restore the republic if we don't first secure the ballot box.)
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To: OttawaFreeper

African-American grasses are responsible?

I figured it was Trump’s fault.


27 posted on 08/14/2023 2:44:11 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: ChicagoConservative27

A few thousand goats could have helped keep it mowed down. Or sheep. But heaven forbid ,,,,,,cattle.


28 posted on 08/14/2023 2:51:39 PM PDT by Retgearjammer
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Thank you enviroterrorists who took out the farms and mismanaged the forests.


29 posted on 08/14/2023 2:58:43 PM PDT by bray (You can tell who the Commies fear.)
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To: Paladin2; OttawaFreeper

***read in the article about the grasses imported from Africa being the possible culprit.***

Johnson Grass? Sudan grass? Those grasses are very hard to kill out and they are poison to cattle unless you cut them and let them lay for a week or so. Those grasses get really poison after a frost, but I don’t think Hawaii has that problem.


30 posted on 08/14/2023 3:21:30 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”)
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To: OttawaFreeper

Cogon grass. That’s not for lawns. That’s animal feed, fodder, traditionally in the Philippines. That’s what you fed the carabaos and horses. Cattle too these days.

If they subsidise goat or cattle farming that should keep that stuff down.


31 posted on 08/14/2023 3:43:09 PM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: BruceS

They could have come in over a century ago and just existed along the edges. It’s just that the unused fields of the last few decades gave them a free environment to take over.

One can’t just abandon agricultural land.


32 posted on 08/14/2023 3:47:03 PM PDT by buwaya (Strategic imperatives )
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To: bray

One wonders if Hawaii was a sovereign nation, as it should have been, if this would have happened?


33 posted on 08/14/2023 3:49:08 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

“The grasses — including guinea grass, molasses grass and buffelgrass — were brought to the islands from Africa as livestock forage and were considered effective because they proved drought-resistant, experts say”

It’s all good, ‘cause experts say.....


34 posted on 08/14/2023 5:01:04 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: TheDon
Shhhh! That would be blaming elected officials.

Another safe for Democrat governance paradise.

35 posted on 08/14/2023 5:17:43 PM PDT by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
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To: Paladin2
I figured it was Trump’s fault.

No. This issued has been around longer than that Bush's fault.

36 posted on 08/14/2023 5:20:28 PM PDT by frithguild (The warmth and goodness of Gaia is a nuclear reactor in the Earth's core that burns Thorium)
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To: buwaya

Bulldozers could easily put a dirt perimeter arounfg the town.

I’ve seen wheat farmers disk up a perimeter around their fields near harvest time.


37 posted on 08/14/2023 6:31:05 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: blueunicorn6; All

Backfires not really that effective in 60-70 mph winds (from former Hurricane Dora). Hurricane Fernanda headed towards Hawaii now:

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_ep2+shtml/203641.shtml?gm_track#contents

https://zoom.earth/maps/satellite/#view=25.6,-147.6,3.83z


38 posted on 08/14/2023 6:39:41 PM PDT by Drago
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To: blueunicorn6

Backfires don’t work too well when you have 80 mph winds blowing toward town...


39 posted on 08/14/2023 10:43:29 PM PDT by Paul R. (You know your pullets are dumb if they don't recognize a half Whopper as food!)
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To: Paladin2

In the sort of winds involved, embers can travel hundreds of feet. So, that’d have to be quite a perimeter. Probably would be better to plant said perimeter with something like zoysia and keep it watered and mowed. Would make a good recreational area.


40 posted on 08/14/2023 10:53:20 PM PDT by Paul R. (You know your pullets are dumb if they don't recognize a half Whopper as food!)
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