At risk of slipping through

[faze]

At risk of
slipping through

Cutbacks in military inspections
increase the chances of snakes
entering Hawaii from Guam

By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com
starbulletin.com

For the first time in 11 years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not inspecting all of the military cargo flights leaving Guam to keep brown tree snakes out of Hawaii, officials said.

The reason: Federal funding has not kept pace with an increase in the number of military flights from Guam to Hawaii and a rise in the costs of the program to keep the pest out of the state, said Mike Pitzler, USDA director of Wildlife Service for Hawaii, Guam and the Pacific Islands.

Since Sept. 1, at least 34 Hawaii-bound airplanes left Guam without being inspected for brown tree snakes.

Even though the planes were inspected by the state Department of Agriculture when they got here, officials are worried.

"It's a lot scarier" inspecting them in Hawaii, said Lester Kaichi, supervisor of the dog handling inspectors. "Guam is considered the front line of inspection. It's always easier to catch a snake at the point of origin than after it gets here."

The brown tree snake is considered a major threat to Hawaii's environment. On Guam, the snake has wiped out bird species, is blamed for power outages, and has bitten children.

"I would not want to picture what Hawaii would be like" with the snakes, said Earl Campbell, Pacific Islands invasive species coordinator for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. "I've lived on Guam. You don't want to walk in a forest and have absolute silence" because there are no birds.
He's called a meeting next month so wildlife, military and government officials to discuss options. "There's a realization we've got to figure out something to tide us over, Campbell said.

Congress has funded the brown tree snake program on Guam at about $1.5 million a year for the last several years. But the money has not kept pace with costs and an increased military presence on Guam, Pitzler said.

From a peak staff of 45 employees, including 14 dog handlers in 2002, Pitzler now has a Guam crew of 34, with nine dog handlers.

Last year Pitzler trimmed costs by not replacing five field positions on Guam. Unless he gets more money this year, he said he'll have to lay off eight employees, including three trained dog-handlers. Already, he's cut out night work to save the overtime pay, so planes that leave at night leave uninspected.

"If we go down to six (dog-handlers),, we're going to be missing more (snakes) than we're getting," Pitzler said.

A bill has passed Congress and awaits action by President Bush that calls for $15.5 million a year to fight brown tree snakes in Guam, Hawaii and the Northern Marianas Islands.

However, even if approved, it wouldn't take effect until next year, and only if Congress funds it.

Last month, Hawaii's congressional delegation asked Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman for $1 million more for brown tree snake efforts this year, but hasn't gotten a response, said Sen. Daniel Inouye's chief-of-staff Jennifer Sabas.

Inouye recalled that when he first started seeking money to stop brown tree snakes from getting off Guam, "some of my colleagues raised their eyebrows" because snakes are common on the mainland and they thought Inouye's request was a "pork-barrel" item for his home district.

"But I told them if these snakes got wild in Hawaii, that what has happened in Guam would happen in Hawaii," Inouye said. "Guam has already lost eight species of native birds."

From stowaway snakes on military shipments in the 1950s, Guam now is estimated to have as many as 10,000 brown tree snakes per acre. From Guam, the snakes have spread to the formerly snake-free islands of Tinian and Saipan.

An average of 6,000 brown tree snakes are caught each year at Guam's ports of exit.

The state Department of Agriculture currently has only three trained dog-and-handler teams to conduct an average of four brown tree snake inspections per day, 365 days a year, in addition to other agricultural inspections.

The state normally inspects 14 commercial flights from Guam weekly, plus whatever flights the military has. Those are unpredictable, often without more than 30 minutes notice of their arrival.

Earlier this month, dog handlers had to inspect 24 flights in 24 hours, said Neil Reimer, chief of the DOA's quarantine division, which handles brown tree snake inspections here.

Three more dog handlers are in training, but two won't be available for six months.

In the decade before USDA started inspecting cargo leaving Guam, seven live brown tree snakes were found in or near cargo from Guam that got to Hawaii. Since the program has been active, one live brown tree snake, one dead brown tree snake and one unidentified live snake have been found on planes or cargo.