Prioritizing Coastal Wetland Restoration on Molokaʻi, HI
with Dr. Judith Drexler,
California Water Science Center, USGS
Helen Raine,
Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture
Join us in person
on September 5, 2023, 12:00 pm
at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Geophysics (HIG) building, room 210, on the UH Mānoa campus.
A free lunch will be available for the first 25 participants.
Or to participate remotely via zoom, follow the registration link below.
Currently, Hawaiian coastal wetlands are degraded by development, sedimentation, and invasive species and, thus, require restoration. Little is known about their original structure and function due to the large-scale alteration of the lowland landscape since European contact. Because no pristine “reference sites” exist for comparison, to prioritize restoration of coastal wetlands on Molokaʻi we used 1) rapid field assessments of hydrology, vegetation, soils, and birds, 2) a comprehensive analysis of endangered bird habitat value, 3) site spatial characteristics, 4) sea-level rise projections for 2050 and 2100 and wetland migration potential, and 5) preferences of the Native Hawaiian community in a GIS site suitability analysis. In this presentation, Dr. Judy Drexler (USGS) and Helen Raine (Pacific Birds Habitat Joint Venture) will summarize the steps in this prioritization protocol, as well as describe two new wetland types found during their rapid field assessment.
Join us for this next seminar of the “Slice of PI-CASC” seminar series hosted by the Pacific Islands Climate Adaptation Science Center! The series is designed for a wide audience to learn about climate adaptation research and science-to-management applications for Hawaiʻi, the US-Affiliated Pacific Islands, and beyond.