Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 1, 1 January 2015 — Kure Atoll volunteers sought for summer 2015 [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kure Atoll volunteers sought for summer 2015

By Cheryl Corbiell Kure Atoll (Moku Pāpapa), located 1,400 miles northwest of Oahu, is the most northern coral atoll in the world, and few people ean visit or reside on the 6-mile oval-shaped atoll that lies within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

However, twice a year the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Forestry and Wildlife Division seeks five Habitat Restoration volunteers to work for six months at Kure Atoll's Seabird Sanctuary. For individuals who are passionate about conservation, volunteering at Kure Atoll is a unique opportunity. Kure is an extremely remote work location. Access is limited to scheduled vessel or plane trips every six months. Home for the small team is a concrete structure and an elevated wooden bunkhouse. Eaeh individual lives in an 8-foot-by-10-foot room. Outside contact is limited to textonly emails sent via satellite phone and no Internet access. Ilana Nimz, from Waimānalo, O'ahu, was a volunteer in 2010, and returned to Kure to work in the seal-pup program in 2011, and a

third time as a temporary employee with DLNR in 2012. "I was studying conservation biology and marine science at University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and onee I heard about the volunteer positions, I wanted to go," said Nimz. "Working on Kure eonfirmed for me I wanted to work in conservation and on islands." Volunteers work 40 hours per week, but not an 8-to-5 job. Depending on the task, the team works evenings and weekends. Jobs include native plant propagation, seabird and shorebird surveys and banding, monk seal monitoring, vegetation surveys and oeean debris removal, but the main work is invasive plant removal. "Major physical effort goes into removing the invasive plant Verbesina, or commonly called golden crownbeard," Nimz said. "This aggressive plant had overgrown the central plain. Almost nothing grows under Verbesina, whieh grows 6 feet tall. The plant threatens native plants and young birds. After one season of removal, I could see the regrowth of native plants. In most conservation work, an individual doesn't immediately see the result of conservation work, but at Kure, every month I saw improvement. Kure provides immediate rewards." Kure volunteer Laney White was selected for the 2013 winter season. "I was on the U.S. mainland, had studied environmental biology and dropped everything to volunteer at Kure. My first trip to Hawai'i was for DLNR's Kure two-week orientation session in Honolulu. The opportunity to work for six months among thousands of endangered birds, plants and the Hawaiian monk seals was on my bucket list of achievements," said White. "I never felt alone among the sizable and diverse wildlife populahon. I heeame more passionate about undoing what we've done to the Earth." The teams have to be watchful about Kure's delicate ecological halanee and even a native plant ean cause a problem. "Makaloa is a native plant that grew vigorously and overtook the seeps, whieh are

freshwater (spots)," Nimz said. "We cleared the plant to open the water for the assorted birds that end up on the Kure as a temporary stopover. The seep provides fresh water for those birds while they recuperate before heading to where they intended to go." When White was on Kure, she helped plant the native grass kāwelu around the seeps to provide habitat for burrow-nesting seabirds, such as Tristram's storm-petrels. "The kāwelu is also protection for the endangered Laysan duck young ducklings, whieh was recently introduced to Kure," said White. Both White and Nimz lived their dream working on Kure. "Leaving the high-tech world behind allows individuals to focus on Kure's robust habitat and wildlife and really pay

attention to nature. It was an amazing experience both as an individual and as a conservationist." Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is administered jointly by three co-trustees - the U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Department of the Interior and the State of Hawai'i. A management board comprised of the National Oeeanie and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, State of Hawai'i and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs oversees the day-to-day management of the monument. ■ Chervl Corhiell is an instructor at the University ofHawai'i Maui. Col-lege-Moloka'i. and coordinator for TeenACE and ACE Readi.ng programs.

Laney While gathered the native huneh grass kāwelu (Eragrostis variabilis). Kāwelu is planted in areas recently cleared of the invasive golden crownbeard (Verbesina encelioides) and provides important habitat for ground nesting and burrowing seabirds. - Courtesy: D[NR/Naomi Worcester