one of the things that makes Hawaii
unique is the isolation
the fact that they are small islands –
is part of the threat Hawaii is one of
the extinction capitals of the world
probably the extinction capital of the
world I’m Steve Perlman I am a field
botanist for the National tropical
botanical gardens on Kauai and I work
and specialize in endangered plants and
so have been doing this work now for
over 40 years there are only about 1,200
species of plants here and at least half
of our species are threatened or
endangered it looks like one right fruit
and several immatures and so we had to
form this program called the plant
extinction prevention program because
already 100 of our species in Hawaii had
gone extinct we’ve been collecting this
plant now for at least four years we’ve
been coming up here and the seeds are
good they germinate really want to get
good genetic representation from every
individual that we can find of these
rare plants so when we find the plants
we want to collect seed we that it’s got
a lot of seed inside multiple seeds in
there we tag them number them we monitor
them regularly I have witnessed myself
about 15 plants species die out just
from my years and most of those were
over the last 20 years they’ve just
become like friends she’s doing good
today when you see them you’ll go and
see some a plant for 20 years and then
you come back and it’s dead it’s like it
is like losing a family member or a
friend
Division of Forestry and Wildlife is
hoping to build a fence around the about
Putin Valley area and so before that
fence goes up we’d like to see if some
of those rare plants are still there I
want to check the plant called plant
Aiko princeps that I can see we can’t
really get to that one unless we’re
roped in we’ve had a lot of things come
in that threaten our native plants over
the years they’ve introduced sheep
cattle goats and add to that diseases of
plants that have come in on them has to
be a little bit careful
it is clinical princeps variety anomaly
which is only known from the island of
Kauai what’s come later though is just
an onslaught of weeds from all over the
world thousands of weed this is a weenie
plant coming in behind it
miracle fly yeah if we could tell you
that like one of the plants found you
know might be used for cancer AIDS then
everybody would say oh well then let’s
save them but if these plants go extinct
we’re never going to be able to even
test them but the main reason that I
like them and maybe it’s a little
esoteric to some people it’s just
because they’re there is enough for me I
hate to use cliches like the plague
but extinction is forever they’re part
of the species of this planet of these
islands and they evolved here and
deserve to be here
hoping that the future of this planet
has people who are much more caring than
some of the people I’ve met who couldn’t
care less with these things go so maybe
it’s for a brighter future
unique is the isolation
the fact that they are small islands –
is part of the threat Hawaii is one of
the extinction capitals of the world
probably the extinction capital of the
world I’m Steve Perlman I am a field
botanist for the National tropical
botanical gardens on Kauai and I work
and specialize in endangered plants and
so have been doing this work now for
over 40 years there are only about 1,200
species of plants here and at least half
of our species are threatened or
endangered it looks like one right fruit
and several immatures and so we had to
form this program called the plant
extinction prevention program because
already 100 of our species in Hawaii had
gone extinct we’ve been collecting this
plant now for at least four years we’ve
been coming up here and the seeds are
good they germinate really want to get
good genetic representation from every
individual that we can find of these
rare plants so when we find the plants
we want to collect seed we that it’s got
a lot of seed inside multiple seeds in
there we tag them number them we monitor
them regularly I have witnessed myself
about 15 plants species die out just
from my years and most of those were
over the last 20 years they’ve just
become like friends she’s doing good
today when you see them you’ll go and
see some a plant for 20 years and then
you come back and it’s dead it’s like it
is like losing a family member or a
friend
Division of Forestry and Wildlife is
hoping to build a fence around the about
Putin Valley area and so before that
fence goes up we’d like to see if some
of those rare plants are still there I
want to check the plant called plant
Aiko princeps that I can see we can’t
really get to that one unless we’re
roped in we’ve had a lot of things come
in that threaten our native plants over
the years they’ve introduced sheep
cattle goats and add to that diseases of
plants that have come in on them has to
be a little bit careful
it is clinical princeps variety anomaly
which is only known from the island of
Kauai what’s come later though is just
an onslaught of weeds from all over the
world thousands of weed this is a weenie
plant coming in behind it
miracle fly yeah if we could tell you
that like one of the plants found you
know might be used for cancer AIDS then
everybody would say oh well then let’s
save them but if these plants go extinct
we’re never going to be able to even
test them but the main reason that I
like them and maybe it’s a little
esoteric to some people it’s just
because they’re there is enough for me I
hate to use cliches like the plague
but extinction is forever they’re part
of the species of this planet of these
islands and they evolved here and
deserve to be here
hoping that the future of this planet
has people who are much more caring than
some of the people I’ve met who couldn’t
care less with these things go so maybe
it’s for a brighter future
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