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Once a year high up in Olinda on Maui you can look behind the curtain

at one of the most poignantly heroic endeavors in our islands. At the


Maui Bird Conservation Center a small group of dedicated young men
and women are challenging the terrible cycle of mass extinction that
began when the first human stepped out of the first canoe onto Hawaii.
Our state is ground zero for an extinction wave, that ecologists and
paleontologists call the sixth great extinction
(http://time.com/3035872/sixth-great-extinction/). We are all living
through and participating in a mass extinction that parallels the period
that killed off the dinosaurs - only its not a rogue asteroid but rather the
careless finger of humanity on the trigger.
And this extinction wave is hitting where we live harder and sooner than
it is everywhere else - more than 25% of the endangered species in
America are endemic to Hawaii. Hawaii is known for being the
extinction capital of the world.
(http//www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/18/hawaii-endangeredspecies_n_3950903.html).
The grim reality of this sixth great extinction is what makes the humbly
named Maui Bird Conservation Center take on such grand symbolic
value. Associated with the world renowned San Diego Zoo the Maui
Bird Conservation Centers reason for being is to create protected
breeding populations of unique Hawaiian birds that are on the edge of
extinction. The Center was part of the successful recovery effort that led
to the comeback of the Nene. And Nenes are a hopeful makes you feel
better about our islands future. And following success with the Nene the
Center is working with 4 more populations of highly endangered birds.
One of these species, the Aala or native Hawaiian Crow, is poised to
bounce back, but its potential success has been sidetracked, and possibly
even derailed by the politics of the moment.
While the Aala are called crows they are actually closer relatives to
ravens. And like ravens they are large and beautiful birds with the
charisma that helps threatened species survive. Jet black like their

mainland relatives, they have slightly fuzzier heads than the North
American raven we are more familiar with. Their eyes snap with
intelligence, their brains boosted by sophisticated nervous systems that
govern many basic motor functions leaving their brains free for thought
and memory.
They make 140+ different sounds each with their own meaning. On the
one cold rainy November day a year they allow the public in the birds
showed off a large number of these calls fluffing and chattered away at
the small group that had come to visit them. Our guide explained that
they were curious about us and that rare visits like this were
stimulating to the birds. The guide pleasantly awkward in her spiel - she
didnt have the tourist savvy, paid to smile mannerism that people
working in the visitor industry acquire here. Its clear this tour was not
part of an attraction, and indeed according to Michelle Smith a senior
staff at the Center it wont ever be one either, since some of the birds
need the seclusion to breed.
The Aala is extinct in the wild and was down to only 14 individuals in
the 1990s. Much of the Centers work is in breeding the birds to get the
population back up. Thats a lot harder than it sounds. The birds have
to be carefully hand fed while chicks so as not to imprint them on their
human caretakers. The Centers Director Bryce Masuda explains that
they use puppets to feed the chicks after their eyes open and this
simulates a parent for the hatchlings. The puppets are awkward things,
black sleeves with wooden raven heads, and metal attachments. They
look like extras in the Muppets Show. But these caretakers can never let
the objects of their affection know them, the attachment they feel to each
new chick can only ever be one way. Its necessary if they are ever to
return to the wild. Somehow that makes the whole enterprise more
wistfully brave. It occurs to me that it is exactly the kind of sacrifice St.
Francis would appreciate, and I think it is emblematic of the kind of
sacrifice all of us will have to make in order to manage the mass
extinction we are passing through.

Today thanks to the efforts of people like Center Director Bryce


Masuda, and Michelle Smith the Aala population is now back up to
140. At this level the crows could begin to be returned to the Big Island
to reestablish wild breeding populations. The catch is that the land must
be above the 4,000 mosquito line because mosquitos carry a disease that
is deadly to the Hawaiian crow (and many other endangered or
threatened native birds). Fortunately three sites on the Big Island suit
the species reestablishment plan well. And these sites are ready to go,
thanks to co-operative private landowners as well as state and federal
agencies.
Like so many worthy projects the Center is struggling for money to
fulfill its mission. While state, private and some federal money is in
place, there is an unexpected $400,000 shortfall in the federal
contribution. The Feds failure to meet the needed amount to conduct
the reintroduction is a result of Federal Sequestration rules.
Sequestration is the product of governance by theatrical gesture and it is
1 part Obama Administration and 4 parts Republican House. Since it
began in 2013 it has rustily ground away at the federal budget killing
countless research projects, 1,000s of jobs, and programs.
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/sequester/interactive-map)
Sequestration increasingly feels like the weather, like there is nothing
anyone can do about it, but $ 400,000 seems like a small price to pay for
a chance to reverse the extinction of the Aala. It wouldnt be hard to
raise it. If everyone in our state (including Larry Ellison) pitched in 32
cents these birds would be back in the wild in 2015! If a hotel chain
like Starwood adopted this they could raise it on daily donations in a
kiosk display in their lobby.
So what is possible? Certainly one really wealthy person could step in
and give $400,000, and maybe they will, after all it would be a proud
accomplishment to bring a whole species back from the brink of
extinction. But it might be better for the collective soul of Hawaii if we
all pitch in. It could be a state grant in aid, and honestly if anyone in this

state deserves one it is the Maui Bird Conservation Center. But maybe
there should also be a direct appeal a kickstarter campaign, or something
like that. Not everyone feels that extinction of Hawaiis endemic
species is the original ecological sin of humans in paradise, but there
might be enough who do to get these beautiful birds back into the free
and open sky of Hawaii.
In order to have the best chance to make it in the wild the birds cannot
be too old because after a few years they lose the curiosity and edge that
lets them thrive in the wild. Michelle Smith one of the senior staff at
the Center stands in the rain in front of the cages. Smith says, the ideal
would be one breeding pair per enclosure, but with Sequestration,
her hand stabs out at the pens. Looking up through the rain there are at
least 4 birds with their heads all cocked at different angles all looking
through their screen at the receding tour group. Do these birds dream
about flying through an open limitless sky? Do they regret that their one
and only time to be alive will pass behind double screened windows?
One Aala stares back at me eyes glittering like the obsidian of Peles
tears. I cannot guess at his thoughts.
Video about the crows:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TXY9pnEg7M&feature=related

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