HI Press: End is near for coqui control efforts

[Herp News]

BIG ISLAND WEEKLY (Hilo, Hawaii) 07 October 09 End is near for coqui control efforts - County will auction off sprayers used to control the invasive frogs (Alan Mcnarie)
In April the County of Hawaii will auction off 26 chemical spray rigs that originally cost up to $10,000 each.
That auction will mark the end of the county's efforts to control coqui frogs.
County Budget Director Nancy Crawford authorized the auction. She says that when Mayor Billy Kenoi's staff was in the early stages of the budgeting process last year, it became obvious that "This was an item that we were unable to fund." She noted that the state had also discontinued funding of coqui control efforts.
Kenoi was in charge of the county's coqui control program when he worked for former mayor Harry Kim.
The sprayers are used to apply citric acid, the only chemical officially approved to kill the noisy little frogs. Citric acid is not without its drawbacks: In the concentrations used on the coquis, it can cause injuries to humans and pets and can acid-burn foliage. But the foliage usually recovers, while the coquis usually don't.
Crawford said she decided to auction the sprayers because, "We felt that was the best way to help the program continue ...to get these sprayers out into the hands of the people."
Sixteen of the 26 sprayers that the county plans to sell were given to it for free by the federal government. Selling them is legal, Crawford said, because the sprayers were given to the county "with no springs attached."
One of those sprayers, ironically, has temporarily ended up back in the hands of a federal agency. Kim Tavares, who heads Hawaii Volcanoes National Park's coqui control effort, said the county had given her a 400-gallon sprayer to use until auction. She'd contacted the county property management division about the possibility of purchasing the unit -- before she discovered that it was useless for her purposes.
"What I have is a high pressure, low volume pump," she said. She needed a low-pressure, high-volume sprayer to operate in the park's sometimes rugged terrain.
Tavares said the county should keep the sprayers and loan them to the public.
"I think they should be distributed around the island," she said, and suggested setting up lockers for the sprayers at county transfer stations, where community groups could get them when needed. And the sprayers, she noted, could have other uses.
"Suppose they had avian bird flu and they had to disinfect a large area. This [sprayer] would be great for that," she noted.
Some ill-fated coqui control efforts are continuing, for now. The county coqui spray crew is still answering calls for its services, using residual funds from last year's budget, and will continue to do so "until the money runs out," according to a spray crew member. To reach the county's spray crew, call 961-8065.
The county's big 400-gallon unit works well for residential properties, said the spray crew member.
Karen Shiroma, who identifies herself as the "former manager" of the program, said volunteer community groups around the island are using some of the county's smaller sprayers to help fight coquis.
If the county crew can't handle a call for coqui spray services, it will give the caller the phone number of one of the community groups with the sprayers out on loan.
When the current funding is gone, says Crawford, there will be no money even to "continue a loaning program for the small sprayers."
That's because there will be no money for maintenance costs and equipment. Plus, she added, "You have to have someone who's tracking where these are."
Why not just give the sprayers to the community groups?
Because it wouldn't be legal, Crawford said. The county's rules don't allow it to give equipment away, even when it acquired the equipment for free itself.
"When we get rid of county equipment, we can't just give it away to selected people." Crawford said. "We're required by law to make it available to anyone."
Anyone with the money to buy it, anyway.
Some community groups have already purchased their own citric acid sprayers. Retired park biologist Tim Tunnison, who leads a Volcano volunteer coqui patrol known informally as the "Coquistadores," says his group, which receives donations from community members, purchased a sprayer for about $7,000. So far coquis haven't established themselves in Volcano, though the group gets frequent calls to eliminate individual frogs.
Big Island Weekly - Read > News > End is near for coqui control efforts