Students and professors say protecting plant life is essential for the good of native species and human life
Nestled amongst the trees and greenery of Laie and across the Science Building, BYU–Hawaii hosts a plant nursery that is home to native Hawaiian plant life and is tended by students majoring in the biological sciences. Students and their professor said the nursery’s goal is to help people understand how much plants do for humanity.
Why care about plants?
According to Assistant Professor Esprit Saucier from the Faculty of Sciences, awareness of plants’ importance has decreased over time through agriculture and industrialization.
“I think for a long time, there was this idea of ‘I just need land to grow the plant that I want to feed my family.’ And then, with the loss of native plants, we’re seeing a degradation of land and a drop in diversity of animals and stuff and then realizing that plants are the foundation for everything.” The big question, she said was, “How do we conserve what used to be here and then how do we bring that back to preserve our biodiversity that we have?
“So I think people are being much more aware that it’s not sure I can make almost anything grow here with enough effort, but instead they are thinking about what used to grow in Hawaii and how they can work to benefit the Hawaiian ecosystem,” Saucier added.
Saucier said people need to be more conscientious of what they plant and where they plant it. She offered the example of growing a papaya tree and an avocado tree next to each other. She said both trees will fight for the same nutrients, with papayas growing at a faster rate and better at fighting for nutrients, it means the avocado tree will suffer.
The need for plants
Saucier said the key to caring about plants, even if one did not care previously, was simply to find a personal connection to nature. “Really, plants can live without us. We cannot live without plants.”
She added the growing challenge conservationists in the Pacific face. “How do we showcase different ways to grow different things with limited resources and in these harsh Pacific Island nation environments?…Salt air, coral rubble you’re growing in. How do you grow in these conditions to help sustain your family?”
According to J Elizabeth Ungos, a recent alumna from Florida who graduated with a degree in marine biology, much damage to the environment has been done in the past, and there is nothing anyone can do to turn back time, but said students of conservation strive to undo the damage as best they can.
“Within our reach, we can try and strive to restore Hawaiian communities and ecosystems and reconnect indigenous populations with the past,” Ungos said.
In her natural resource management class where the plant nursery project began, Ungos said she felt more connected to the land around her “just seeing how things are interconnected and how we take care of the natural world now will affect us in the future. We can either be on the uphill, or we can be on the downhill, and what we do will continue to destroy what’s around us.
“I really appreciate BYU–Hawaii, how much they bring us out into the natural environment and how when you get to serve the local community or generally restore native systems that were once here,” she added.
Ungos said she began to really care about the natural environment when she was young. She grew up in the suburbs of Florida near the mouth of a river. Ungos said, “I loved being around that. I also had the Ocala National Forest near me which was beautiful and green, but I think I’ve always been raised with an appreciation for nature.” She said she took marine science in high school and that was when she decided she wanted to work around the ocean and grew to love biology.
Caretakers
Before she graduated, Ungos worked at the plant nursery. According to her, “The nature of my research is ecological restoration of Native Hawaiian habitats…It started about two years ago, with the natural resource management class. And in that time we pretty much cleared out a lot of the invasive species there and started planting native or endemic species.
“The goal is restoration of indigenous plants because over the last few hundred years, a lot of invasive species have come, and they kind of outcompete the native plants here. Because over thousands of years the plants that came from birds or from boats or Polynesians, evolved to be here on an island. I think about 90 percent of the species here are endemic [native.] But as colonization happened and people were bringing other animals and species, they started to compete.”
Kara Phillips, a junior from Pennsylvania majoring in biochemistry, who also works at the plant nursery helping with the propagation of endemic plants. “Basically, this is all an experiment for restoration purposes. So we work with Dr. Bybee and Dr. Ingley for the restoration plots. And then I work with Dr. Saucier doing experiments on propagation and how to grow things in odd areas.” Odd areas refer to different types of soil used to experiment with plant propagation.
Walking around the plant nursery, Phillips showed the wide array of native plants the nursery propagated which included milo and pili, types of endemic grass. Lilikoi or passion fruit plants were strewn along the metal fence and gate that enclosed the nursery which also contained avocados, baby lemon trees, peppercorn plants, dragon fruit and ginger.
Phillips said, “I’ve been working with plants since I was like 4 or 5. I started out gardening when I was 6 or 7 with my dad. And then my first job ever was working at a greenhouse in Pennsylvania.”
While growing up in Pennsylvania, Phillips said she developed a love for the ecosystems of her home. “There’s always a lot of invasive species in terms of pests and bugs,” she said, talking about the lantern flies and stink bugs that swarmed the East Coast in 2014. “In terms of invasive species with plants it’s a little different because everything’s already introduced there. That with the growing season and soil depletion are probably some of the biggest issues."
Ungos said she liked how the plant nursery was a teaching ground. Individuals can learn about Hawaii’s native plant life, and then be able to recognize them as they travel around the islands. “The big goal of our project, besides restoring native habitats, is to integrate student learning.”
Classes will sometimes be held at the nursery, according to Ungos, and church groups and community members stop by as well to learn about and appreciate native plants.
“The goal of it is to show the public what ecological restoration is, and to connect them with Native Hawaiian plants. What you’re going to see around campus or even around most of the island, unless you’re going up into the mountains, are going to be invasive or non-native species.”
Degradation
Ungos offered a hypothetical long–term example of the danger invasive species pose to Hawaii, saying there are important plants up in the mountains that anchor soil. “But if those are to be replaced by invasive species that don’t do that as well, then the soil’s gonna go into the streams. The streams are gonna go out into the ocean, and the ocean is going to be full of sediments and that’s gonna cover coral reefs. It’s this whole domino effect,” she continued.
“Even if it happens up there it can affect what’s happening down here. And if you don’t have healthy coral reefs, then you won’t have good habitats for fish, and we won’t be able to harvest fish. It’s all interconnected.
“If you’re developing land and you’re taking out species, you won’t have plants that are going to sequester carbon from the atmosphere. You’re not going to have plants that are cleaning our air, so you won’t have good oxygen in that area. And you don’t have aesthetic beauty,” she said, gesturing to the colorful array of plants that stood around the library grounds near the table she sat at. “Even if some of these aren’t native, you still feel some peace. I’ve read a few articles about mental well-being related to being in nature.”