In conjunction with the eradication project, the native plant restoration project promotes the recovery of native plant communities that support seabird nesting. Non-native plants aggressively colonizing an area require our field teams to hand-pull weeds and out-plant natives at such a rate so as to gain a foothold prior to the onset of more non-natives recruitment.
There are a few ways the Kure Field Station seeks to accomplish this goal:
Native plants are propagated to stabilize the dunes, to replace groundcover after non-natives are removed, and to increase the range of rare native plants. The small group of remaining native plants on Kure provides a valuable native seed bank once weeds are removed. In 2007, a native plant nursery was constructed and since then the native plant total has increased from 13 (Starr) to 17 in 2017 through deliberate reintroduction efforts.
There is a focus to increase species diversity and resiliency by acquiring seeds and introducing appropriate plants native to Hawaii. Place emphasis on species that can out-compete and/or displace non-native species as well as provide year-round cover. Examine historic records of plant distributions on Kure (Christophersen & Caum 1931) and reintroduce extinct species into their historic regions. Consider the possible causes for their extinction and mitigate them. Several of the species are vulnerable to introduced scale insects.
Key restoration plants include:
