Island Conservation
As 2018 comes to an end, here are just few of the top stories and accomplishments Island Conservation, our supporters, partners, and friends were talking about this year. January – Albatross at Risk Invasive mice are a dangerous threat to Midway’s native seabirds—devouring eggs, chicks, and even adults. To protect the world’s oldest wild bird […]
Midway Atoll is a vital seabird conservation area where millions of birds go to breed and nest every year. Luckily, dedicated conservationists at the Friends of Midway Atoll work to preserve, protect, and restore the islands. Midway Atoll is an isolated spot of land located on the far northern end of the Hawaiian archipelago. Due […]
Conservationists around the world are celebrating as V106 is the first of 46 translocated Laysan Albatross chicks to return to the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge. By: Lindsay Young She may not have a name, but her number is significant – V106. She is the first of 46 chicks that were translocated from Kauai to […]
Island birds are at risk, but they are also resilient. Conservation can help prevent their extinction. Brad Keitt, formerly with Island Conservation and now the Oceans and Islands Program Director at the American Bird Conservancy, explains that in the face of extinction, conservation provides hope for seabirds and native species on islands around the world. […]
A project to remove invasive rats from Midway Atoll in 1995 left the island to flourish, but invasive mice continue to threaten native seabirds. By: Aaron Ochoa Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Battle of Midway National Memorial is a place of immense ongoing conservation and restoration work. Millions of seabirds depend on the atoll as […]
Kristy Lapenta, a Kupu AmeriCorps intern doing education and outreach for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Marine National Monuments of the Pacific, shares her experiences from a month spent on Midway Atoll. By: Kristy Lapenta In June 2017, I was given the amazing opportunity to travel to Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge for work. This was […]
André Raine, Project Manager for the Kauai Endangered Seabird Recovery Project (KESRP), recalls the once-alarming ecological condition of Lehua Islet and reports on the promising signs of change post-restoration. By: André Raine I clearly remember my first trip to Lehua. Back in 2011 I went to the islet for a four-day seabird monitoring trip, and […]
Hawai’i’s Department of Land and Natural Resources documentary highlights the efforts to restore Lehua Island to a seabird safe haven. Transcription: Narrator: Unless you know better, you might not guess Lehua Island is in Hawai’i. It’s a stunning island, rising more than 700 feet out of the sea. It has fascinating geology; vertical cliffs, an […]
Invasive rats appear to be gone from Lehua Island after officials conducted a restoration project to protect threatened seabirds. By: Jan TenBruggencate The `iwa or Great Frigatebird swept low over a cluster of trucks, stacks of equipment and a Jet Ranger helicopter on the northern end of Niihau. As I followed its black-winged form with […]
Hob Osterlund explains why removing invasive rats from Lehua is vital to the conservation of native Hawaiian seabirds. By: Hob Osterlund Lehua is a tiny uninhabited crescent-shaped Hawaiian Island about eighteen miles southwest of Kauai. Steep, sparsely vegetated and about three hundred acres in size, most people have never heard of it, much less visited. […]