ハワイ旅行･ホテル･ショッピング･グルメ･求人

A recent study by the National Parks Conservation Association has found that Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island is under funded. The recent survey of the park found that non-native plants and animals are threatening to overwhelm native flora and fauna, including many endangered species, and classified the condition of natural features and cultural sites as "fair to poor".

The park covers an area roughly 333,086 acres in size and gets about 1.6 million visitors a year. Nearly 131,000 acres of the park are designated as wilderness. The report states that the park needs more money to pursue strategies such as fencing and weed control to protect habitat critical to aid the recovery of native birds and plants. Officials at the park say that they need around 60 more employees to effectively manage the area, but that they lack the funding to hire them.

Among some of the other problems cited in the report include maintenance at some of its 205 historic structures, archaeological surveys (only 3 percent to 5 percent of the park has been surveyed), shortages of staff dedicated to public outreach programs, and a lack of staffing for the parks new 116,000-acre Kahuku unit.

The report wasn't entirely bad, however. The association credited the park working aggressively with volunteers and landowners around the park on its four showcase programs to protect endangered species, which includes efforts to increase the populations of the hawksbill turtle, the Hawaiian petrel, the nene goose and the Mauna Loa silversword plant. The park is looking forward to the park receiving its first increase in funding under the federal Centennial Initiative, a plan designed to restore park funding as the system approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016.