ALIEN PLANT CONTROL STRATEGIES IN Hawai`i VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK*

Alien plants have greatly altered some native plant communities and threaten others in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. The Park contains approximately 405 alien and 375 native vascular plant species. Desultory efforts were made to control alien plants until the 1980s, at which time a systematic program was initiated. The following strategies or actions have been taken to protect native species assemblages: 1) controlling feral pigs and goats; 2) excluding fire; 3) controlling localized alien plants throughout the Park; 4) controlling all disruptive alien plants in Special Ecological Areas (the most diverse and intact areas in the Park); 5) confining one widespread species, fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum), to the area it currently infests; 6) developing herbicidal control methods for target species; 7) developing biological controls for some widespread species; 8) mapping the distribution of important alien plants; 9) researching the ecology, seed biology, and phenology of important alien plant pest species; 10) educating the public to the importance of alien plant control; and 11) working with other agencies and groups in alien plant management. Control of new introductions and incipient infestations and protection of some of the most diverse and intact areas in the Park have been very successful strategies. Biological control programs, now in the research phase, provide potential long-term solutions to the control of some widespread plant species. INTRODUCTION Alien plant problems have been recognized by park managers at Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park since the 1920s. Desultory efforts were made to control alien plants until the 1980s, at which time alien plant management *Adapted from Tunison 1991.