Once upon a time there was a beautiful island, filled with tropical plants and sunshine. Beautiful beaches ringed the island and birdsong echoed through the forest.
Then, one day, all went silent.
Decades ago, I heard a radio story about how Guam’s bird population was decimated by the brown tree snake. I’ll never forget their interview with a woman on Guam who described the silence of the world around them, compared to the sound of countless birds she remembered.
The Brown tree snake was accidentally introduced to Guam on military aircraft after World War II. Having no natural predators on the island, it quickly spread, reaching numbers of up to 30,000 per square mile. Its favorite food is birds—bird eggs and baby birds being an easy target. This snake decimated Guam’s bird population, including 9 of their 11 endemic bird species.
But that’s not all:
The brown tree snake has taken its toll on the human population, as well. Approximately 200 people have been treated for snakebites, as the snake often enters houses through air ducts or sewage lines. The brown tree snake also crawls along electrical lines, causing approximately one power outage every four days
And worse still:
The brown tree snake is able to live for long periods of time without food, allowing the snake to survive in cargo holds of ships or planes. Brown tree snakes have been intercepted six times at the Honolulu airport but the island has been spared colonization as of yet. If one pregnant snake escaped into the brush, however, it could damage the natural fauna of Hawaii as well as its tourist industry.
Hawaii is home to many many species that occur nowhere else in the world. Its native bird population is already on the brink of extinction due to habitat loss and bird malaria. A brown tree snake invasion could not only eradicate all birds on our islands, but these species would be erased from the face of the earth.
Which brings us to our modern-day nightmare.
Last month, as part of the Trump administration’s slash to services and spending, 60 contracted U.S. Department of Agriculture employees on Guam and over a dozen in Hawaiʻi were told their contracts wouldn’t be picked up again after they end, including some workers who were scheduled to finish this summer.
The administration has since walked back that decision — a sigh of relief for those who work with invasive species locally. That’s because they’re responsible for keeping the brown tree snake away from the islands.
“Those people work day and night with trapping dog teams to make sure brown tree snakes are being reduced at the ports, the military airports and also commercial airports. And because of that work, we haven't had a brown tree snake detection in Hawaiʻi since the 1990s,” said Chelsea Arnott, coordinator for the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council.
Luckily, after our Senator Mazie Hirono literally begged to restore funding on the Senate floor, they walked back this decision. However, just yesterday, Elon and friends decided to lock these workers out of their facility in Guam and cancel the lease on the building, in effect shutting their work down after all.
With all of the evil the Trump administration and its handmaid Elon Musk are doing in the world, it’s easy to overlook the “little” things. But a brown tree snake invasion could literally destroy Hawaii as we know it. No more birds, venomous snakes everywhere, the tourism industry and property values hit:
[The snakes] also cause havoc on infrastructure, crawling into and around sewage and electrical lines and boxes, and other spaces. That’s led to frequent power outages that cost Guam $4.5 million per year.
The impact of the snake on Hawaiʻi’s economy could be anywhere from $593 million to $2.14 billion annually.
A large cause of that economic impact would be power outages. But a survey of tourists suggests brown tree snakes have the potential to cause even greater losses in tourism.
Many of you know me as an avid bird lover. I could honestly care less about tourism and my property value. But I have been forever haunted by that radio show I heard long ago, the eerie sound of silence after Guam’s bird population was decimated. Of all the cruel, unthinking and evil things Elon and his DOGs have done, for me this could be the worst.
Crossing fingers they can find a way to stop them.
