Joy, Jack, Sumi, and I (Sharon) visited the Salt Lake wetland on November 29, 1994 (Tuesday). We parked at the Oahu Country Club parking lot and walked to the marshland. We were not able to see the entire wetland because it extended out too far. We focused on and studied the wildlife and vegetation of the wetland that is situated directly across from the parking lot of where we had parked.
Situated behind the wetland, there is a golf course and tennis courts. There is a road that separates the tennis courts and the golf course from the wetland.
DESCRIPTION:
We were able to see and touch two different types of plant life that surrounded the lake. Directly along the outskirt of the lake, we were able to see some weed/grass looking vegetation. Along the outskirt of the weed/grass looking vegetation, we were able to see pickle weeds. The pickle weeds seemed to cover most of the wetland. We were able to walk on the pickle weeds to get closer to the lake.
There was also a bald spot of just dirt or silt on the outskirt of where the pickle weed grew. We found some holes like someone was measuring the water level or studying the silt, footprints, droppings, and some fish bones. We could not identify the footprints but our guess was that they belonged to a mongoose or other unwanted animals or rodents.
We tried to look for signs of pollution. The pollution was very minimal. However, we did find litter items such as 2 plastic bags, a few styrofoam cups and plates, 2 beer bottles, 10 golf balls, some broken glass, and many tennis balls. We were even able to find a fertilizer bag partly buried right along the perimeter of the lake. Jack had the honor of pulling it out of the lake. We were amazed at the amount of golf balls found around the marshland.
We did locate one small pipe by where the ballpark is being designed. The pipe did not seem big enough to keep the marshland wet and moist. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful at locating other pipes or drainage around the wetland.
In terms of the wildlife, we did see a lot of birds, approximately 60 - 80 birds. Most of the birds that we saw were of the same type. Majority of the birds we saw were the Hawaiian Coots and a few Cattle Egrets. Although we saw many other birds, we could only identify the Hawaiian Coots and the Cattle Egrets.
I spoke with Mike Ritter from the Fish and Wildlife after our visit to obtain more information about the Salt Lake wetland since we were limited in our on-site findings.
The Salt Lake wetland is privately owned. It does not have a lot of pollution problems such as run-offs and the hills help keep most of the litter out of the wetland area. There is some litter problem but because it is privately owned, there is limited litter problem.
This particular wetland area does not have any protective measures to keep mongoose or other rodents out of the area. Other refuge areas have mongoose traps situated around the wetland area. These mongoose eat the eggs and the young of wetland birds when the wetland birds settle near shore and are a major threat to the wildlife.
The most interesting information he gave me was that there are two pipes or canals that are connected to Salt Lake and the wetland. One canal is located all around the golf course (west side of Salt Lake behind the tennis courts) and it is continuous. At the other end of the golf course (southern edge of the course), there is another huge canal for drainage intake and outtake. We weren't able to see it because the pipes are located further down the wetland.
Although we weren't able to see too many birds of different types, there are Hawaiian Coots, Hawaiian stilts, Cattle Egrets, Hawaii moorhens or gallinule, semi-domesticated ducks, and plovers living in the wetland. Our group saw brown birds with white beaks that resembled the Hawaiian Coot and we weren't able to identify the name of those birds. Come to find out, those birds were young Hawaiian Coots!
Scope of the problem in Hawaii:
Since the 1850's, there has been a continual loss of wetlands in Hawaii due to various reasons. The obvious ones are agricultural crops and development. Hotels, golf courses, housing developments, shopping centers, landfills, highways, military, industrial sites, and agricultural crops (sugar and pineapple) have replaced extensive Polynesian wetland systems as sell as natural habitats.
Introduced plants and animals also create more problems for the wetlands, Plants such as pickle weed, California grass, mangroves, and water hyacinth have infringed upon wetland areas. Introduced animals such as cats, dogs, mongooses, rats, and cattle egrets are avian predators which threaten the population growth of the waterbirds.
Source: Conservation Biology in Hawai'i by Charles and Danielle Stone.
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