Guam to cut anti-brown tree snake activities

Activities to prevent the exit of brown tree snakes at two military ports on Guam will be reduced by half beginning October due to continued funding shortfalls. This would increase the chances of the snakes entering the CNMI through military cargo and ship arriving from its neighbor to the south.

According to a statement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service-Wildlife Services, it anticipates up to a 50-percent reduction in snake containment activities conducted at the Department of Defense’ ports of exit on Guam as of Oct. 1.

“Any decrease in the operations of USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services puts the Northern Mariana Islands and other Pacific islands at an unacceptable level of risk from this pest,” said Nate Hawley, brown tree snake interdiction program supervisor for the CNMI.

Wildlife Services employs 25 full-time snake trappers and nine canine handlers whose main job is to minimize the chances of brown tree snakes being accidentally transported off the island of Guam in commercial and military cargo, vehicles, and vessels.

These interdiction efforts at Guam’s Won Pat International Airport, Harmon Industrial Area, and Commercial Port are funded through the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs. As interdiction needs have grown in recent years, funding from the OIA has increased accordingly.

However, funding for brown tree snake interdiction efforts at U.S Department of Defense facilities, specifically Andersen Air Force Base and U.S. Navy Port Facilities in Apra Harbor, has not increased substantially since this program was established 11 years ago.

Of the 6,000 brown tree snakes removed annually from Guam’s five ports of exit, nearly two-thirds of the snakes are removed from cargo facilities operated by the Air Force and the Navy.

It is also anticipated that military operations on Guam will grow due to expansion of the Andersen Air Force Base and U.S. Navy Port Facilities in Apra Harbor over the next few years, ensuring additional chances for snakes to be transported on military planes, ships and cargo departing from Guam, bound for worldwide destinations.

“The military has a responsibility to ensure that they are not transporting this extremely damaging pest to all islands and countries receiving cargo and vessels from Guam. The cost of USDA Wildlife Services efforts to keep snakes from transport should be considered a necessary part of operating on Guam,” said Christy Martin of the Hawaii Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species.

“The level of support for brown tree snake interdiction programs needs to be directly related to the volume of military and commercial traffic leaving Guam,” said Mindy Wilkinson, Invasive Species Coordinator for the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. “If the level of support for brown tree snake interdiction is not increased, Hawaii is at significant risk from the accidental introduction of brown tree snakes.”

Previous funding shortfalls for the Wildlife Services brown tree snake interdiction program on Guam have been circumvented by additional funding received through a variety of sources. However, USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services said it no longer has the adequate funds required to sustain a comprehensive brown tree snake interdiction program on Guam.

To accommodate for recent funding shortfalls, Wildlife Services said it had to cut four full-time field positions and anticipates cutting an additional eight positions on or immediately after Oct. 1.

“Decrease in support for snake interdiction activities on Guam by USDA-APHIS-Wildlife Services will only increase the likelihood of snakes arriving in Hawaii from military or commercial transport,” said Domingo Cravalho of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture. “This program needs to be adequately supported.”

“Eliminating the chance that snakes are accidentally transported off of Guam is the only cost-effective solution to prevent the decimation of avifauna on other Pacific islands,” said Earl Campbell, invasive species coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Island Fish and Wildlife Office.

The brown tree snake was likely introduced to the island of Guam in materials moved by the military during the late 1940’s. The snake has caused, and continues to cause, significant economic, ecological, and human health impacts to this U.S. territory in the Western Pacific. The brown tree snake is responsible for the extinction of nine of 13 native forest bird species on Guam. The brown tree snake causes frequent electrical power outages and is a concern for human health and safety. Snakes currently occur at high densities on Guam and there is a significant risk that these snakes will be transported off Guam in military or civilian cargo.

Experts estimate the potential economic impact to Hawaii would be between $400 million and $1.8 billion annually.

Since 1993, the USDA-Wildlife Services program has managed a containment program on Guam to prevent the inadvertent spread of the brown tree snake via cargo traffic to other Pacific islands, including Hawaii.

The program operates some 3,000 brown tree snake traps, conducts nightly spotlight searches for snakes climbing on harbor and airport fence lines and uses specially trained snake detector dogs to search cargo and vessels departing from the islands five major ports of exit.