An army of seemingly unstoppable, tree-killing insects is wreaking havoc on one of Hawaii’s most iconic trees.

The coconut rhinoceros beetles, first detected in Hawaii in 2013 after being discovered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, have spread to different parts of Oahu where coconut palms and other palm varieties have become the main source of food for these ravenous
insects.

And as insecticides and other bug-stopping methods have proved only moderately effective in controlling the spread of CRBs, the City and County of Honolulu is working to identify as well as remove dead or dying coconut palms at city-owned parks along the Leeward Coast and the North Shore, as such trees can become CRB breeding grounds.

“Really, the unfortunate truth is it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” city Department of Parks and Recreation spokesperson Nate Serota said Monday during a news conference at Bill and Peggy Paty Kaiaka Bay Beach Park in Haleiwa. “We’re going to have to start removing more and more of these palms, really out of concern for public safety.”

Dead, falling palms, he noted, can be a hazard.

As such, tree-climbing city crews used ropes and chain saws Monday to cut down CRB-infested palms. About a dozen trees have been either felled or tagged for removal at Kaiaka beach park alone.

Inside the chopped palms, many living, golf ball-size beetles were found, then killed on-site — including a few summarily crushed to death under the city workers’ heavy boots.

But, according to Serota, CRBs don’t stop at just palm trees.

He said the destructive insects threaten so-called “heritage plants” as well, including taro and other early staples brought by the Polynesian voyagers who first populated the Hawaiian Islands centuries ago.

“So what we’ve been doing in Parks and Recreation, and specifically in our Division of Urban Forestry, is surveying our shoreline parks and our palms to see which ones are infested with coconut rhinoceros beetles,” Serota said. “Primarily, we just started over on the Leeward Coast … (where) we had to unfortunately remove about 100 palm trees at shoreline parks.”

On Oahu’s North Shore, he said, there are about “80 trees that have already been tagged” for removal at city beach parks.

“Now we’re going to be surveying from Mokuleia all the way down to Waimanalo, doing the same thing,” Serota said. “Looking for the impacts of coconut rhinoceros beetles on the palms, the jagged leaves that you’ll see, and a lot of the affected crowns on the palms.”

As coconut palms fell at the Haleiwa park, Roxanne Adams, administrator for the city’s Division of Urban Forestry, said, “It’s another sad day for us.”

“We don’t like removing trees, especially trees like the coconut,” said Adams, who grew emotional addressing the loss of palms that can grow to nearly 100 feet in height. “Not only is it the tree of life, culturally they are important to the Hawaiian people. So today is another sad day, and there’ll be more sad days.”

She said although tree removals will continue, the city will make great effort to replant areas with shade trees, including shower trees.

But the city will plant
coconut palms in the future — once the threat of
CRBs subside — because they “are so culturally
significant,” she added.

Any infected palms the city removes are first chipped, then netted before being transported by truck to Hawaiian Earth Recycling – a private green-waste
company that uses “hot composting,” or high temperatures, to destroy the adult CRB insects and their larvae, according to Adams.

The Coconut Rhinoceros Beetle Response Team — administered through the University of Hawaii and funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Defense — is also part of the effort to control the beetle.

Keith Weiser, a CRB Response Team member, said “success stories” in fighting these insects are few and far between and mainly occur only in urbanized areas.

But he noted that a combination of netting and insecticides — typically, with the use of plant-based pyrethrins — can be used to control infestations.

However, he said, “Any insecticides used are poison, but most of them are tailored to be much more poisonous to insects than to humans … but you do really have to worry about beneficial insects” like bees.

Jessica Keawe, a North Shore resident, showed up to the news conference to find out more about the city’s plans to battle CRBs as she herself battles the insects in her own backyard.

“I have about 10 palm trees, different kinds,” she told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser. “Five coconut trees I’ve already cut down because they were infested.”

Besides the thousands of dollars she’s spent to remove the dying palms, Keawe’s concern was how these infested trees are being disposed of by her privately hired tree trimmers.

“I asked them where they’re going to dump it, and they say behind my house,” she said, adding a large vacant property is located nearby and is a place where tree debris is being dumped regularly. “That doesn’t help the trees, and that just eliminates the whole process of taking trees down and dumping them.”

Keawe said the city should “mandate all the tree trimmers, if they have any coconut trees, that they need to go and dump it” at a city-approved spot.

The CRB is native to Africa, China, Myanmar, India and Southeast Asia.

Adult beetles are black,
2 inches long and have a visible horn. They typically fly at night, and can fly up to
2 miles if looking for a food source. Female beetles might lay 50 to 140 eggs in their lifetime, which is four to nine months. And although the insects don’t bite, they can carry disease and therefore should not be handled with bare hands, if possible.

Arisa Barcinas, an outreach associate with the CRB Response Team, told the Star-Advertiser that “multiple feeding events” can kill an individual coconut palm.

“Usually, it takes quite a few feeding events for it to become damaged, which is why you see all of those notches in the tree,” she said. “Those are probably different feeding events.”

The flying beetles typically breed on the ground, she said.

“So decaying plant waste, mulch, compost, that type of material,” she added. “And then as adults they’ll fly to the tree, they’ll feed. We aren’t exactly sure how long they stay there, but we think it’s not very long; they’re not going to spend the whole lifetime as an adult in one tree.”

She said CRBs create “big bore holes” that can lead to an individual tree’s untimely demise.

“And a lot of times (the trees are) actually dying from secondary things,” she said. “The holes leave them vulnerable to different pathogens, bacteria getting into the holes, infecting the tree.”

Moreover, Barcinas said, “Once too many leaves are cut, they don’t have enough foliage to photosynthesize,” or turn sunlight into chemical energy for the tree to grow or survive.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor  and producer Daniel Dae Kim has come on board to executive produce Makawalu, a feature film initiated by Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF), entirely created and to be co-directed by eight Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) filmmakers. 

The project, the largest budgeted indie feature entirely created by Kanaka Maoli talent, is fully funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the Asian American Foundation (TAAF), and Pacific Islanders in Communication (PIC). More than 90% of the project’s financing comes from organisations invested in change that are based outside Hawaii. 

Currently in pre-production, the feature starts shooting in spring 2025 for an early 2026 release. The eight filmmakers are Justyn Ah Chong, Taylour Chang, Ty Sanga, Ciara Lacy, Āina Paikai, Erin Lau, Scott W. Kekama Amona and Katherine Wong.

First presented in 2021, the Makawalu project involved an extensive selection process after which the eight filmmakers participated in a five-day filmmaker lab and retreat in Honolulu with high-profile industry mentors. 

Kim, known for his acting roles in Lost and Hawaii Five-0, is also a producer (The Good Doctor) and has been a Hawaii resident for almost two decades. He started working with the Makawalu filmmakers on the writers retreat in 2021, along with other mentors including Kerry Warkia (Waru), Amy Hill (Magnum PI) and Kiel McNaughton (The Legend Of Baron To’a).

“Makawalu represents an important step in recognizing Native Hawaiian filmmakers and the power of their stories. As someone who’s worked with this talented group firsthand, it’s been an honor to be able to amplify their voices and help this project come to life,” said Kim. 

Post-retreat, the filmmakers continued to develop the script and production via monthly workshops and mentorship with industry figures including Sean Baker (Anora), Sara Wayne Callies (The Walking Dead) and Dana Ledoux Miller (co-writer and co-director of Disney’s upcoming Moana 2).

Other producers on the project include Sundance alum Sarah S. Kim (August At Akiko’s), and HIFF Artistic Director Anderson Le. John Cheng of 3AD Media will also executive produce. 

Makawalu tells the story of a typical July 4th “luau” on the island of Oahu through eight different perspectives. The word Makawalu, in modern ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) terminology, references “different perspectives of a situation.” 

“The filmmakers crafted a layered screenplay that will unpack many ongoing issues that modern Native Hawaiians face,” said HIFF Artistic Director Anderson Le. “From the exotification of Native Hawaiian culture in Hollywood media, to the repercussions of American colonization through capitalism and militarization of Hawai‘i, Makawalu explores what it means to be ‘Hawaiian’, being priced out of ‘paradise’, all on U.S. Independence Day.”

HIFF Executive Director and Makawalu executive producer, Beckie Stocchetti, said: “The intention of the Makawalu project is to provide an opportunity and access for these groundbreaking filmmakers to have full ownership over the telling of their story from their perspective. In order to make that happen we also needed to fundamentally change the traditional financing structure of independent film.”

With the production funded and ready to shoot in early 2025, HIFF will officially launch HIFF Studios, to support independent film productions in Hawaii, with a suite of support of financing, legal, and artist development programs to increase career opportunities and develop an industry pipeline for Hawaiian and Pacific Islander creatives.

The recent merger between Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines prompts significant speculation about what’s next for Hawaii’s flagship carrier.

One key question is whether Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody aircraft fleet, consisting of Airbus A330s and the newly introduced Boeing 787s (pictured), will remain in Hawaii or over time be transferred to Alaska’s network based in Seattle.

Hawaiian Airlines has long been crucial in connecting Hawaii to mainland U.S. and international destinations. These widebody jets enable direct flights to North America, Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific, providing access to both visitors and residents.

Now, as Alaska Air Group evaluates the potential profitability of Hawaiian’s operations, Hawaii faces the prospect of losing a valuable asset that has supported its tourism industry for decades: its widebody jets.

Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody fleet: Hawaii’s vital resource.

Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody planes include 24 decade-old Airbus A330-200s and two recently added Boeing 787-9s. These are the workhorses of the airline’s long-haul operations, with the fleet of 18 narrow-body A321neo planes.

If Alaska Air Group decides to reassign some of these widebody aircraft, currently numbered at 26, to its Seattle hub, Hawaii could lose some capacity to serve these crucial markets. These could be replaced with Boeing 737 MAX planes, which, together with its legacy 737 planes, are the mainstay of the Alaska Airlines fleet.

The unique role of Hawaii’s Pacific hub.

Hawaii has long been a gateway between the U.S. mainland and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Honolulu International Airport serves as a vital hub for tourists, residents, and commerce. Hawaiian Airlines has capitalized on its geographical advantage by offering direct widebody flights to cities in Japan, South Korea, and Australia, among others.

The merger, however, is poised to mix up the Hawaiian Airlines fleet. While Alaska Airlines has committed to maintaining the Hawaiian brand, the question remains whether it will continue prioritizing Hawaii’s needs like standalone Hawaiian Airlines once did.

If some of Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody planes are redirected to Seattle, likely for new international routes, it isn’t entirely clear how Hawaiian will serve destinations beyond the reach of its A321neo fleet.

How can Alaska Air Group keep Hawaii’s needs at the forefront?

Alaska Air faces a delicate balancing act in Hawaii. On the one hand, the company needs to improve Hawaiian Airlines’ dismal financial performance, which had put the airline on the verge of bankruptcy prior to Alaska’s purchase. At the same time, Alaska must consider the broader impact on Hawaii if Hawaiian’s widebody planes are reassigned to Alaska’s Seattle-based operations.

Alaska Air Group’s recent decision to hire an International Development Director suggests that the company is serious about expanding its long-haul operations. However, could this move come at a cost to Hawaii if it results in the transfer of Hawaiian’s widebody aircraft out of the islands?

Alaska’s expertise in aircraft deployment.

Alaska Airlines is adept at deploying the most efficient aircraft for each route, as will undoubtedly be the case in Hawaii. Recently, for example, they swapped out their smaller Embraer E175 jets with larger Boeing 737 planes on a Seattle to California route. That move accommodated increased demand while allowing them to operate with greater efficiency.

As Alaska Air integrates Hawaiian Airlines, this proven ability to optimize fleet deployment could play a role in determining how Hawaiian’s wide-body planes are utilized—whether those stay in Hawaii or are repurposed for distant markets. That won’t happen overnight, and there are issues that Alaska will need to navigate including Seattle gate constraints.

The Alaska Airlines-Hawaiian Airlines merger comes with opportunities and risks.

While Alaska Airlines will undoubtedly look to improve Hawaiian Air’s financial situation significantly, it must also carefully consider the potential consequences for Hawaii operations if widebody aircraft are shifted away from Honolulu.

Hawaiian Airlines has been a cornerstone of Hawaii’s travel and tourism industry, and the widebody fleet has played a crucial role in maintaining Hawaii’s connectivity to the world.

The future of Hawaiian Airlines’ widebody fleet remains uncertain for the time being. However, one thing is clear: Hawaii has much to lose if these planes “fly the coop,” and Alaska Air Group will need to tread carefully to avoid grounding Hawaii’s tourism industry.

We welcome your thoughts on the Hawaiian Air widebody fleet.