Full moon over Mauna Loa and Kīlauea volcanoes. NPS photo by Janice Wei
The National Park Service looks after land in the Pacific Islands — here meaning the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and American Samoa. They are scattered across the Pacific and known for their beauty and biodiversity: volcanoes, beaches and rainforests side by side on small pieces of land, which is rare anywhere else.
| Active volcanoes | reshape the land with flowing lava, so the landscape keeps changing |
| Dormant volcanoes | tower over the islands and the waters around them |
| Native rainforests | found nowhere else — and neither is much of their wildlife |
| Coral reefs | ecosystems of distinctive animals and plants, with fish of every shape, size and color |
Fragile by isolation
Distance from the mainland long kept the islands free of many mainland diseases and predators. As people arrived and travel grew, diseases and invasive species came too, and they have done serious harm.
Island species are often smaller, so larger mainland arrivals — cats, pigs and mainland birds among them — upset the balance. They prey on native species or compete with them for resources, and they often win. Protecting native species and habitats against these continuing threats matters.
People and the ocean
The islands' Indigenous peoples have sacred bonds with the land and strong cultural ties to its resources, which shape distinct ways of life. Many depend on their waters, since fishing feeds many islanders — and they fish by traditional methods rather than the commercial methods used in many other places. It's one way they protect the environment for themselves and for future generations.
Haleakalā National Park
Pipiwai Trail, Haleakalā National Park. NPS photo
On Maui, Haleakalā National Park spans two very different landscapes:
- The summit — a volcanic crater whose rough terrain still supports wildlife.
- The lower half — native rainforest, lush with plants, waterfalls and streams, and home to rare wildlife.
One of those residents is the o’opu, a tiny stream fish native to Hawaiʻi. With suction-like fins, groups of o’opu climb straight up the rock walls of waterfalls — a striking example of a native species adapted to its habitat.
The park's sunrise is so popular that visitors must reserve a spot to see it.
Why it matters
The islands' unusual landscapes and species are vital to their ecological balance. The National Park Service works to protect both the biodiversity and the culture of these islands for generations to come.
Sources
Based on "The Biological and Cultural Richness found in the Pacific Islands," by Sarah Desmarais, a National Park Service Workforce Management Fellow with the Northwest Youth Corps, for the "A Day in the Life of a Fellow" series, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The author's personal hopes of visiting are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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