american samoa - University of Hawaii at Manoa

there). No increased access should be promoted at
this time, until it is certain that it will not lead to
additional development of the interior of the park.
Access roads to new projects in Samoa have always
opened up the roadside areas to destruction.
4. Establishing a list of endangered plant and
animal species.
There is currently no Federal list of endangered
species in American Samoa. Federal regulations
apply to Guam, but so far have not been used in
American Samoa. This has probably been due to lack
of local interest in such a listing. The Federal
government and the American Samoa government
should be prodded into becoming involved; the least
they could do is make a list of candidate species of
animals and plants that are rare or endangered; this
could be culled from Appendix A of this report.
5. Other critical areas that may need protection.
It may be feasible to extend the boundaries of the
park to include other critical habitats or areas of native
vegetation. Two areas adjacent to the park, Mt.
Matafao and Mt. Pioa, have a unique native montane
scrub vegetation that is home to a number of rare
Samoan species. On the other hand, because these
two areas are on poor soil, have steep slopes, and are
relatively inaccessible, they may not need further
protection. A much larger project, left to a later time
(to see if the current park works out), is to study the
feasibility of expanding the park to include the area
from Fagasa to Fagamalo on the northwest Tutuila
coast, which is largely native lowland forest.
6. Control of harmful weeds.
There are 96 alien plant species recorded from the
park, most of which are modern introductions
(introduced during the European Era beginning about
1830) rather than Polynesian introductions. A few of
these are trees that are naturalized in the forest, but the
vast majority are weeds adapted to living in disturbed
places. Two of the weeds are particularly common in
the park. Mikania micrantha (mile-a-minute vine, fue
saina) has been present in Samoa for nearly a century,
but many foresters believe that it retards forest
regeneration because of its smothering growth. It is
one of the few introduced weeds that occurs in
undisturbed native forest. It is not much of a problem
within this kind of forest, since it does not thrive in
the shade, but in cut-over areas it is. Farmers don't
mind it, in taro anyway, since it is easy to pull up and
clear. The other plant is Clidemia hirta (Koster's
curse). Although it is found in lowland forests, it is
not very common there. However, in montane
forest, where it is wetter, it is a dominant species
in sunny places. It is a very serious problem on
the top of a Ta'u, despite the fact that it has
apparently been on that island for less than 20
years (Whistler 1992b). These two weeds may be
good candidates for biological control.
There are a number of other potentially harmful
species present in Western Samoa, such as Fun-
tumia elastica (pulu vao) and Solanum torvum,
that are not yet found in American Samoa. These
should not be allowed into the country under any
circumstances. Another potentially harmful
species, Castilla elastica (pulu mamoe) is an
invasive species in Western Samoa, and was
recently recorded from Tutuila (near Fagamalo)
and Ta'u (personal observation, 1993). It should be
eliminated before it becomes further established.
7. Control of other pests.
In reaction to the establishment of the African
snail on Tutuila, the predatory snail Euglandina
was introduced as a biological control. Although
it may help with the African snails, it unfortu-
nately is leading to the demise of some of the
native land snails on the island. A similar
sequence of events has recently taken place on
Ta'u as well (Whistler 1992b). Some native
species are currently known from only a few
isolated localities within the park. A comprehen-
sive study of the snails within the park, as well as
on the whole island, is needed, to see what can be
done to save the threatened species.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author would like to give special thanks to
Natasha Bartley for her invaluable help with the
field work during the first part of the project. He
would also like to thank Dr. Pepper Trail, Dr.
Peter Craig, Doug Cuillard, Rory West, and Mike
Harrington for their assistance during parts of the
field work, and Henry Sesepasara for making
available the facilities and staff of the Department
of Marine and Wildlife Resources.
This research was supported under a co-
operative agreement (CA 8034-2-0001) between
the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and the
National Park Service.