The Garden Island
Rare plant protection is up for debate at the U.S. Senate, thanks to Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and a team of other legislators that have introduced the Extinction Prevention Act.
Arriving on the Senate floor on December 19, the bill would create four separate funds for the conservation of plants in the Pacific, freshwater mussels in the United States, desert fish in the Southwest United States, butterflies in North America and “other purposes”.
As of Monday, the text of the bill hadn’t yet reached the Library of Congress, but in a release about the bill, Hirono highlighted the importance of Hawaii’s 350 federally listed plants and the need to preserve them.
“The growing threat posed by climate change means these plants are especially vulnerable, and we need to act now to prevent them from disappearing forever,” Hirono said. “The Pacific Islands Plant Conservation Fund that this bill establishes would provide critical resources to prevent our most sensitive plant species from going extinct.”