Land and People

Author: Melissa Chimera

Hawaii conservationist and artist Melissa Chimera and University of Hawaii Mnoa fire and ecosystems scientist Dr. Clay Trauernicht talk with land protectors in Hawaii and the Pacific about the places they cherish through their professional and ancestral ties. We paint an intimate portrait of todays land stewards dealing with global crises while problem solving at the local level. Brought to you by the Cooperative Extension Program at the University of Hawaii at Mnoas College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Music Raindrops courtesy Lobo Loco and Bale Wengei courtesy Joshua Rostron.
Be a guest on this podcast

Language: en

Genres: History, Nature, Science

Contact email: Get it

Feed URL: Get it

iTunes ID: Get it

Trailer:

Get all podcast data

Listen Now...

EP 74 Biologist Jim Jacobi on mapping and surveying Hawaii’s unique ecosystems across time and space
Episode 74
Friday, 13 March, 2026

Dr. Jim Jacobi has spent the past 50 years in Hawaiʻi as a biologist specializing in mapping Hawai’i’s unique ecosystems and studying the plants and animals contained within them. Like so many of his cohort, he is a skilled naturalist, having worked on introduced rats, native insects first for the Bishop Museum and then mapping vegetation and management research projects for the Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center of the US Geological Survey in Volcano. We talk to Jim about the evolution of tracking changes in vegetation by hand from aerial photos to the use of computer mapping and modelling. He shares with us the unique experiences heʻs had across the rugged U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service transects that traverse mountainous summits to sea, as well as the profound sorrow in witnessing the last Hawaiian honeycreeper in the wild, the Kauaʻi oʻo.