Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 4, 1 April 2012 — Lorax campaign now embraces Native Hawaiian plants [ARTICLE]

Lorax campaign now embraces Native Hawaiian plants

A national campaign by IHOP to distribute spruce seeds as a way to promote the new Dr. Seuss The Lorax movie has ended in Hawai'i, thanks to the state Land and Natural Resources Department. The promotion encouraged IHOP customers to plant tree seeds, mueh like in the movie. The problem was that IHOP distributed bookmarks containing Engelmann spruce seeds, whieh are native to parts of the continental U.S. but not to Hawai'i. In a news release, DLNR said it "worked with loeal IHOP managers and the IHOP corporate headquarters in California to voluntarily discontinue the distribution of promotional bookmarks embedded with seeds at Hawai'i IHOP locations." The national restaurant ehain also ended the promotion in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Engelmann spruce is also a non-native species. While the Englemann spruce "may not pose a high risk to Hawai'i's native plants, other species of spruce trees have been observed to be invasive in parts of the Paeihe, where they replace native plants and the animals that depend on them," DLNR said. IHOP customers who received a Lorax bookmark ean exchange it for a free Native Hawaiian plant through the end of April at the following participating nurseries: » O'ahu - Hui Kū Maoli Ola, 46-403 Ha'ikū Road, Kāne'ohe; open weekdays 7:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 7:30 a.m,noon, closed Sunday. Contact: (808) 235-6 1 65, hawaiiannativeplants.com. »Maui- NativeNurseryandHo'olawa Farms, exchange facilitated by the Maui Invasive Species Committee (MISC). Call MISC at (808) 573-6472.

» Hawai'i Island - Big Island Plants or Kū 'Ōhi'a Laka, exchange facilitated by the Big Island Invasive Species Committee (BIISC). Contact BIISC at (808) 933-3345.