The brown tree snake (BTS) is one of the world's worst invasive species

The Hawaii Department of Agriculture received a $300,000 Project Grant award dated November 6, 2025, from the Department of the Interior's Office of Insular Affairs under the Economic, Social, and Political Development of the Territories program (CFDA 15.875). The grant, with a completion date of September 30, 2027, funds three integrated brown tree snake (BTS) prevention and response programs designed to protect Hawaii's ecosystems and infrastructure from this highly invasive species. The Hawaii Detector Dog Program employs specialized canine handler teams and BTS-trained inspectors to conduct inspections for the species in aircraft, surface vessels, and cargo arriving from BTS-established regions including Guam, Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. The grant also supports a Survey and Monitoring Program utilizing strategically positioned BTS traps and spotlighting operations near high-frequency arrival areas to enable early detection.

The award further funds a Rapid Response Program developed in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey that trains Hawaii Department of Agriculture inspectors on BTS search, handling, and rapid response techniques, with trained personnel stationed across the state for immediate deployment in response to suspected BTS sightings. Together, these three programmatic functions form a comprehensive biosecurity initiative to prevent BTS introduction and establishment in Hawaii while preparing the state to respond quickly to any detected incursions, thereby avoiding the significant ecological damage and infrastructure impacts that Guam has experienced since the species' post-World War II introduction to that island.

Since its accidental introduction to guam after world war II, IT has been responsible for significantly impacting, including the extinction of, many of the island's native bird, reptile, and BAT species. The BTS is also responsible for infrastructure issues, causing power outages that affect residents, tourists, and the military. The state of hawaii is a group of island ecosystems with similar environments that would enable establishment of BTS. Should the BTS arrive and be allowed to proliferate, there is little doubt that the state of hawaii would suffer many of the same impacts guam is currently dealing with, except on a wider scale. The hawaii department of agriculture and biosecurity's plant quarantine branch (PQB) continues to utilize three programmatic functions to prevent the introduction and establishment of BTS in hawaii while simultaneously being prepared to respond to any suspected BTS throughout the state. The first function is the hawaii detector DOG program (HDDP) which uses specialized canine handler teams to conduct inspections for BTS in aircraft, surface vessels and associated goods arriving from guam, northern and eastern coastal australia, eastern indonesia, papua new guinea to the solomon islands, and any other areas where BTS is known to be established. In the event a canine team is unavailable, BTS-trained PQB inspectors will conduct the inspections. The second function is the survey and monitoring program which utilizes strategically placed BTS traps adjacent to areas with high frequencies of BTS arrivals in conjunction with routine spotlighting efforts of fencelines near these areas. The third function is the rapid response program that collaborates with the U.S. Geologic survey (USGS) to train PQB inspectors on search, handling, and rapid response techniques for BTS. PQB has USGS-trained staff stationed across the state who are able to be quickly deployed in the event there is a credible report of a BTS. The maintenance of these functions is critical to prevent the introduction and establishment of BTS into the state of hawaii.