It takes a serious threat to convince the National Park Service to allow drones in its airspace, and for Puuhonua O Honaunau that was the death of palm trees.

The park has lost about 65 palms during the last several years, said Adam Johnson, chief of integrated resources management and supervisory archaeologist for the park.

That led him to bring in the unmanned aerial devices to give him an idea of what was going on. The service workers think there are at least two, possibly three, fungi attacking the trees and potentially insects as well.

Thankfully, Johnson said, the trees are not suffering from the coconut rhinoceros beetle that savaged Oahu’s palm trees.

http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/park-brings-drones-survey-trees