TERRESTRIAL ENVIRONMENTS AND ECOLOGY 



201 



Man-made disturbances of the Enewetak ecosystem, 

 particularly those resulting from World War II and the sub- 

 sequent nuclear testing program, probably were as devas- 

 tating as any that occurred on any other Pacific island in 

 history. What is remarkable is that with time the ecosys- 

 tem has demonstrated an astonishing resilience In a mat- 

 ter of 20 to 30 years the vegetation and its associated 

 biota were capable of recovering at least to the early 

 stages of ecological succession, and on the islands on the 

 southwest rim of the atoll a mature Pisonia forest was 

 becoming evident within that time frame. 



THE FUTURE OF THE 

 ENEWETAK ECOSYSTEM 



The key to the future of the terrestrial ecosystem of 

 Enewetak is in the hands of man. Environmental degrada- 

 tion brought on by overpopulation, rather than contamina- 

 tion by radionuclides, is now the principal threat to the 

 Enewetak ecosystem. The people of Enewetak were not 

 exposed to radiation. During the nuclear testing program 

 they lived on Ujilang Atoll, albeit under conditions of hard- 

 ship, and did not return to Enewetak until the cleanup of 

 radioactive material on the atoll was completed. Although 

 islands like Runit and a few of the severely disturbed 

 islands on the northwest rim of the atoll will remain 

 uninhabitable in the foreseeable future, the major islands of 

 the atoll, especially the traditionally inhabited islands of 

 Enjebi, Japtan, Medren, and Enewetak, should once again 

 become attractive places for human habitation. Enewetak 

 Atoll probably will never again be a self-sustaining island 

 ecosystem in the sense of carrying capacity for its human 

 population, but it can become a productive and contribut- 

 ing part of the Marshall Islands. It will take careful plan- 

 ning, strong community leadership, including birth control 

 and family planning, and continued support from the 

 United States government to achieve this goal. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



I am indebted to a number of people who have helped 

 me with this chapter. Albert H. Banner, Iraneus Eibl- 

 Eibesfeldt, Robert C. Kiste, John Morrison, and Goro 

 Uehara were kind enough to read portions of this chapter. 

 Lori Yamamura typed the manuscript. Susan Nakamura 

 prepared the art work. 



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