India, Oct. 29 -- Most of us have probably tried a quick fix at some point that solved one problem but ended up causing another. Hawaii did something like that, but with a tree. A 1998 paper by U.S. Forest Service researcher James Allen explains that red mangroves arrived on the island of Molokai in 1902. They were mainly planted to stabilize coastal mudflats. Hawaii didn't have mangroves before the early 1900s, so the tree was a newcomer. What followed became a case study of how a well-meaning project can turn into a long-term headache.

Allen's paper says the first red mangrove plants were shipped from Florida and planted in the mud along the southwest side of Molokai. He quotes one early account that the goal was to stop the soil from ...