May 1970: "Many Island Trees Fall Victims to Imports" (R.E. Nelson on futility   of saving native forests in the Hawaiian Islands)

June 1970: "Ecologist says Isle Forests can Survive" (DMDs response to   Nelsons article)

July 1970: "Hawaii joins the search for survival" (announcing NSF funding for IBP research in Hawaii, including two photos of landscape-level tree mortality: upper montane Koa and montane Ohia Rain Forest on the east side of Mauna Kea

August 1970: Inspection tour with Dr. Ivan Buddenhagen, resulting in two hypotheses:  1) Alien (biotic) disease - Buddenhagens hypothesis, supported by Petteys et al. 1975;  2) Natural phenomenon (abiotic stress)  - DMDs hypothesis, based on Mueller-Dombois & Krajina 1968

August 1973: Dr. Buddenhagen memo (August 30); 10 points, emphasizing hypothesis 1 with Phytophthora cinnamomi as the principal cause

1974: 4 news articles; the first two supporting hypothesis 1, the second two supporting hypothesis 2; after writing a research proposal in 1974, DMD   received 55,000 $ for 3 years

March 1975: US Forest Service and NPS response to DMDs 1974 proposal for integrated research (three points by plant pathologist Robert Scharpf and one point by NPS Chief Scientist (Western Region) O.L. Wallis saying that funding for research on hypothesis is unlikely)

May 1975: Honolulu Star Bulletin (May 17): "Death of Ohia Forests a  Frightening Prospect"; a five-years retrospective on research focussing on hypothesis 1, the disease hypothesis

June 1975: new proposal by Robert Scharpf (May 23) focussed on  Phytophthora cinnamomi as the most likely cause attached to NPS letters by O.L.Wallis to Robert Nelson, saying that DMDs proposal will be funded on a reduced level and with modifications (after DMD applied political pressure via Councilwoman Merle Lai)

August 1975: Honolulu Star Bulletin, "Ohia Dieback Fight gets more funding" (August 7); article gives three hypothesis - after DMD received NPS funding

December 1975: Christian Science Monitor, Boston, "Hawaiian rain forests are in trouble"; the problem is seen as becoming more complicated because several researchers gave different opinions

March 1976: "Ohia Blight caused by Insect, Fungus" (March 13); March 16: memo by Dr. Oliver Holtzmann to Drs. Ko and Kliejunas (and others incl. DMD) with the request to make no comments to the press unless information is channeled through UH Pathology Department; Holtzmann says, if they were to make comments to press, there would be consequences (comment: Dr. Ko lost his research funds at this time)

March 1977: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article, March 7, "Ohia trees are dying"; article reports on S.C. Hwangs finding that Phytophthora cinnamomi is not a primary cause.   Dr. Hodges, however, says it could be a contributing factor; Dr. Scharpf says, this is the most complicated problem he has ever seen. The prediction that complete elimination of Metrosideros forest is possible in 15-25 years is repeated. DMD says that research has made progress by eliminating some possibilities. Robert Nelson pointed to the broken balance of nature. All scientists agree that further research is needed.

April 1978: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article (April 10), "Ohia forest report"; article reports on the first three years results of work concerned primarily with hypotheses 2 saying  that ohia rainforest is not an endangered ecosystem

August 1979: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article (August 20), "UH Scientist Receives Ohia studies grant"; article reports on DMDs NSF award of $ 425,000 for a  3-year study

April 1983: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article (April 29), "Ohia Dieback Isn´t a Death Knell"; article reports on 3-years NSF research with 3 graduate students and a conclusion made after DMDs research travel to Papua New Guinea, New   Zealand, Australia and the 15th Pacific Science Congress Symposium "Canopy Dieback and Dynamic Processes in Pacific Forest", held in Dunedin, New Zealand, and published in Pacific Science Vol. 37, Nr. 4

January 1984: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article (January 30), "Dieback". Charles Hodges says, the "dieback problem can now be left to ecologists"

September 1984: Honolulu Star Bulletin Article (September 10), "Diagnosing Forest Illnesses"; article reports on research connections made with North American and European forest decline research. This is the last local article.

1987: 2nd International Symposium on Forest Decline at 14th International Congress of Botany in Berlin, Germany, published as "Stand Level Dieback and Ecosystem Processes in a Global Perspective" in GeoJournal 17 (2), 1988

1991: 3rd international symposium on Forest Decline, "Forest Decline in the Atlantic and Pacific Regions" based on Pacific Science Congress Symposium in Hilo, June 2-6, 1991. Published by Springer, Berlin/New York (ed. Huettl & DMD 1993)

FAO Forestry Paper No. 120, "Decline and Dieback of Trees and Forest” by W.M. Ciesla and E. Donaubauer, Rome 1994

1992: "Forest Health Issues on a Global Perspective", convened by John M.  Skelly and published in Env. Toxicology and Chemistry, Vol. 11, No. 8, 1992

"Forest Decline Concepts" (ed. P.D. Manion, A. Lachance), AFS Press, St. Paul, MN.

since 2001: "Regeneration and Invasibility of the Hawaiian Metrosideros Rainforest", research fellowship Hans Juergen Boehmer, funding by the German Research  Foundation (DFG); the primary objective of study is to document the regeneration of native ohia lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) forest after dieback and ecosystem-level consequences of biological invasions