STAND. COM. REP. NO. 994

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1081

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1081, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR POUHALA MARSH EDUCATION AND JOB TRAINING CENTER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide funding to develop an education and job training program center for the Pouhala Marsh.

Your Committee finds that the center will:

(1) Serve as the headquarters for the Hawaii Nature Center's wetland education program currently established in the marsh;

(2) Provide safe access to the marsh for local high school students involved in wetland research projects;

(3) Serve as the staging area for an ongoing volunteer work program run by the Hawaii Nature Center; and

(4) Serve as a base of operations for interns and youth job-corps participants working on research and maintenance projects in the marsh.

Your Committee further finds that Hawaii is fortunate to have a plethora of unique and often rare or endangered natural resources. As stewards of the land, the people of Hawaii must preserve and sustain these resources to ensure that they exist and are available for future generations to appreciate. One such natural resource is the Pouhala Marsh, which spans seventy acres and is the largest remaining wetland habitat in Pearl Harbor.

The Marsh has been severely and significantly degraded through filling, urban development, water pollution, and alien plant invasion. Once an extensive system of wetlands, the Marsh has declined to a few remaining basins and mud flats. Your Committee believes that this measure to establish the education and job training center is a significant step toward ensuring the protection and preservation of the Marsh through education, awareness, and restoration projects.

Upon further review, your Committee amended this measure to change the effective date from July 1, 2005 to July 1, 2050. In addition, technical nonsubstantive amendments were made for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1081, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1081, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair