STAND. COM. REP. NO.161

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 496

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 496 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR COMPLETING FENCE ENCLOSURES AROUND LANA`I'S WATERSHED,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to complete fencing around Lana`i's critical and sole watershed area.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, Maui Invasive Species Committee, a citizen member of the Marine and Coastal Zone Advisory Committee (MACZAC), and Castle & Cooke Resorts, LLC. Testimony in support of the intent of this measure was submitted by the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that construction of a perimeter fence around approximately three thousand five hundred eighty-eight acres of Lana‘i's primary forested watershed area is required to preserve indigenous ecosystems and the island's drinking water source. The major cause of the loss of vegetative cover Lana‘ihale, Lana‘i's primary forested watershed area, has been populations of Axis deer. This progressive loss of cover and soil will decrease both the quantity and quality of potable water as well as degrade nearshore waters and reefs.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 496 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture,

____________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair