STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2574

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2358

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2358, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PROTECTION OF FOREST RESERVES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish general administrative penalties for violations of chapter 183, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and to include fines for timber trespass.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Sierra Club Hawaii Chapter, the Hawaii Forest Industry Association, and the Nature Conservancy.

Your Committee finds that this measure will enhance deterrence of illegal timber harvesting in Hawaii by bringing penalty levels in line with the potential commercial value of the trees and with existing penalties for illegal harvesting in commercial areas, and by improving the administrative mechanism to pursue violators.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2358, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2358, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair