STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2820

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2417

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 Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2417, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO ERADICATE AND CONTROL THE COQUI FROG,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to support and implement the Coqui Frog Working Group Incident Action Plan.

The measure also appropriates funds to the counties of Maui, Kauai, and the city and county of Honolulu to eradicate and control coqui frogs.

Your Committee finds that the island of Hawaii is infested by the Caribbean tree frog or as it is more commonly known--the coqui frog. In 2001, there were over eighty-five documented sightings of the frogs with another sixty-five occurrences that were undocumented. Currently, there are over one hundred fifty established sites on the island of Hawaii infested with coqui frogs. It is estimated that coqui frog populations on the island of Hawaii could reach ten times that reported in the frogs' native forests of Puerto Rico.

The high shrieking noise caused by the high concentrations of coqui frogs exceeds the Department of Health's maximum permissible noise level of seventy decibels. Coqui frogs also threaten the island's agriculture, which includes the floriculture industry.

In response to the coqui frog invasion, the Mayor of the county of Hawaii issued a Declaration of Emergency in February, 2004 that led the county of Hawaii, the Department of Agriculture, the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, the United States Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Division, and the National Wildlife Research Center to form the Coqui Frog Working Group. The Group then produced the Coqui Frog Working Group Incident Action Plan to control and exterminate the coqui frogs on the island of Hawaii.

This measure would supplement the contributions by the county of Hawaii, the State, and the federal government to implement the action plan on the island of Hawaii, as well as fund coqui frog extermination efforts in the other three counties.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Changing the appropriation for the action plan to an unspecified amount for the purpose of furthering discussion on this matter; and

(2) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of 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. 2417, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2417, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair