STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2389

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2062

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2062 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CONSERVATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an appropriation for the identification, establishment, and management of natural area reserves related to watershed protection and the acquisition of private lands for new natural area reserves related to watershed protection.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, Hawai‘i Green Growth, and one individual.

     Your Committees find that forests are essential to provide water at affordable rates. Hawaii's native forests absorb moisture from rainfall and passing clouds that condense on the thick vegetation and can increase groundwater supply by up to fifty percent.  However, over half of these forests have already been lost to invasive species, causing extensive water loss across landscapes.  Clearly, our forests are enormous economic assets.  Just as clearly, their degradation is ongoing and accelerating.

     The longer Hawaii waits to take significant action to halt this destruction, the higher the costs will be to reverse the damage and ensure our future water supply for current and future generations.  In addition to increasing fresh water supplies, the protection of forests prevents erosion that muddies beaches, coral reefs, and fisheries.  Forests reduce Hawaii's greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate many damaging impacts from climate change. Protection sustains the native plants and animals unique to our islands and sacred to the Hawaiian culture.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2062 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Energy and Environment,

____________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair