STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2514

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3013

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3013 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KAHO‘OLAWE ISLAND RESERVE COMMISSION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Appropriate funds for the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission; and

(2) Fund two full-time equivalent permanent positions for the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, Hawaii State Aha Moku, one member of the Maui County Council, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, Pacific American Foundation, Maui High Cloud Bridge Club, and twenty-three individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one member from the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board and the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committees find that Act 340, Session Laws of Hawaii 1993, identified the island of Kahoolawe's significant cultural and historic importance to the native people of Hawaii, establishing the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) to "meet the challenges of restoring and presenting the island" following "extensive erosion and other ecological problems, presence of unexploded ordnance, archaeological sites, and native and endangered flora and fauna". Following the United States Navy's unexploded ordnance cleanup efforts in 2004, the KIRC initiated numerous restoration projects that have made significant changes to desolate hardpan into vibrant living landscapes, with many projects initially financed from a federally funded trust fund, various grant opportunities, and more recently, with State funds.

To complete restoration projects, the KIRC relies on a volunteer workforce brought to Kahoolawe to assist with native out plantings, erosion control construction, and invasive weed eradication. Despite a strong volunteer workforce, the KIRC lacks key support services such as Kahoolawe base camp facilities, utilities generation, and maintenance of vital infrastructure, equipment, and vehicles. In recent years, unpredictable weather patterns have caused severe weather and ocean conditions, a likely impact from climate change and global warming. Expansion of efforts to create more native dryland forest habitats, beach restoration and shoreline protection, food sustainability, and on-island water generation are further impacted due to unsafe and unpredictable weather, creating a difficult situation to transport volunteers. While the KIRC focuses its efforts on restoration projects and revitalization of Kahoolawe, this measure appropriates funds to the Kahoolawe Island Reserve Commission to continue its important and necessary work on Kahoolawe.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a blank appropriation amount;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3013, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3013, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs,

________________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair