STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2300

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2511

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2511 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WATERSHED PROTECTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to make an appropriation for the establishment of a watershed initiatives program within the Department of Land and Natural Resources to plan, monitor, and execute watershed initiatives.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from The Nature Conservancy.

     Your Committee finds that forests are essential to providing 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.  Your Committee believes that our forests are an enormous economic asset that unfortunately continues to degrade at an increasing pace.

     The Department of Land and Natural Resources leverages funding and capacity by partnering with other land managers and agencies to protect priority watershed forests across county, state, federal, and private lands.  This is made possible by supporting projects implemented by organizations such as the eleven statewide watershed partnerships and the invasive species committees that work across landowner boundaries.  This model has provided the Department flexibility to most effectively afford landscape-level watershed protection, in addition to supporting projects implemented by civil service employees on state land.

     Your Committee finds that funding under this measure would support the Department's "The Rain Follows the Forest Watershed Initiative" to implement on-the-ground actions needed to stabilize Hawaii's water sources.  The initiative seeks to double the acreage of protected watershed forests by 2021.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2511 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 and Land,

____________________________

MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair