STAND. COM. REP. NO 347

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1126

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1126 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FOREST STEWARDSHIP,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Increase the reimbursement rate to help program participants cover the cost of developing an approved forest stewardship management plan;

     (2)  Clarify that program applicants must enter into a program implementation agreement with the Board of Land and Natural Resources upon approval of the forest stewardship management plan to receive program funding;

     (3)  Clarify that long-term leaseholders are eligible to participate in the program; and

     (4)  Add a definition of "program implementation agreement" for clarity.

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

Conservancy.

     Your Committee finds that the forest stewardship program provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners or long-term leaseholders of forests in managing, protecting, and restoring important natural resources in Hawaii's forested and formerly forested lands.  Over one-half of Hawaii's forested areas are privately managed.  The program enables participants to responsibly manage important forest resources that provide vital public and private socioeconomic and environmental benefits.

     Your Committee further finds that with the withdrawal of much of Hawaii's agricultural industries, the forest stewardship program encourages the restoration, forest production, and conservation of degraded agricultural areas with native forest systems.  The program also stimulates investment in forestry as an economically viable land-use alternative that supplies Hawaii's rural communities with a source of revenue, provides locally grown products and energy to reduce Hawaii's dependence on imported goods, and contributes environmental benefits, such as clean water and habitat for Hawaii's native wildlife.

     The forest stewardship program allows landowners to access natural resource experts to help program participants responsibly and sustainably manage forest resources.  This knowledge transfer improves the management of privately managed forest lands, which benefits the public by increasing freshwater resources, providing habitat for native wildlife, reducing soil erosion and sedimentation on to coral reefs, identifying and controlling invasive species, and creating smart sustainable communities.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Restoring language that limits forest product development to forests where native vegetation was removed prior to January 1, 1991;

     (2)  Reinstating the requirement in section 195F-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that a forest stewardship program applicant prepare and submit a forest stewardship management plan to the Board of Land and Natural Resources; and

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

     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. 1126, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1126, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

____________________________

LAURA H. THIELEN, Chair