STAND. COM. REP. NO. 811

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1126

       S.D. 2

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1126, S.D. 1, 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 protect Hawaii's forests by improving the forest stewardship program.

Specifically, this measure:

     (1)  Bifurcates the existing fifty percent reimbursement rate to a landowner for developing and implementing an approved forest stewardship management plan to provide:

          (A)  A seventy-five percent reimbursement rate for developing; and

          (B)  A fifty percent reimbursement rate for implementing,

          an approved forest stewardship management plan;

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

     (3)  Clarifies that participation in the program is available to owners of land that is privately managed; and

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

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, The Nature Conservancy, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that more than one-half of the State's forested areas are privately managed, and the forest stewardship program provides technical and financial assistance to private landowners and long-term leaseholders of privately managed forests.  The program encourages participants to make long-term commitments to protect, maintain, and restore important watersheds, timber resources, fish and wildlife habitats, isolated populations of rare and endangered plants, native vegetation, and other lands that provide significant public benefits.

     Your Committee also finds that by providing access to natural resource experts, the program stimulates investment in forestry as an economically viable land-use that provides employment opportunities while preserving fresh water sources and habitats for native wildlife, reducing soil erosion and sedimentation onto coral reefs, and creating smart and sustainable communities.

Your Committee further finds that increasing the reimbursement rate for the cost of developing forest management plans will incentivize private landowners to participate in the program and will ultimately improve the management of the State's forest lands.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     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. 1126, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1126, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair