STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2424
Honolulu, Hawaii
S.D. 1
President of the Senate
Twenty-Eighth State Legislature
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 2451 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHAPTER 183, HAWAII REVISED STATUTES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to:
(1) Clarify that any person who violates:
(A) Section 183-17, Hawaii Revised Statutes, timber trespass in forest reserves, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor; or
(B) A provision of part II of chapter 183, Hawaii Revised Statutes, forest reserves, or any rule adopted pursuant thereto, other than section 183‑17, Hawaii Revised Statutes, shall be guilty of a petty misdemeanor; and
(2) Repeal the general penalty provision in section 183-4, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual.
Your Committee finds that Hawaii's forest resources are precious and limited resources worthy of the State's protection. Currently, forest resource thefts are occurring on state lands. Your Committee further finds, as noted in the Department of Land and Natural Resources' testimony, that current statutory fines for the harvesting of koa trees and other trees and plants do not discourage theft because the current value of such forest products far exceeds the dollar amount of the fines.
Your Committee has therefore amended this measure by:
(1) Inserting language to amend the administrative fines for destroying or harvesting koa trees and other trees and plants under section 183-5(c), Hawaii Revised Statutes, to be an amount less than or equal to the current market value of the koa tree or other tree or plant destroyed or harvested; and
(2) 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, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2451, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2451, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture,
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________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair |
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