STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1480

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 655

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 655, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ROSE-RINGED PARAKEET,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to support research on controlling the rose-ringed parakeet on Kauai.

More specifically, this measure appropriates funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to provide assistance and supplemental funding to the National Wildlife Research Center of the United States Department of Agriculture to:

(1)  Determine an estimate of the current population size of the rose-ringed parakeet on Kauai;

(2)  Locate and map the roost and rookery locations of rose-ringed parakeets on Kauai;

(3)  Describe and map rose-ringed parakeet habitat uses, daily dispersal patterns, and overall range on Kauai;

(4)  Estimate generally the agricultural, commercial, residential, and natural area damage caused by rose-ringed parakeets on Kauai;

(5)  Determine the types of human and wildlife diseases carried by rose-ringed parakeets on Kauai;

(6)  Conduct trials using different devices and methods that will reduce or deter rose-ringed parakeet populations; and

(7)  Develop and implement the beginning of an effective control plan for reducing the negative impacts of the rose-ringed parakeet on Kauai, with an initial reduction target of five hundred birds or an estimated ten percent of the population.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Invasive Species Council, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Kauai County Farm Bureau, Maui County Farm Bureau, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Kauai Invasive Species Committee, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Dow Agrosciences, and five individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the rose-ringed parakeet is one of the most widespread invasive birds in the world and is a significant agricultural pest of important food crops.  In Hawaii, rose-ringed parakeets have been particularly damaging on Kauai.  Your Committee further finds that additional research is needed for the development and preliminary implementation of an effective control plan for rose-ringed parakeets on Kauai.

     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 H.B. No. 655, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair