STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2994

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2219

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2219, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to expand the candidate pool for membership on a county arborist advisory committee by making the following disciplines, in addition to persons actively employed in landscape architecture, eligible for membership: certified arborists, horticulturalists with specialization in trees, and persons who have received a master's degree in botany.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Malama O Puna, The Outdoor Circle, East Hawaii Outdoor Circle, and O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i.

Your Committees find that the Exceptional Tree Act, Act 105, Session Laws of Hawaii 1975, recognizes the value of trees for their beauty and ecological functions and requires each county to establish a county arborist advisory committee to enact regulations to protect trees of exceptional stature. Your Committees also find that section 58-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires one member of the county arborist advisory committee to be actively employed in the practice of landscape architecture. The County of Hawaii currently has only three landscape architects working within the county, thereby severely limiting the pool of candidates, and, as a result, the County of Hawaii has not had a functioning county arborist advisory committee since 2008. Your Committees therefore find that this is a common sense measure to assist the neighbor islands with the protection of exceptional trees.

Your Committees have amended this measure by changing the effective date to upon its approval.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2219, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2219, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Agriculture and Environment and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair