STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2348

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2566

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2566 entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate 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 conduct pilot field studies to evaluate control tools and develop a management plan to reduce the rose-ringed parakeet population on Kauai.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Agriculture, Maui County Councilmember Yuki Lei Sugimura, Hawaii Aquaculture & Aquaponics Association, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Floriculture & Nursey Association, Maui County Farm Bureau, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, Kaua‘i Chamber of Commerce, Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, Hawaiian Civic Club of Honolulu, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, Pono Advocacy, and twenty-five individuals.

Your Committees find that there is an increase in reports of rose-ringed parakeet flocks on the island of Kauai. This species poses a significant threat to the local economy, ecology, and human health and safety. On Kauai, the rose-ringed parakeet causes more crop damage than all other birds and mammals.

Your Committees further find that the National Wildlife Research Center began its work to examine the damaging impacts of the rose-ringed parakeet with funds appropriated under Act 31, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017. The appropriated funds were used to support a review of existing damage mitigation tools, identify potential new tools for evaluation, develop stakeholder-specific guidelines for damage control to farmers, ranchers, tourism operators, and homeowners, and establish protocols for pilot studies to evaluate the most promising control tools. This measure will be used to complete the evaluation studies and carry out the second phase of the project, which is to conduct pilot field studies to evaluate control tools and develop a management plan to reduce populations of the rose-ringed parakeet on Kauai. This process will include tracking and mapping populations and field assessment of population reduction methods.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2566 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair