Report Title:

Plant Pests

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to develop biological controls for plant pests.

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

803

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO CONTROL PLANT PESTS.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Hawaii is continually threatened by the introduction of new plant species. Due to a long history of isolation, Hawaii's native plants have not developed many of the natural defenses needed to compete successfully with introduced plants.

For example, ivy gourd is a noxious plant pest in Hawaii which has become a serious competitor in lowland areas of Oahu and the Kona district on the Big Island. It overgrows low-growing vegetation, climbs walls, fences, and utility poles. Its fruits serve as hosts for the development of undesirable insects.

Other examples include two species of melastomes, Miconia, and cane tibouchina, which have spread to all of the major Hawaiian islands. They threaten future watershed management areas and native forest ecosystems. These melastomes have also encroached into pasture areas, requiring additional costs to control them. As an example of its destructive powers, Miconia has already replaced eighty per cent of the natural forest canopy in Tahiti.

Successful efforts have been made in the past to control certain other plant pests biologically using beneficial insects and plant pathogens such as fungi. Biological controls are often much superior to the use of herbicides.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to develop biological controls for plant pests such as ivy gourd and melastomes.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $        , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001-2002, and the sum of $       , or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2002-2003, to develop biological controls for plant pests.

SECTION 3. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of agriculture for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.

INTRODUCED BY:

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