COM 0208.037 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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mountain views, streams and waterfalls, many privately owned and ready to develop today. Still, better, more valuable tracts could be on the market tomorrow. Urgency Due to Increased Land Sales Many high elevation private lands that substantially increase the watershed are potential subdivisions right now. It is ironic how the concern for water is low when the watershed is big, and how the concern will be very high, once the watershed is gone. I hope 1 don't have to look back twenty years from now on today, to reflect on how we knew at the time the bill should have passed, but it didn't, because the urgency was not apparent to everyone at the time. But set aside all the obvious reasons for the fund for now, and take a look at some of the rippling effects that could happen without it. What will happen when large amounts of land are developed? Bulldozed lands, scarred to bare rock and then developed on, will be disastrous to our environment, and criminal to those who will live here long after we are gone. Puna is already subdivided, but still it and Hilo have much more speculative development potential. What is happening all over subdivided Puna today is shocking. Dozing and ripping to bare rock is already occurring across the Puna watershed today, with no signs of relaxing any time soon. Floods! (Another Example): I remember what it was like during the last "100-year flood" of 2002, when the Volcano highway became the Volcano watercourse to Kea'au. I imagine the amount of water that will be absorbed and carried underground after all the development occurs will be much less, and more if it will run off the surface. There will be more water running, and more homes flooding than ever before.. Protect Long-Standing and Restored Natural Resources In the Hilo and Hamakua districts, watershed destruction happened so long ago that now much of it is recovering. What was once forest, then sugar, then pasture, and now for sale, can only be finally preserved by a conservation purchase. A significant gain on watershed lands has been made since the days of sugar cane and logging. It would crush the hopes and dreams of each of us who have ever planted a koa tree to see the restoration areas converted one final time to development. Your decision today will affect the future sustainability of Hawaii county residents, ten, twenty and one hundred years from now. I thank you for taking that giant leap for the future, to make the right choice. Support Bill 78 as I do, all the way. Thank-you. Hawaii Invasive Species Management & Education Corporation PO Box 338 -Volcano, Hawaii - 96785 Ph./Fax: 808-985-8596 kim@hismec.org