2024-10-09 PL-INT-2024-009002 GP 2045 Draft Comments - E. Elmer

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• Ongoing conservation work can continue to evolve from species-specific conservation (e.g., Albizia eradication) to focus on ecosystem restoration across multiple land ownership to protect Hawaii's biodiversity and support local farms. • Maintaining healthy, native-dominant forests offers immense savings of land biocultural (Remove) and water resources that might otherwise be lost to the impacts of climate change (Remove) and invasive species. • Conservation lands hold significant value in the water resources they represent. • Incentivizing and developing regenerative land uses without further regulations or fines, such as agroforestry, can provide sustainable opportunities to ecosystems and communities. • Hawaii can become a statewide adaptation and resiliency leader by focusing on its unique strengths and diversity to evolve with changing realities. • Urban forestry can be prioritized or incentivized in the County Code. This means more regulations and possible fines. No thank you! Change to: Support the further growth of current urban forestry Watersheds • Establish more place-based watershed partnerships to create unique management plans that incorporate the generational knowledge of those water systems and protect our island's watersheds and local farms. • Strengthen the integration of Hawaiian biocultural remove resource management and traditional ecological knowledge across County government to support local farms. • Practice an integrated approach to ecosystem-based collaborative management that considers the entire ecosystem and local communities. • Watershed protection and management require collaboration and coordination across all levels of government and must include effective community engagement. Revise to: Support Watershed and management coordination which integrates local communities. Stewardship • Hawaii Island has a large variation of its unique natural biomes and ecosystems.