2024-11-04 Christopher Barham Testimony - GP 2045

Home

• The County has a limited budget for its large-scale geographic responsibility for the protection of public trust natural and cultural resources. (Revise. This doesn’t make sense. What are you trying to say? What responsibility are you talking about? What does the protection of public trust mean?) • Hawaii Island has a large variation of unique biomes and ecosystems. • The difference between traditional and modern practices along with varying mauka to makai ownership makes it difficult to comprehensively steward natural resources. Page 40 Native Habitat The County can collaborate with the State Office of Planning and Sustainable Development to create models for monitoring the carrying capacity of natural resources that will support farmers and thriving communities. wildfires. REMOVE(The Maui fire was NOT normal. A fire where trees do not burn but glass is • 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.