HomeMy WebLinkAboutPollack, Sherry
Tsuneda, Kaci
From:davidsher@juno.com
Sent:Tuesday, July 21, 2026 4:08 PM
To:Council Testimony
Subject:Testimony: Resolution 603-26
Aloha Chair Kagiwada, Vice Chair Kāneali ʻ i-Kleinfelder, and members of the Hawai ʻ i County Council
Committee on Governmental Relations and External Affairs,
I am writing in STRONG SUPPORT of Resolution 603-26, urging the Department of Agriculture and
Biosecurity (DAB) to take seriously the interim “emergency” coconut rhinoceros beetle (CRB) rules for
West Hawai ʻ i, adopted by the Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity (BAB) in March.
The slow response by DAB has caused not just Hawai ʻ i Island, but all neighbor islands to be at risk of CRB
introductions, due to the transportation and shipment of potted plants and CRB host material from West
Hawai ʻ i without required safeguards.
This is unacceptable. Please help us avoid further devastation like what we are already seeing on O ʻ ahu
and Kaua ʻ i, where CRB has become established after years of DAB inaction. Please pass this resolution
and its common sense, extremely reasonable call for DAB to treat our CRB situation as the emergency it
is: by designating a dedicated staff point of contact for the rules, raising public awareness of their
requirements, and enforcing their provisions as necessary.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sherry Pollack
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