Watershed coalitions sign pact of unity
By Walter Wright
Advertiser Staff Writer
Partners in a new statewide alliance to protect Hawai'i's watersheds hope to meet within weeks to set an agenda for cooperation in staffing, financing and caring for Hawai'i forests, officials said yesterday.
Although no specific projects have been chosen, members are talking about a variety of ideas, including penny levies on water bills, concerted financing campaigns, and targeting environmental hot spots to nip alien species in the bud.
Gov. Linda Lingle and representatives of five existing regional watershed partnerships signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday at the Capitol in which they agreed to join in cooperative fund raising, education and increasing water generating capacity in upland, or mauka, watersheds.
"We participate because it is the right thing to do," Lingle said, "for our environment, economy and our future."
A watershed is a land area, such as a mountain or valley, that catches and collects rainwater, which recharges underground water supplies and also sends clean water into streams.
Peter Young, chairman of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the agreement endorses creation of even more partnerships in mauka watersheds.
"Potential watershed partnerships are also being discussed in the Kohala Mountains on Hawai'i, the Wai'anae Mountains on O'ahu, leeward Haleakala on Maui, and on Kaua'i," Young said.
State forester Mike Buck said the agreement recognizes the interconnection of issues affecting Hawai'i forestlands, valued at $7 billion to $14 billion, because of their role in everything from water supply to habitat for endangered species.
The pact was praised by Kamehameha Schools and The Nature Conservancy, both already members of several existing regional partnerships by virtue of their land ownership in them.
Mark L. White, director of conservation programs for the Nature Conservancy of Hawai'i, said the alliance will give owners and users of watersheds more power to deal with threats such as invasive plants and feral animals that don't stop at fence lines or property or governmental boundaries.
White said the partners hope to meet within the next two months to explore notions of sharing staff, cooperating on grant requests, and joining forces to hire expert consultants on issues that could threaten all islands.
Former state senator Avery Chumbley, president of Wailuku Agribusiness Co. on Maui and a participant in watershed partnership there, said he feels that the new alliance should explore asking water departments statewide to levy small surcharges on water bills so that the generating capacity of watersheds in Hawai'i can be protected.
He said the statewide partnership has the ability to bring statewide attention to little-known but very serious local situations, such as the near exhaustion of the '?ao Valley watershed on Maui.
The signing yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Hawai'i Forest Reserve system in 1903 to restore degraded forest watersheds and protect Hawai'i's water resources.
Watershed partnerships formed since 1991, beginning on Maui, now represent more than 50 public and private landowners.
Reach Walter Wright at wwright@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8054.
