More than two years after Gov. David Ige’s administration unveiled a 10-year, $378 million plan to escalate the state’s fight against invasive species, much of it remains unfunded and the governor plans to ask the Legislature to provide only a fraction of what was envisioned for the next two fiscal years.
Some of the priorities laid out in the ambitious, 147-point Hawaii Interagency Biosecurity Plan, such as the creation of an Invasive Species Authority to coordinate interagency efforts, have been sidelined by the Legislature. For other items, the Ige administration either hasn’t requested funds from the Legislature or state departments have indicated they aren’t ready to implement them.
The governor’s office referred questions about the plan to Joshua Atwood, program supervisor for the Hawaii Invasive Species Council who is spearheading its implementation. He tallied about $20 million in added funding in the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years to advance biosecurity.
However, the plan itself called for a combined $51.6 million in added operating funds for those two fiscal years along with $35 million in capital improvement funds.
The governor is requesting only $2.7 million in operating funds and $900,000 in capital improvement funds in his biennium budget released earlier this month that covers the 2020 and 2021 fiscal years, also in stark contrast to what the biosecurity plan envisioned.
The plan includes a breakdown of funding requests for each biennium from 2018 through 2027, with the total cost pegged at $378 million.
For fiscal years 2018 through 2021, the plan included about $169 million in operating and capital improvement funding. This is in addition to the approximately $57 million the state has been expending on biosecurity annually across departments.
Flexible plan
Atwood emphasized the plan was meant to be flexible and while much of it remains unfunded, he said state agencies are actually ahead of schedule in implementing parts of it that don’t require funding.
“The biosecurity plan is kind of our aspirational guideline for where we would like to get to by 2027,” he said. “But the year-by-year breakdown is not set in stone. It is a flexible dialogue that depends on what happens with the economy and the different agencies over that time period. We try to make progress where we can.”
He noted, for example, that the plan includes $35 million in the biennium budget covering fiscal years 2018 and 2019 for construction of a new state biological control facility.
“Logistically, this played out differently,” he said.
Instead, the Legislature provided $180,000 in planning funds in 2018 and the state is now exploring options to bring in federal partners on the project. A request for construction funding from the Legislature is now expected to come later than outlined in the plan.
About 60 percent of the action items laid out in the biosecurity plan don’t require funding. These include such measures as amending state administrative rules to better address the threat of invasive species from the discharge of ballast water by cruise and cargo ships and tankers.
The plan also calls for a litany of internal actions by state agencies to improve reporting systems and dissemination of public information about invasive species risks.
“We’re making great progress on getting actions in the plan initiated,” said Atwood. Overall, he said, the state is ahead of schedule, with about one-quarter of the action items in the plan having been implemented.
Invasive threats
The Hawaii Interagency Biosecurity Plan was unveiled in September 2016 during the International Union for Conservation of Nature conference hosted by the state. At the time, department heads stressed the major risk that invasive species pose to Hawaii’s economy, agriculture and natural resources.
“These are our marching orders going forward for the next 10 years,” said Department of Land and Natural Resources Director Suzanne Case during the conference in reference to the biosecurity plan.
Political leaders for years have stressed Hawaii’s spotty controls over invasive species.
The brown tree snake, for example, could cause as much as $2 billion in damages yearly if introduced to Hawaii. The state also has been on heightened alert to the threat of the Zika virus, fear of which could devastate the visitor industry. Meanwhile, Hawaii’s agriculture sector loses about $300 million annually from fruit fly infestations.
Initiatives stalled
Ige has repeatedly cited biosecurity as a priority of his administration, making it his top concern as chairman of the Western Governors’ Association. But his plans to address the threat have, in part, stalled in the Legislature.
Lawmakers rejected Ige’s request to morph the Hawaii Invasive Species Council into the Hawaii Invasive Species Authority, attaching it to the Department of Agriculture. Ige had asked that the authority be given about $21 million in funding in fiscal years 2018 and 2019. The Legislature rejected his request but did give the Hawaii Invasive Species Council $4.75 million annually for its base budget.
Ige’s plan also includes $30 million in funding over 10 years for a biosecurity emergency response fund to enable quick action against new invasive species before they take hold in the islands. The Legislature has put forward but failed to pass its own bills for such a fund.
Other items in the biosecurity plan that haven’t made it out of the Legislature include funding for invasive species specialists and a grant program to encourage local farmers to grow commodities that carry a high risk of introducing invasive species when imported.
Big Island Rep. Richard Creagan, who leads the House Agriculture Committee, said he is hopeful the Invasive Species Authority and other biocontrol initiatives will pass during the upcoming legislative session.
“I think people are taking invasive species seriously,” he said. “It is just kind of getting whacked inadvertently almost. It’s just a casualty of other fights.”
