The Department of Agriculture on Friday withdrew its request for discussion of new rules concerning plant and nondomestic animal quarantines, and will proceed with public hearings for a draft approved in February.

The new draft of what is known as Chapter 4-72 had been included on an agenda for discussion by the department’s Advisory Committee on Plants and Animals for recommendation to the Board of Agriculture. According to Dexter Kishida, deputy to the DOA chair, after the submission of the draft, the department had “discussions and clarifications on how to best proceed.”

The now-withdrawn draft included making rules for the quarantine of the coconut rhinoceros beetle permanent but did not address other prominent concerns from environmentalists, like preventing the sale of plants infected with invasive species or intra-island movement of infected plants and materials.

In February the committee drafted and unanimously approved a draft of rules that was already in place for other invasive species, including little fire ants, which were then approved by the Small Business Regulatory Review Board with no opposition in May. The draft was approved for a public hearing, but the hearing has yet to be held. This draft was not mentioned in Friday’s meeting agenda.

Because of the request’s initial inclusion on the meeting’s agenda, the advisory committee was required to hear testimony. The committee received 66 pieces of written testimony against the committee’s recommendation of the new draft.

“To reduce the rules that were approved already on February 28, 2023, would be going backwards and underlying all the important work that has happened,” Andre Perez, project director at Ko‘ihonua, a farm affected by the coconut rhinoceros beetle outbreak, said in his testimony. “Please proceed with the original proposed rules that were already approved.”

Members of the public in attendance expressed their satisfaction with the withdrawal of the new draft and indicated their desire for expedited movement of the February-approved draft.

“I appreciate (Kishida’s) willingness and efforts to withdraw the current draft of the revisions and changes, and go forward with public hearing on the draft that was presented and approved in February,” Michelle Montgomery of the Hawaii Ant Lab said at the meeting. “There were a number of issues with the current draft compared to the original one that I just could not support. … I really appreciate the consideration for all of the issues to be able to stop the spread of invasive species in general.”

Two dozen community organizations, including the Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club of Hawaii, also sent a joint letter to Gov. Josh Green on Friday to direct the DOA to prevent the spread of invasive species in the state.

“Our islands are facing a biodiversity crisis and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture’s foot-dragging in implementing these essential rules only worsens the threat,” Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a news release about the letter.

There is no date for the public hearing on the February-approved rules at this time.