The Hawaiʻi County Council unanimously approved a bill written by environmental lawyer and ELP alumna Leslie Cole-Brooks ‘10, which broadens the definition of “native forests” and paves the way for more land conservation through tax incentives. 

The bill creates two new categories of forests: “functional forests,” consisting of sixty percent native and noninvasive tree species with twenty-five percent tree cover; and “successional forests,” which are new lava substrates with ten centimeters or less of soil depth. Land set aside for conservation – twenty years for functional forests, fifty years for successional forests – is subject to a special value assessment, leading to lower property taxes for the owner.

“The council understood that we’re looking at the long haul – this bill is really about the big picture,” said Cole-Brooks, who worked on the bill for a year and a half with Rebecca Ostertag, a biology professor from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo; Susan Cordell, Director of the Institute for Pacific Islands Forestry; and Valerie Poindexter from the Department of Taxation.

Under the previous definition, landowners could only set aside at least 2.75 contiguous acres of forest land consisting of at least sixty percent native species and with twenty-five percent tree cover for preservation. 

According to Cole-Brooks, the new tax incentives will have a long-term effect on conservation efforts and the revitalization of native plant species.

“There are so many ecological benefits to restoring our forests, from groundwater restoration to local species protection,” she said in an August 6 Hawaii Tribune-Herald article. “It’s hard to put a number on that, to say it creates this much value. These things are priceless.”

The bill is currently headed to Big Island Mayor Harry Kim for his signature.

JU 8/10/2020