The state Board of Agriculture and Biosecurity rejected a proposal to relax import restrictions to Maui and Lānaʻi meant to keep out the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle, but is open to making changes to those restrictions.
On Tuesday, state agriculture officials asked the board to allow potential CRB host material from non-infested — other than Oʻahu, Kauaʻi and a part of West Hawaiʻi Island — to Maui and Lānaʻi without first being treated for the beetle.
The board voted against the proposal, saying the threat of CRB spreading is too high.
“We've got to be proactive. We've got to send the right message out to everybody, which is why I find it hard to support this amendment at this point. I'd like to see stronger regulation,” said board member Michael Faye. “And are we ready yet to loosen things up? We'll be able to have the ways to slow these things down or stop them, but we're not there yet. So the stronger we can make things now, the better.”
The state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity’s Plant Quarantine Branch recommended the changes after discussing the rules with business leaders impacted by the rules.
Many of those who had an issue with the rules were orchid growers, who say the plants aren’t generally thought of as associated with the beetle.
Gordon Inouye, president of orchid grower Puna Flower Power, at the meeting said, “We grow everything from tissue culture material on benches in contained greenhouses in sterile media, and when they're repotted, new media is used such that it's never decomposing organic material.”
CRB breed in decomposing material, such as soil, mulch and fertilizer. Some orchids, however, are epiphytic, which means they aren’t grown in soil.
Still, the board voted against relaxing the import rules and also voted down a follow-up proposal to exempt orchids and similar plants from the import rules.
Some of the board members voted against the orchid exemption because there wasn’t enough data, but were interested in continuing the conversation and asked the agriculture department to gather more information.
