Invasive Species: Hawaiʻi Primes Itself To Battle Biosecurity Threats
Some fear the state Department of Agriculture does not have what it takes to do the work laid out for it by the Legislature.
By Thomas Heaton / May 6, 2025
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Scalloped fronds of freshly planted palms on Keʻeaumoku Street caught Puakea Busby’s eye as she cycled toward Ala Moana Center last week.
The O‘ahu teacher confirmed her suspicions the next day: Coconut rhinoceros beetles had eaten their way into the heart of the trees, causing the telltale V-shaped cuts.
Posting photos and a video online, Busby urged community members to demand the trees be removed. If they were indeed infested, Busby — like the thousands who viewed her post — feared the beetles posed a risk to the rest of the palm-lined cityscape.
Damage from coconut rhinoceros beetles is most evident in the V-shaped cuts in palm fronds, which was discovered in trees at The Park on Keʻeaumoku construction site near the Ala Moana Center. (Thomas Heaton/Civil Beat/2025)
After mounting public pressure, state lawmakers have stepped up to tackle biosecurity threats in Hawai‘i, from the coconut rhinoceros beetle to the coffee berry borer and beyond. The Legislature added new positions, increased funding and passed landmark legislation this past session — supercharging the Department of Agriculture’s abilities to stop the spread of invasive species throughout the islands.
The bill also renames the Department of Agriculture as the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, which Rep. Kirstin Kahaloa told her colleagues is “far more than symbolic.”
Farming and environmental advocates welcomed the extra attention lawmakers gave this longstanding issue, but retained a degree of skepticism.
“As they say, a bill passes and that’s just the beginning of the work,” said Wayne Tanaka, executive director of Sierra Club Hawaiʻi. “Time will tell whether the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity embraces its biosecurity responsibilities.”
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Tanaka was among a group delivering a sarcastic protest in March at the Capitol in which they dressed as bugs and thanked Gov. Josh Green’s administration and the Legislature for opening Hawaiʻi’s borders to invasive species.
The protest was a symptom of growing public frustration over the state’s slow response to invasive species, which have the potential to not only decimate the state’s important crops but also fundamentally change the environment.
The state has mostly failed for more than 20 years to heed experts warning that the environmental toll would become too expensive to contain and mitigate if not resolved. Those calls included estimates that for every dollar spent on invasive species, the state saves $8,000 on their economic impacts.
Farmers and ranchers have rated invasive species as the most pressing issue they face, especially as they try to meet state mandates to increase local food production and improve food security.
More Money, More Power
The 32-page omnibus bill comes as invasive species spread statewide, with the beetles destroying palm trees and little fire ants making community spaces intolerable for residents. Alongside the coqui frog, two-lined spittle bug and coffee berry borer, the beetles are among a thick catalog of pests causing many conservationists to consider Hawaiʻi the invasive species capital of the world.
The legislation calls on the Agriculture Department to create a network of privately run inspection facilities for incoming goods and creates a new deputy position and a rapid-response task force to oversee the response to invasive species outbreaks.
An invasive species demonstration in March at the Capitol featured speakers including Longhorn Taro Muncher, Seven Legs Banana Eater and Hala Killer 2000, each congratulating the state for its part in welcoming destructive pests into the Hawaiian Islands. (David Croxford/Civil Beat/2025)
Representatives from the agriculture and environmental sectors have reservations about the new responsibilities listed in the legislation, fearful it will overwhelm a chronically understaffed and underfunded department.
The Department of Agriculture’s operating budget this year was about $59 million, which lawmakers upped to about $71 million for each of the next two years — less than half of 1% of the state’s $19 billion operating budget. That includes $26 million specifically to increase biosecurity staffing.
Lawmakers have already chastised the agency for being slow to spend money and implement new programs, especially after the agency was sluggish to spend $10 million they appropriated last year to clamp down on a list of invasive pests.
But legislators appear resolved to give the state’s biosecurity sector a facelift that mimics New Zealand, whose biosecurity is considered to be one of the strictest and most effective in the world.
It’s a time-sensitive issue, especially in light of the coconut rhinoceros beetle’s growing footprint on Oʻahu and neighboring islands.
The Keʻeaumoku Street sighting is at least the second this year, and the beetles have devastated palms on the North Shore, forcing the City and County of Honolulu to chop the iconic trees down.
“We’re yet to see the full impact of CRB on Oʻahu,” Tanaka said.
Differences Of Opinion
House Bill 427 found interest across the board after a few months of lawmakers haggling over what all to include to chart a course toward better biosecurity.
Lawmakers agreed to have transitional inspection facilities and empowered the state to requisition property in emergencies, but they disagreed over where to house the Hawaiʻi Invasive Species Council.
A delegation of Hawaiʻi lawmakers and state officials visited New Zealand last year to learn how the country coordinates its biosecurity protections to help conserve the nation’s green image and important agricultural sector. (Screenshot/2024)
Some in the Senate said consolidating all biosecurity efforts under one roof was the best course of action to avoid duplicating efforts. Others felt moving the council to the Department of Agriculture from the Department of Land and Natural Resources would limit its focus to agricultural impacts instead of including the environment as well.
The council, which was started in 2003, is a semi-automous group made up of representatives from across state agencies and invasive species groups. It is intended to deliver policy direction to state agencies on how to mitigate the entry and spread of invasive species in Hawaiʻi. That includes the implementation of the state’s biosecurity plan for 2017-2027, which is currently just 27% complete.
In late March, the council passed a motion opposing the move, but the Senate ultimately got its way.
Christy Martin of the Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, a project of the University of Hawai‘i’s Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit, says the council’s relocation is among a number of points within the legislation that may require clarification over the coming months.
“It’s still a little bit unclear what more could be accomplished by adding this responsibility to the department,” she said.
State Agriculture Director Sharon Hurd said the department will make biosecurity more of a focus moving forward as a result of the legislation.
“Biosecurity is not only invasive CRB, LFA and coqui. It’s also rabies, it’s foot and mouth disease. It’s H5N1. It’s avian flu,” Hurd said in an interview. “It puts the attention of public health and everything — food security — under one umbrella.”
This ongoing series delves deep into what it would take for Hawai‘i to decrease its dependence on imported food and be better positioned to grow its own.
More immediately, the bill provides funding for various UH invasive species mitigation programs — including Hawaiʻi Ant Lab and UH CRB Response — and an additional $4.25 million to the Hawai‘i Invasive Species Council.
The state funds are more important now, considering federal cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said Keith Weiser, deputy incident commander for UH CRB Response.
“Probably 99% of our funding over the last 11 years has been federal, primarily USDA,” he said. “The writing on the wall, unofficially, is they will not have anything for us next year.”
Hurd said change will not come fast. The department has until 2027 to onboard a new biosecurity-focused deputy director position. It has until 2028 to create a mechanism to be able to call and coordinate state biosecurity emergencies, and until 2030 to absorb the invasive species council.
‘Moving The Needle’
Lawmakers threw their support behind a long list of initiatives beyond biosecurity to help boost agricultural production in Hawaiʻi this past session, which wrapped up Friday, including tens of millions of dollars for capital improvements to agricultural infrastructure and bills to boost agricultural production.
Among the bills is one to make permanent a state working group dedicated to increasing local food production and to clamp down on agricultural crime.
The ag crime pilot program is slated to form under the Department of Law Enforcement on Oʻahu and Hawaiʻi island to clarify, write and strengthen laws relating to crimes on agricultural lands, especially as they relate to hunting. Dubbed “Duke’s Law,” the bill was prompted by the 2024 murder of rancher Cranston Duke Pia on his westside Oʻahu ranch.
The Agribusiness Development Corp. has purchased large tracts of former plantation land in central Oʻahu, close to Wahiawā, which is receiving tens of millions of dollars in funding to build a centralized food hub. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2024)
The Agribusiness Development Corp. will receive tens of millions of dollars to buy land, construct various agricultural facilities and build out a statewide network for processing locally grown food.
The governor has until June 24 to inform the Legislature of his intent to veto any legislation, with a final veto deadline of July 9.
That includes more than $40 million to buy agricultural land on Kauaʻi, including from Grove Farm, and at least $48 million to construct facilities, improve irrigation infrastructure and build out the Central Oʻahu Food Hub, championed by Senate Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz. He represents Wahiawā, where the hub is being constructed.
Some of those projects aim to help the state reach its local food production goals, including for the Department of Education to integrate more local food into students’ meals statewide. But many local food advocates have been frustrated by a lack of a holistic plan to increase food production, which the state has long said is a goal.
“The plan — there wasn’t one,” Senate Agriculture Chair Mike Gabbard said in support of Senate Bill 1886 last week. “No one was asking, how does it all fit together?”
That bill makes permanent the interagency State Food Systems Working Group, under the ADC, which was piloted last year and gives the group $100,000 for operations.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Gabbard said. “The bottom line is it’s about finally getting all the key players at the same table, putting a real plan together and moving the needle together on food security.”
“Hawai‘i Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
Civil Beat’s reporting on the Hawaiʻi State Legislature is supported in part by the Donald and Astrid Monson Education Fund.
