General Concepts, Proposals and Considerations

Kauai Westside Watershed Council

General Concepts, Proposals and Considerations

As presented by:

Erik Coopersmith and Jose Bulatao, Jr., Council Members

Rhoda Libre-Hayton, Chairperson

Mary Jean Buza-Sims, Lyndon Yamane, Council Members

What is a Watershed?

A watershed is typically defined as the area of land where all precipitation drains to a common water body, such as a river or lake. Watersheds are not made of water, but of land. This means that the boundaries of a watershed are determined by the shape of the land that surrounds them. Water runs downstream, so buttes and ranges often form the boundaries of watersheds.

On the island of Kauai, the host-culture (Hawaiian) ahupua’a system may be one of the determining factors in clearly identifying and establishing “regional precedence” of the Kona District watershed designated area for the Kauai Westside Watershed Council.

What is a Watershed Council?

Watershed councils are locally organized, voluntary non-regulatory groups established to improve t he conditions of watersheds in their local area (s). Councils are required to represent the interests in the basin and be balanced in their makeup. Bringing together local stakeholders from private, local, state, and federal interests in a partnership, councils plan watershed protection, restoration, and remediation strategies in a holistic way---from ridge top to ridge top, and from headwaters to mouth. In specific reference to watershed councils here in Hawaii, our boundaries include coastal areas that extend beyond the mouth of rivers entering into the sea. The reason for this is because we are a group of islands, and much of our natural resources extend to the coral reefs, wherever they may be in relationship to the coastal areas, as well as to the depths of the land mass under the ocean wherein mineral resources may be deposited. Through watershed partnerships, watershed councils can collaborate to identify issues, promote cooperative solutions, focus resources, and agree on goals for watershed protection and enhancement, and foster communication among all watershed interests. Herein lies the essence of all watershed councils. This is how we can encourage our legislators to enact the laws and clearly establish the regulations and procedures to activate and empower watershed councils in the State of Hawaii.

What does a watershed council do?

Once a watershed council is formed, it can initially request for legislators to submit legislation that would:

Establish and empower local watershed councils to effectively plan, develop, and implement projects to maintain and restore the biological, physical, and cultural processes in watersheds for the sustainability of their respective communities;

Designate the responsibility to empower watershed councils to identify landowner participants for important projects, develop priorities for local projects, and establish goals and standards for future conditions in the watershed, including on-projects which can be implemented in an effort to enhance the watershed’s ability to capture, store, and beneficially release water;

Introduce, administer, implement and maintain education projects that should be undertaken to inform people about watershed processes and functions;

Enable watershed councils to provide and coordinate broad-based review of land management plans to local, state, and federal decision-makers;

Establish and enable watershed councils to help bring county, state, federal, and private funding to local communities for eco-system restoration, monitoring, and education;

Empower watershed councils to collaborate with their many partners to enable watershed councils to make a significant and positive impact on the local environment, economy, and community, because watershed councils emanate from their respective local communities, each exercising the concept of “regional precedence” as mandated by the United States Congress (refer to appropriate Congressional Act).

What are the benefits of the watershed council to the local community?

A watershed council is comprised of people from the local community. The council represents local knowledge and familiarity to the given area and its myriad of complexities;

A watershed council can work across jurisdictional boundaries and across agency mandates to look at the watershed more holistically;

The council can b e a forum to bring local, state and federal management agencies and components together with local property owners and private land managers to envision and formulate plans and strategies that must consider the sustainability concerns that must be prioritized as mandated by the laws of man and the laws of nature;

The council forum provides local people with a voice in natural resource management that can significantly influence watershed management decisions.

These are clear-cut reasons for the actualizing of the wherewithal to establish the legislative formats to actualize and empower watershed councils’ involvement in the State of Hawaii. This has been done in the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico (to cite a few examples) as other states which have already enacted appropriate legislation. It is time for the State of Hawaii to do likewise.