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Editorial
No mercy for violators
The chairwoman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources is pushing for stiffer penalties for violating the environment. As head of the board, Laura Thielen is the director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources.
The DLNR’s main mission is, or should be, protection of natural resources. It has other responsibilities such as operating state parks and supervising leases of state land, but being a statewide konohiki is its most important. Konohiki is the Hawaiian word for the protector of a given piece of land or ocean .
Thielen wants to update the penalties for violating public property. As it is, $500 fines are little or no deterrent for landowners who have the ability to buy million-dollar properties. It’s easy to imagine one of these landowners — more than likely a newcomer — thinking $500 was cheap for improving his view or enlarging his beachfront property even for a short time.
The bills in the Legislature increase maximum fines from $500 to $10,000 for illegally cutting trees on state land or putting in landscaping that intrudes on public beaches or grading state land. The penalty for taking commercially desirable trees such as koa from state conservation districts would also include the market value of the lumber.
Another bill would impose a $10,000 fine for every square meter of coral destroyed — little enough for destroying something that will take decades to recover.
Thielen thinks the heavier fines will deter abuse of public property. The larger amounts will help but will not be enough to be a real deterrent. With property going for millions, $10,000 is chump change. A real deterrent would be jail time or fines large enough to hurt even a millionaire.
The measures have been approved in separate forms by the state House and Senate so they will be subject to conference committee action later.
It’s hard to imagine anyone objecting to really clobbering someone who destroys — for whatever reason — what belongs to all of us. The DLNR bills — and even harsher penalties than proposed — should be a legislative slam dunk.
The DLNR’s main mission is, or should be, protection of natural resources. It has other responsibilities such as operating state parks and supervising leases of state land, but being a statewide konohiki is its most important. Konohiki is the Hawaiian word for the protector of a given piece of land or ocean .
Thielen wants to update the penalties for violating public property. As it is, $500 fines are little or no deterrent for landowners who have the ability to buy million-dollar properties. It’s easy to imagine one of these landowners — more than likely a newcomer — thinking $500 was cheap for improving his view or enlarging his beachfront property even for a short time.
The bills in the Legislature increase maximum fines from $500 to $10,000 for illegally cutting trees on state land or putting in landscaping that intrudes on public beaches or grading state land. The penalty for taking commercially desirable trees such as koa from state conservation districts would also include the market value of the lumber.
Another bill would impose a $10,000 fine for every square meter of coral destroyed — little enough for destroying something that will take decades to recover.
Thielen thinks the heavier fines will deter abuse of public property. The larger amounts will help but will not be enough to be a real deterrent. With property going for millions, $10,000 is chump change. A real deterrent would be jail time or fines large enough to hurt even a millionaire.
The measures have been approved in separate forms by the state House and Senate so they will be subject to conference committee action later.
It’s hard to imagine anyone objecting to really clobbering someone who destroys — for whatever reason — what belongs to all of us. The DLNR bills — and even harsher penalties than proposed — should be a legislative slam dunk.
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