Relating To Invasive Species.
SB562 establishes a new Plant Nursery Registration Program within Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture to reduce the spread of invasive species and plant pests through nursery stock. The bill requires most people and businesses that produce or sell nursery stock — including pop-up sales, craft fairs, fundraising events, and commercial landscaping operations — to register each location with the department, certify compliance with pest-prevention and reporting requirements, and cooperate with inspections. It also allows the department to charge a registration fee, place collected fees into the pest inspection, quarantine, and eradication fund, and adopt rules to implement the program.
The bill sets out detailed operational requirements for registrants, including maintaining pest-free conditions, keeping logs of pest-control actions, reporting new pests or plant diseases, using best management practices, and not selling infested or restricted plants. It authorizes the department to inspect registered locations during business hours, respond to complaints, prioritize higher-risk sites, and order quarantine, treatment, destruction, confiscation, return shipment, or other mitigation measures when pests or noncompliance are found. The bill also ties the new nursery registration program to Hawaii’s broader biosecurity program and makes nursery-related certifications or services unavailable at unregistered locations.
SB562 would amend chapter 150A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, by creating a new nursery registration and inspection framework, adding related definitions, and revising the chapter’s penalty provisions to cover violations of the new part. It would expand the Department of Agriculture’s authority over nursery stock sales and production, including the ability to inspect, quarantine, and require remedial action at registered nursery locations, while limiting inspections of unrelated dwellings or structures. The bill also directs registration fees into the pest inspection, quarantine, and eradication fund and clarifies that the state is not liable for economic losses resulting from enforcement actions under the new program.
The available voting history shows strong support for the bill in committee, with unanimous passage in the Senate Agriculture and Environment Committee, Senate Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, and Senate Ways and Means Committee, each with amendments. The bill’s findings and structure suggest a generally favorable policy consensus around strengthening biosecurity and protecting Hawaii’s nursery industry, consumers, and environment from invasive species. No committee transcripts were provided, so there is no recorded floor or hearing debate to indicate broader opposition in the materials supplied.
The main policy tension in SB562 is between stronger biosecurity enforcement and the regulatory burden placed on nursery operators, especially small businesses and sellers at temporary venues such as craft fairs and fundraising events. The bill addresses this concern by allowing the department to exempt very small retail-only businesses with annual nursery stock sales of $2,500 or less, but it still requires registration, certification, and potential inspection for most others. Another point of contention is the department’s broad authority to order quarantine, destruction, confiscation, or return shipment of affected stock at the owner’s expense without compensation, which may be viewed as necessary for pest control but potentially costly for affected businesses.