HI SB2082

Appropriates funds to the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources to develop or identify substitutes for invasive plant species used in landscaping.

Requires funded research to include studies of sterile, non-seed-producing polyploid plant forms that cannot reproduce and become invasive.

Excludes from the research any highly invasive plants listed on the Department of Agriculture's noxious weed list or plants with high scores on the University of Hawaii's weed risk assessment.

Cites significant costs from invasive species management, including $8.5 million spent in 1999 and $11.1 million in 2000, with projections of $47 million to $2.36 billion in losses over fifty to two hundred years if Miconia calvescens is not controlled.

Takes effect July 1, 2050.