As the Army prepares to move into negotiations to renew leases on state-owned land it has used for training for decades, on Oahu it’s proposing a significantly smaller footprint.
The Army’s Oahu leased lands currently include 1,150 acres at Kahuku Training Area, 4,390 acres at Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area and 782 acres at Makua Military Reservation. The Army obtained all those lands, along with a leased state parcel of 22,750 acres on Hawaii island at the Pohakuloa Training Area, for a mere $1 in 1964.
The leases expire in 2029. In its final environmental impact statement for Oahu lands released last week, the preferred-alternatives section indicates that the service would prefer to lease only 450 acres at Kahuku and not pursue renewing leases on any state land at the other two sites — a roughly 93% reduction.
The Army would still retain considerable acreage of federal land on Oahu, with more than 3,400 acres in Makua Valley and more than 8,300 in Kahuku. The document states that “military training requirements at the training areas would have to be concentrated onto nearby U.S. government-controlled lands within the same training area, be altered, or go unmet as the military would not be able to meet training needs.”
Vince Dodge of the group Malama Makua, which has fought to end training in Makua Valley and ultimately see it returned, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, “We were a little bit surprised to see their preferred outcome, which is not to renew those leases … but not greatly surprised, because there has been talk over the last couple years about Makua coming back through folks in the Army. It just now brings up the questions of cleanup, restoration, management (and) return.”
The final EIS for Oahu comes after the state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted May 9 to reject the Army’s final EIS for its proposal to retain state land at Pohakuloa, citing data gaps within the document, though the Army is still moving forward in those negotiations. The vote came after a long day of public comments largely opposed, foreshadowing what may be an uphill battle for the Army as it seeks land it sees as critical to train troops amid tensions with China.
“I’m not surprised,” said William Aila Jr., who previously served as chair of the BLNR. “I think the Army realized that they weren’t going to get support from Land Board members, right? So it’s more of a reality that they’re not going to be able to hang on to those state lands. So it’s a recognition of sort of what’s happening on the ground now, in particular with Makua.”
The U.S. military as a whole has faced heightened scrutiny in Hawaii ever since fuel from the Navy’s Red Hill facility — which sits just 100 feet above a critical aquifer — contaminated the Navy’s drinking water system in 2021. Since then there have been a series of other incidents, including a 700-gallon diesel fuel spill at the Maui Space Surveillance Complex at Haleakala’s summit in 2023, that have helped galvanize activists and community groups on a level not seen since the push to stop the Navy’s bombing of Kahoolawe.
All on the table
As the Army moves into negotiations with the state, it has the option to propose giving up some federal land it holds to the state in exchange for lands it wants more, or even buying land — everything is potentially on the table. But whether the Army seeks to buy or lease Hawaii land after 2029, all sides expect that if the Army seeks to keep anything, it will have to pay much more than $1.
Ultimately, Army officials have told the Star-Advertiser they consider PTA to be the most important training area in the islands. Situated between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, PTA is the Army’s largest contiguous live-fire training area in Hawaii and perhaps the entire Pacific, allowing realistic training and large-scale unit maneuvers. It’s also become a major part of the Army’s Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, a series of ranges in Hawaii and Alaska that also brings in troops from foreign countries to train.
The state parcel at PTA sits between two federally owned pieces of land, collectively making up 132,000 acres, and Army officials call the leased land “the connective tissue” of PTA. Losing it would cleave the training area and make it difficult for the Army and other branches that use it to train there.
The Kahuku Training Area overlooking Oahu’s North Shore has been used by the military since the mid-1950s with troops training in the jungle and helicopters flying above. The Army hopes to continue that training, including bringing in troops for JPMRC, with the federal portions and the 450 acres of state land at KTA it wants to lease again. The Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area in the Koolau Mountains has been used only for aerial training over the past decade, and the Army is ready to give it up entirely.
But Makua has been arguably the military’s most controversial Oahu training ground. Once heavily used as a live-fire training area, the Army hasn’t actually fired a shot in the valley since 2004. A lawsuit by Earthjustice on behalf of local Malama Makua ultimately halted live-fire training after a fire started during an exercise burned brush and revealed ancient Native Hawaiian cultural sites within that the Army had long insisted weren’t there.
In Hawaiian, “makua” means “parent,” and the valley holds deep significance to many Hawaiian cultural practitioners. In November 2023 the Army said that it no longer needed Makua for live-fire training and would never seek to use live munitions in the valley again. However, the Army still uses Makua’s restricted airspace for aerial drone and occasional helicopter training.
The valley was once home to several farms and ranches owned by members of a diverse community of Hawaiian, Japanese and Portuguese families. The military began using parts of Makua for live-fire training in the 1920s when the islands were governed as a U.S. territory, but after the Japanese navy’s attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the military imposed martial law in Hawaii and took control of all of Makua for training.
Military officials assured the farmers and ranchers it would be temporary and that they could return to their land when the war was over. But in 1945, World War II ended and the Cold War began. The military asked Hawaii’s territorial government for the transfer of 6,608 acres at Makua for training and never left.
Return of the valley
The lawsuit by Earthjustice requires the Army to allow “cultural access” days led by Malama Makua, and the Army has spent millions on removing unexploded bombs, replanting seeds of native plants and preserving Native Hawaiian cultural sites. The last point has been contentious, with archaeologists saying the sites need to studied as they are and some Hawaiian cultural practitioners arguing they should be repaired, rebuilt and restored.
Aila said that in Makua “it’s good that one-third is coming back, and we’ll do our best to work on that. But I think the Army has to be ready for continued pressure for the return of the other two-thirds, especially when it’s a want and it’s not a need. … They can train with helicopters and the (drones) on the other lands that they have, so that’s what’s disappointing. I mean, the community has said we would prefer the return of the entire valley so that we can now start working on restoring its cultural integrity and its biological integrity.”
But Dodge said that from his perspective it’s “one thing at a time” and that the Army’s proposal is a major shift as the service and the state approach negotiations. He said, “Who would imagine 25 years ago that there would be no more live-fire training in the valley? Now we’re at a place where no more live-fire training, and there’s actual intention, I think, and discussion about cleanup.”
He said discussions with Army officials and others around Hawaii lately have been encouraging to him, including with people involved in developing new technology to detect and remove unexploded ordnance. Dodge said, “What we thought 10 or 20 years ago would be, you know, like a 100-year project to clean the valley could well happen much, much quicker and at much less cost.”
But he also said he wants there to be commitments — and oversight — on that process.
“The Army needs to stay involved. They need to put up the money to fund the cleanup of ultimately the entire valley, because they got their use out of it. … Now it’s time to make good on their word to return the valley in a clean condition,” said Dodge. “We also are really clear, based on what happened in Kahoolawe and our experience with cleanup in Makua, that we do not want the Army to run the job. We’re going to advocate very strongly that that community oversees the cleanup.”
The actual negotiations going forward will be undertaken by President Donald Trump’s new Pentagon team, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Under Hegseth the Pentagon has prioritized military funding in the Pacific, but he has also vowed to drastically scale back or outright eliminate most of the military’s environmental and cultural programs, charging that such programs are “woke” and have distracted the military from preparing for war.
However, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll promised U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, during his Senate confirmation hearing that he would work with her office and community groups in Hawaii on Army land leases and would listen to local concerns about the future of the land. Dodge said, “We’re not in control of what the presidential administration does … so we will continue to be surprised by what happens and what shows up.”
