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US Military To Permanently End Live Fire Training In Makua Valley
Hawai`i News Now - December 1, 2023
The U.S. Department Defense has announced the military no longer needs to conduct live-fire training in Makua Valley — now or in the future.
It’s a major win for Native Hawaiian groups and environmentalists after years of activism.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth filed a statement with federal court in Hawaii detailing the military’s new stance.
“The U.S. Army discontinued live fire activities at the Makua Military Reservation in 2004. In October, U.S. Army Pacific leadership signed a memorandum stating there are no plans to resume live-fire at MMR, now or in the future,” said Col. Rob Phillips, US Army Pacific Spokesperson.
The announcement comes a quarter century after Malama Makua, represented by Earthjustice, took the Army to court to compel compliance with with the National Environmental Policy Act.
That law required the Army to consider alternatives for training at Makua that could accomplish the same mission with fewer impacts on the environment, sacred sites and the Waianae community.
Under the terms of a 2001 settlement, the military hasn’t conducted live-fire training at Makua Valley since 2004. Then in 2008, the Army said moving training from the area was feasible.
“We welcome the good news that the Army has decided to end live-fire training at Makua permanently,” said Malama Makua board member Lynette Cruz. “The valley has suffered enough.”
The Makua Military Reservation includes three valleys, home to over 40 endangered and threatened species and dozens of sacred and cultural sites.
The military’s lease with the state — which covers about 768 acres — expires in 2029.
Earthjustice says decades of live-fire training sparked wildfires that destroyed native forest habitat. Bullets have also pockmarked sacred sites and countless other sites have been destroyed.
Malama Makua board member Sparky Rodrigues says Makua Valley was seized for training following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, “evicting Hawaiians with the promise that their lands would be cleaned up and returned six months after the end of World War II.”
“Almost 80 years later, we’re still waiting. Ending live-fire training is an important first step in undoing the wrongs of the past and restoring Makua, which means ‘parents’ in Hawaiian.”
Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who has been lead counsel for Mālama Makua in the NEPA litigation since 1998, said it’s clear Makua Valley is not needed for live-fire training.
“The guns have been silent at Makua for nearly two decades,” he said. “During all that time, which included major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Hawaii-based military units have carried out their national security mission without destructive live-fire training at Makua.”
