HONOLULU— The Hawai‘i Board of Land and Natural Resources today voted to reject the U.S. Army’s final environmental impact statement for its proposed long-term retention of nearly 6,300 acres of state land at Kahuku Training Area, Kawailoa-Poamoho and Mākua Military Reservation on O‘ahu.

The board’s decision follows overwhelming public opposition, formal objections by state agencies and expert findings that the Army’s environmental review failed to comply with Hawai‘i’s Environmental Policy Act. The document lacked critical baseline data on endangered species, cultural sites, wildfire risk and chemical contamination.

“This decision is a long-overdue stand against the historic destruction of Oʻahu’s sacred and irreplaceable places,” said Maxx Phillips, Hawai‘i and Pacific Islands director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The board finally said enough is enough after decades of the Army carelessly carving up these lands, burning native forests and bulldozing cultural sites. This land doesn’t belong to the military — it belongs to the people, to the ancestors buried here and to the rare life still surviving in these places.”

Today’s decision comes just weeks after the board also rejected the Army’s environmental impact statement for nearly 23,000 acres of state land at Pōhakuloa Training Area on Hawai‘i Island. In both cases, the board found the Army had not provided the information necessary to evaluate long-term impacts or to fulfill the state’s constitutional obligations to protect public trust resources and Native Hawaiian rights.

State agency divisions within the Department of Land and Natural Resources recommended rejecting the O‘ahu report, citing the Army’s failure to complete archaeological surveys, integrate Native Hawaiian moʻolelo (stories passed down through generations), identify potential sources of groundwater contamination, complete biological surveys or provide enforceable plans to address decades of damage from military use, among a litany of other reasons.

“There are so many examples just on this island of the Army, and U.S. military as a whole, dismissing the environmental and health concerns of Hawaiʻi residents,” said Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i. “From exposing schoolchildren to toxic lead dust at its Puʻuloa firing range, to covering up the use of depleted uranium at Schofield, to contaminating our primary drinking water aquifer at Red Hill and Waiawa, the Department of Defense simply can’t, or won’t prioritize our safety. Hopefully, the military will see that Hawai‘i’s people will no longer tolerate their callous disregard for our home, and our lives.”

The Army’s proposal would have extended military use of conservation-zoned lands that provide habitat for native forest birds, rare plants and irreplaceable cultural resources. In 2021, a wildfire ignited by military activity burned more than 3,500 acres of native forest at Kawailoa-Poamoho.

“This rejection affirms that these lands are not empty spaces to be trashed for military target practice, but a home to iwi kūpuna, cultural memory and endangered life,” said Phillips. “This is exactly what Native Hawaiian communities have said for decades. The Army once again ignored its obligations under Hawai‘i law, and the board was right to reject that failure.”

The board’s decision requires the Army to revise and resubmit its environmental review before any further consideration of lease renewal or land retention. Community advocates are calling on the state to begin a public process that centers restoration and cultural stewardship as the future for these lands.