In 2029, Hawaii’s leases with the U.S. military expire at three sites: the Makua Military Reservation, Kahuku Training Area and Kawailoa-Poamoho (Poamoho) Training Area on Oahu. More than 6,300 acres of state land, most of it zoned for conservation, is at stake.

The state hasn’t taken a public position on what it wants to do with the properties — but former Congressman Kai Kahele, William Aila, former head of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and of Land and Natural Resources, and the tenacious activist organization Malama Makua all have. They, rightly, call for an end to leasing state lands at Makua, and for its restoration and remediation by the Army.

The Army must end its use and control over Makua to allow for public access to the property, which holds dozens of sacred and cultural sites. And military occupation of Makua must be relinquished to trigger the extensive restoration that is required of the Army under the terms of its current lease, and which can begin only once military use ends. This would also facilitate more intensive focus on environmental restoration and protection. More than 40 endangered species can be found in Makua Valley, but military activities, including a series of wildfires sparked by live-fire training, have degraded portions of the property.

The state is not bound to renew any of its leases with the Army, but putting an end to Army control of Makua after 88 years is nevertheless a momentous decision. All of Makua and Kaena Point was taken over by the military on the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, Dec. 7, 1941, and a 65-year-lease was inked in 1964, 60 years ago. To the Army’s benefit, Makua has played an outsized role in training operations, by extension increasing security for all U.S. citizens. That benefit, however, came at great cost to former occupants of the land, especially Native Hawaiians, and to the land itself.

Makua has been bombed by warships, strafed by aerial gunnery and carpeted with bullets and artillery fire. Beach invasions and land battles were simulated, with heavy equipment and heavy artillery. So much ordnance was fired into lands at Makua that certain areas may never be cleared.

Spurred by such violation of the aina, Hawaiians and environmentalists fought to stop live-fire training at Makua for a quarter-century before reaching a 2001 settlement with the military to end the use of bombs and artillery in 2004. Only last year did the Army finally agree, via court filing, that there was no longer a “need” to use live weaponry within the area.

This has been interpreted as an agreement to never again use weaponry. But a draft Oahu Army Training Land Retention Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), just released to consider a range of future options at the three Oahu military sites, frames this as “no foreseeable plans” — not exactly an iron-clad commitment.

As the “Land Retention” title suggests, the draft EIS’ focus is on retaining control. Its preferred alternatives give up claim to portions of all three sites, taking state acreage controlled at Kahuku down to 450 acres from the current 1,150; at Poamoho to 3,170 acres, from 4,390; and at Makua to 572 acres, from 782. In total, the Army’s preference would be to relinquish control of about 2,100 acres — but very little of Makua.

“Implementation of the Proposed Action … would result in significant, adverse impacts on land use (land tenure), cultural practices (at Makua), and environmental justice,” the draft EIS states. These state lands are all generally in conservation districts — meant to be protected, rather than used as sites for warlike maneuvering and weaponry. And Makua holds great cultural significance to Hawaiians, who lived and conducted traditional practices in the valley as long ago as the 11th century.

The impact on cultural practices and this state’s cultural expectations are truly the crux of the matter. The Army proposes to keep control over most of the sensitive areas containing sacred sites, petroglyphs and remnants of Hawaiian life in Makua, turning over land largely makai of Farrington Highway. Its proposed “mitigation” includes a mutually agreeable “cultural access plan,” public awareness campaigns to explain current access programs — which involve military-led forays into the area, required because Makua is littered with unexploded ordnance — and military-supervised “long-term stewardship of the aina.” That is far from adequate.

Negotiating beneficial lease terms to account for a parcel’s true value, as well as damage incurred and uses forever lost because of the military control, may serve the public trust for portions of these properties. At Makua, however, the state must seek restoration and return of these ceded lands.

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FOR MORE: Public comments on the draft EIS will be accepted through Aug. 7, and three public meetings will be held on Oahu next month: at Waianae District Park Multi-Purpose Room, 6 to 8 p.m. July 9; Kahuku High and Intermediate School, 6 to 8 p.m. July 10; and Leilehua High School, 6 to 8 p.m. July 11. Learn more at home.army.mil/hawaii/OahuEIS.