Glossary Terms
Wai‘anae's 13,036 acres (20.4 square miles) of military land make up 34.2 percent of the land area in the moku. The military lands include 9,227 acres (14.4 square miles) of Navy-owned land in Lualualei Valley and 4,190 acres (6.5 square miles) of land in Mākua Valley that the U.S. Army uses for training programs. The Mākua Valley land includes 170 acres (0.25 square miles) of fee simple land, 782 acres (1.2 square miles) of land leased from the State of Hawai‘i, and 3,237 acres (5 square miles) of ceded lands also leased from the state. The Army's leases expire in 2029.
Members of Wai‘anae's Hawaiian community object to the Army's occupation of Mākua Valley because it limits their access to important cultural resources.
Source: CZM Hawai‘iThe Army's Mākua Military Reservation has been used for live fire training exercises since World War II. The Army considers the facility to be the only location on O‘ahu where it can conduct live fire training exercises using helicopter gunships and large-caliber weapons. The range is not a continually manned facility; it employs about five full-time civilian personnel (Alvin Char, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, personal communication, 2004).
The facility consists of a combination of fee simple, ceded, and leased land totaling about 4,190 acres or 6.5 square miles (Alvin Char, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii, personal communication, 2004). The entire training area is within a conservation district that extends from the Wai‘anae Ridge line to Ka‘ena Point (GlobalSecurity.org 2002b).
"Mākua and this entire region is sacred to us. It represents our relationship to the land, the gods of ao [light] and po [dark], and our own life and death on the land. The whole area of the dunes here is important because of the burials. This is our history, the traditions of this place, Mākua. The land symbolizes our relationship to our gods."
– Excerpt from Manana‘o of Mākua
Mākua Valley has a special cultural and religious significance for many members of the Hawaiian community in Wai‘anae because a number of important cultural sites and heiau are found there. In addition, environmental groups and agencies are concerned about the impact of the Army's live fire training exercises on rare and endangered plants, birds, and tree snails in the forested upper portions of the valley. The Army has recently taken measures to protect the important cultural and natural resources in Mākua Valley, including conducting an inventory of natural resources within the valley and preparation of an ecosystems management plan.
In response to a lawsuit brought by EarthJustice on behalf of Mālama Mākua, the Army has entered into a partnership with the community to agree upon ways to allow community access to and provide for the care of the important Ukanipo Heiau and other cultural sites in the valley. Under the agreement, Mālama Mākua leads twice-monthly cultural and spiritual tours of the valley that have been attended by as many as 1,000 members of the Hawaiian community (William Aila, Jr., Wai‘anae Harbormaster, personal communication, 2004).
The Army and the Hawaiian community continue to work together to resolve access and preservation issues for cultural and archeological sites within Mākua Valley. For more information about historic and cultural resources in Wai‘anae, please see the Preservation section.
The towers at NRTF Lualualei.
Source: CZM Hawai‘iThe Navy's facilities in Lualaualei Valley consist of the 7,498-acre (11.7-square mile) Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) Lualualei and the 1,729-acre (2.7-square mile) Naval Radio Transmitting Facility (NRTF) Lualualei (U.S. Navy Region Hawaii 2004).
The Naval Magazine Lualaualei is used for the storage of ordinance that is needed for all U.S. military branches in Hawai‘i. Its mission is to "receive, renovate, maintain, store, and issue ammunition, explosives, expendable ordnance items and weapons, and technical ordnance material for the Navy, Air Force, and Army and other activities and units as designated by the Chief of Naval Operations" (Navy Region Hawai‘i 2004). The facility contains 255 aboveground storage structures capable of housing 78,000 tons of ammunition and explosives (Backyard Oahu 2004). The facility is a terminus for the Kolekole Pass road, which extends from the Wai‘anae coast to Schofield Barracks, traversing the Wai‘anae Mountains. The road is closed to the public (GlobalSecurity.org 2002a).
NAVMAG Lualualei was commended by the Navy in 1999 for its efforts to protect natural and cultural resources within the facility property. These efforts have included an extensive inventory of biological, historical, and cultural resources; fencing of important rare native plant habitat areas; and eradication of feral cattle, goats, and pigs. The facility has four wildlife management areas, encompassing about 680 acres or one square mile (GlobalSecurity.org 2002a).
The NRTF Lualualei is used to transmit state-of-the-art high and low frequency radio signals for the navigation of Navy vessels throughout the Pacific. It is the primary Department of Defense long-range transmitter installation in Hawai‘i. The Navy and Coast Guard jointly use the facility, and the two 1,500-feet-high transmitter antennae occupy most of the land. The facility also encompasses wildlife refuges for endangered bird species and two endangered species habitats (U.S. Pacific Command 2004). The NRTF Lualualei facility employs about 45 enlisted and 15 civilian personnel (GlobalSecurity.org 2002a).
Backyard Oahu. 2004. Kanehoa-Hapapa Summit Trail. http://www.backyardoahu.com/khpp3.htm
GlobalSecurity.org. 2002a. Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) Lualualei. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lualualei.htm
GlobalSecurity.org. 2002b. Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) Makua. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/makua.htm
U.S. Navy Region Hawaii. 2004. Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) Lualualei. http://www.hawaii.navy.mil/CNBDATA/n4/NavMagLLL.htm
U.S. Pacific Command. 2004. Hawaii Installation and Training Area Handbook. http://www.pacom.mil/
City and County of Honolulu, Department of Planning and Permitting. 2000. Waianae Sustainable Communities Plan. http://honoluludpp.org/planning/Waianae/Wai1.pdf
Maly, K. 1998a. Oral History Study: Makua and Kahanahaiki Ahupuaa. Institute for Sustainable Development. Kailua, HI.
