Army, state talks over Hawaii land leases advance
By Kevin Knodell. Originally published by StarAdvertiser on August 22, 2025
“These lands are critical to the Army’s ability to project U.S. power in the Indo-Pacific, serving as a vital logistics hub for rapid troop deployment,” Driscoll wrote. “We also understand these lands are very important to the people of Hawai‘i. We want to work with you to come to a mutually acceptable framework by the end of this year that will allow us to move forward. Working together and with congressional support, we believe land exchange can be part of this framework.”
Driscoll concluded the letter telling Green “I look forward to working with you to finalize this framework. It is imperative that we move quickly to resolve this issue now. We cannot wait, as our Nation depends on its Army to always be ready.”
This comes after a Hawaii County Council committee voted 8-0 Tuesday in favor of a nonbinding resolution that urges the state to call for an immediate halt to “bombing and desecration activities” at the Pohakuloa Training Area, citing concerns over environmental damage, wildfire risks and impacts on Native Hawaiian cultural rights. The resolution also calls for the state to reject any military land swaps or lease renewals involving PTA unless provisions are made for cleanup, restoration and bioremediation.
The Army obtained the lands in 1964 for a mere $1. State officials have been in talks with the Pentagon about how much the military would have to pay to keep using the lands, as well as potential other investments. Military officials see Hawaii as increasingly critical amid tensions with China, while activists and some elected officials around the state have increasingly called on the Army to pack up and leave those lands.
Green has been making media rounds this week, with appearances on Hawaii News Now’s Spotlight Hawaii and on Hawaii Public Radio’s The Conversation, where he defended his approach to land negotiations. In a statement released by Green’s office on Thursday acknowledging that he received Driscoll’s letter, Green said “federal leaders have stated there are national security considerations at stake and they’ve made clear they could act through eminent domain, which would take the land without giving Hawai‘i anything in return.”
“While some may say we are being too accommodating, the truth is this path ensures that Hawai‘i’s people and values come first,” Green argued. “By negotiating firmly and fairly, we can secure real benefits for our future while maintaining national security.”
Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, accused Green of “fearmongering” about eminent domain, calling the prospect “dubious at best.”
“In recent years, the Pentagon has made continual commitments and invested millions in public relations efforts to ‘rebuild trust’ with the Hawaiʻi community,” Tanaka said. “A military land grab in lieu of complying with our democratically enacted laws would flush all this down the toilet and poison the relationship between the military and Hawai‘i community that hosts them, perhaps permanently. Gov. Green should be working to ensure the Pentagon recognizes this reality, rather than try to convince us to capitulate and concede our ʻaina and dignity to an increasingly unstable federal government. “
Military officials argue that they need to quickly ready their forces for potential conflict in the Pacific. Tensions have been escalating in the South China Sea, a critical waterway that more than a third of all international trade moves through. Chinese forces have clashed with neighboring countries over navigation and territorial rights.
Chinese vessels have regularly shot water cannons at boats from the Philippines and occasionally rammed them, raising concerns of clashes turning deadly. The U.S. and the Philippines have a mutual defense treaty.
The Chinese military also has stepped up maneuvers around Taiwan, a self-ruled island democracy that Beijing regards as a rogue province.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has reportedly instructed his military commanders to have their forces capable of invading Taiwan by 2027. Some analysts believe that order is more symbolic, as 2027 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, but U.S. military commanders have argued they need to be ready to respond if real conflict does break out in the Pacific.
Recently, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources recently voted to reject environmental impact statements the Army submitted on plans to retain training lands on Oahu and Hawaii island. The board cited data gaps and noted that the Army has current studies expected to be completed this year on biodiversity in the lands it had been using.
Green’s office said that while the prospect of a land exchange has been discussed, “no specific parcels have been identified and no official conversations on parcels have occurred to date between Governor Green and Secretary Driscoll” and that “by law, the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) hold statutory authority over state lands, while the Governor’s office plays a facilitating role. Any formal exchange would ultimately require BLNR action and compliance with state law.”
But Tanaka argued that concluding the process by the end of the year as Driscoll suggests is “legally impossible,” noting that “a revised environmental impact statement, land use approvals, appraisals, and other requirements would take months, if not a year or longer, for a lease, and any land exchange or sale would also require three months’ notice to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, as well as supermajority approval by the Hawai‘i Legislature — which isn’t scheduled to reconvene until next January.”
The Army considers Pohakuloa its most important training area in Hawaii. Situated between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, PTA is the U.S. military’s largest contiguous live-fire training area in Hawaii and perhaps the entire Pacific.
It has become central to the Army’s new Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, a series of training ranges in Hawaii and Alaska aimed at preparing U.S. troops and their allies for operations in the Pacific. But with its rugged fields of lava rock and volcanic soil, Pohakuloa is also classified as a sub-alpine tropical dryland forest — one of the world’s rarest kinds of ecosystems — and is habitat for Hawaii’s state bird, the nene, as well as the hoary bat and several species that exist nowhere else on the planet.
The Army previously said that on Oahu it prefers to renew only 450 acres at Kahuku and not pursue lease renewals on any state land in Makua Valley or the Kawailoa-Poamoho Training Area — a roughly 93% reduction in state land used for training. But the Army maintains large swaths of federal land on Oahu — including in the Makua Valley — and also seeks to continue using a state-owned parcel on Hawaii island that connects the federal lands that make up PTA.
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.
The valley holds deep significance to many Hawaiian cultural practitioners. In Hawaiian, “makua” means “parent,” and according to oral tradition it’s the place where Wakea and Papa — the sky father and Earth mother — came together and created human life. 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.
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. Though the Army has proposed leaving the state-owned parcels at Makua, most of the valley is still officially federal land.
Green said he’s “insisting on a fair deal, for example, the return of lands like Makua Valley, cleanup of contaminated training areas, protection of our water and a commitment to build thousands of new homes to relieve pressure on our housing market … I’m also pushing for lands that can be transferred to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, so more Native Hawaiian families have the opportunity of homeownership. And I want the military to invest in renewable energy and safer infrastructure to lower costs for our people.”
The governor’s office said that at the end of this month, the state will launch a new public website to “provide transparency throughout this process.” The site will include documents received from the Army, background on the leases and “updates as discussions progress.” The governor’s office also said that it will “provide further updates, including the state’s formal response to the Army, in the weeks ahead.”