Anger still burns at Makua
By Allison Schaefers
Advertiser Staff Writer
Old tensions between the Army and Leeward Coast residents who have long opposed military use of Makua Military Reservation were still smoldering yesterday at a community briefing called by the Army to discuss a recent fire in the valley.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser
Many Native Hawaiians and environmental stewards attended the briefing to express their displeasure with the military's presence in the valley. The briefing was delayed more than two hours so Native Hawaiians and their supporters could host a religious ceremony.
Col. David Anderson, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawai'i, shows where a prescribed burn went out of control last week in Makua Valley. The fire scorched more than half of the valley sacred to many Native Hawaiians.
Col. David Anderson, commander of U.S. Army Garrison Hawai'i, said the Army called the briefing to talk about a recent fire in Makua Valley — a controlled burn that went badly out of control — to answer questions about what happened and offer an assessment of damage to threatened and endangered species.
"We believe the community's interest is extremely important, and it's our intent to tell you everything we know — the good, the bad and the ugly," Anderson told those gathered at the briefing. He acknowledged that the fire was mismanaged.
Yesterday, about 60 people marched onto the reservation chanting as they surveyed the still-smoking scorched hills. Most wore black sashes and carried ho'o kupu offerings, such as native plants. They placed the gifts at a stone altar in a symbolic gesture of forgiveness. Others carried signs such as "Army Out."
On July 22, the Army lost control of a prescribed burn that scorched 2,100 acres — more than half of the 4,190-acre valley many Hawaiians consider sacred, reigniting criticism of the Army's more than 50-year use of the land for training.
The fire also burned approximately 150 acres of unoccupied O'ahu Elepaio Critical Habitat on Army lands and approximately six acres of O'ahu Plant Critical Habitat on adjoining state lands.
The burn was supposed to make it easier for the Army to find and remove unexploded ordnance, and for Hawaiians to gain access to cultural sites. According to the military, the burn got out of control when winds shifted three hours after ignition. The fire was brought under control the next day, but the damage had been done, protesters said.
William Aila, a member of the Hawaiian group Hui Malama o Makua, led the procession and later demanded that Army officials put an end to fires and military training in Makua Valley.
"The Army fire-management plan failed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife oversight failed, and overall management of Makua has failed," Aila said.
The fire desecrated and damaged cultural areas and resources, members of DMZ Hawaii and Aloha 'Aina said. It pushed endangered species closer to extinction, damaged fragile native ecosystems and drove alien predators deeper into native forest areas, they said.
Anderson said one silver lining is that the fire allows more unexploded ordnance analysis and uncovered more cultural resources.
More than 25 new archaeological sites have been uncovered since the burn, said Laurie Lucking, a cultural resources manager for U.S. Army Garrison Hawai'i.
And the fire did not have far-reaching impacts on natural resources, Army experts said.
But many Hawaiians said the Army was missing the point. The mana, or spirit force of the Hawaiian ancestors, exists in every part of the scorched and damaged valley, they said.
Aila told Army officials yesterday that Hui Malama o Makua and Malama Makua had met with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and planned to ask the State Historic Preservation Office to terminate the Makua Programmatic Agreement with the Army.
The agreement was part of a legal settlement reached between the military and Malama Makua in October 2001. The civilian group was given limited access to the valley and the Army was allowed to conduct limited training. A majority of members from the Ukani Po Advisory Council also plan to request that the agreement for Ukani Po be terminated, he said.
That's something the Army doesn't want to see happen, Anderson said.
Military commanders have used the valley since World War II, bombing, shelling and launching simulated ground attacks through its dry, rolling terrain. With some 7,000 soldiers preparing to deploy to Afghanistan during the next year, live-fire training at Makua is vital to the 25th Infantry Division (Light's) "ready reaction force," Anderson said.
'We can't allow our sons and daughters to go into harm's way unprepared," Anderson said. "Live-fire training is important to their preparation before they go to Afghanistan to fight the global war on terrorism."
