Army plans Makua tours, visitor center
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Army is stepping up public access to Makua Valley through community tours and public education initiatives, including a visitor center officials expect to open early next year.
U.S. Army photo
An unused building near the range tower will be converted to a visitor center with educational displays, said Army spokeswoman Capt. Kathy Turner.
Dr. Laurie Lucking, cultural resources manager for U.S. Army Hawaii, shows tour members petroglyphs at Makua Military Reservation.
"The goal is, whether you're from Hawai'i, the Wai'anae Coast, or you're visiting, you can go to the center and learn about the valley, with the maps, photos and eventually artifacts of all the resources there," Turner said.
About 40 members of the Wai'anae community were invited to a tour Saturday, the second conducted by the Army recently. (A group of military veterans had a previous tour.) Many residents remember larger tours several years ago that explained military maneuvers in the area.
"This was an attempt to start the tours back up, so people in the community can see what they're doing," said Cynthia Rezentes, chairwoman of the Wai'anae Neighborhood Board, who took the weekend tour.
Unlike the military tours of the late 1990s, she said, this one focused on historic sites and endangered species rather than training exercises.
Turner said the weekend tour was a kind of pilot project to give staff an idea of what visitors want to learn in the historic valley, home to 45 endangered plants and animals and 100 archaeological features.
The tours and visitor center are being planned against a backdrop of simmering public dispute over the Army's use of the valley in training exercises.
A lawsuit and 2001 settlement demanded more cultural and environmental concessions and a full environmental impact statement (EIS) from the Army if training is to continue in the valley.
A deadline looms Monday for completion of a final EIS. Under the settlement, authorization to conduct training exercises will lapse until the document is finished, said David Henkin, attorney for the nonprofit public-interest law firm Earthjustice.
The tours represent the Army's "proactive push" to curry favor with the community, said William Aila, a member of Hui Malama o Makua, one of the Hawaiian organizations that conducts its own outings in the valley under the terms of the settlement. "They're worried about how they're going to train their guys," Aila said.
Turner said the tours and visitor center simply show a desire by the Army to "showcase the hard work of the environmental and cultural staff," which has expanded from a handful to about 20 people.
"The community doesn't know what we're doing there," she said. "We do the same stuff at (Pohakuloa Training Area on the Big Island), and people don't know it."
Laurie Lucking, an Army cultural specialist, showed weekend visitors historic sites such as stone faces marked with petroglyphs. The rock has been covered with a canvas tarp to protect it from the elements, Turner said.
The tour also highlighted areas where Native Hawaiian plants are being replanted to offset the environmental impact of training exercises, and explained measures being taken to avert further damage by brush fires touched off by explosives.
Rezentes acknowledged that many in the community have lingering suspicions about Army activities at Makua.
"This piece appeared to be straightforward, but there are always going to be people who are suspicious," she said. "The proof is going to be in their follow-through, their commitment to this project."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
