The Army has found itself at odds with some local residents over the years regarding everything from its use of Makua Valley for live-fire exercises, to access to the valley for cultural purposes and the stationing of Stryker combat vehicles in Hawai'i.

Loran Doane, media relations chief for the Army, said that while such controversial issues garner a lot of media attention, less notice is paid to such Army efforts as reintroducing endangered native Hawaiian plants into their natural habitat.

"A Stryker is not very easily missed, but few people may realize that a plant they might step on in the forest could be one of the last of its kind," he said.

Doane said the Army spends $10 million a year trying to save endangered plants in Hawai'i through its natural resources program. He said $6 million of that money is spent on O'ahu alone.

Kim Welch, environmental outreach specialist for the program, said some 80 percent of the endangered plant species on O'ahu are on federal land.

"And that is largely because there is a lot of open, undeveloped land that the Army maintains," Welch said. "The last intact native forest can be found primarily on Army land."