US military returns over 363 Molokai acres to state
Land has been leased out since the 1960s, will be used for Native Hawaiian beneficiaries
More than 363 acres on Molokai that the U.S. government and military once used for radio communications will be returned to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, with the potential to be used for pastoral purposes or other needs of the Native Hawaiian community.
The Air Force has been leasing the lands from DHHL under a 25year agreement at a cost of $40,270 annually. The lease expired Dec. 31, and state and military officials announced the decision on Friday to put the land back in the hands of DHHL.
“We are trying to make things right as one ohana between all of us in our state. This is something we care deeply about,” Gov. Josh Green said during a news conference in Honolulu on Friday afternoon. “We’re honored to accept the return of these lands on behalf of our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries. Our commitment to ensuring that Native Hawaiians can continue to build their capacity through access to more land remains steadfast for our administration.”
Maj. Gen. Mark Hashimoto, mobilization assistant to the commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, thanked the people of Hawaii, especially on Molokai, for the use of the land.
“The Department of Defense is grateful for the use of this parcel of precious land, and we look forward to working with the state on projects that demonstrate our strong partnership. … We hope this rightsizing of our footprint will in some small way contribute to the realization of the vision you and the residents of the island have for Molokai,” Hashimoto said.
Air Force Col. Mike Holliday said that the Federal Aviation Administration originally leased the land back in the 1960s. At the time it was used to provide the Western Space and Missile Center with telecommunications support for the Apollo program. Through a couple of lease transactions, it eventually
ended up under Air Force control in 1981. It became the high frequency receiver site for radio communications to the Hawaii area of the western range.
“We determined that we no longer needed the land in about 2007, and so we started the process in and about that timeframe, 2007-2011, of returning the land to DHHL. … Our mission, our requirements, even our technology has changed to where we no longer needed that land,” Holliday explained.
Efforts to return the land included site visits and determining what needed to be cleaned up, removed or kept for DHHL. Hashimoto said the Air Force conducted “an exhaustive and comprehensive cleanup” that had to be signed off by DHHL and the state Department of Health.
Conduit junction boxes, support structures and other equipment related to the former radio and communications work were removed from the site. In some facilities that DHHL wanted to retain, ceiling and floor tiles and other materials containing asbestos were taken out. The materials were bagged and placed “in an appropriate landfill site off of Molokai,” Holliday said.
The governor said “it’s not very darn frequent” that lands are given back to the state. He said there are more than 200,000 acres in the state’s inventory “which we feel honorbound to give back to the Hawaiian people,” and that his administration aims to “really aggressively chip away at the list” for the first two years of his term.
“We are in constant communication with military to find out as their mission changes how we can instead use the land better,” Green said. “So this is an ongoing discussion. This was essentially low-hanging fruit. They had gone through a process already that prepared the land to be given back to DHHL.”
Located in Hoolehua and Palaau on the northwest part of the island, the 363-acre parcel is identified in DHHL planning documents as having significant cultural sites that warrant preservation, according to the Governor’s Office. Pastoral in nature, the parcel also features miles of shoreline access to fishing and other gathering opportunities for cultural practices.
“I can tell you it is very touching. It is warming to know that the returns of these lands, especially back in the Hoolehua area, our inventory of lands and the availability to our Native Hawaiian beneficiaries is of the utmost importance,” said state Sen. Lynn DeCoite, who is from Molokai and represents District 13 covering Molokai, Maui and Lanai. “It provides us with opportunity. It provides us with Native Hawaiians having to live the vision of Kuhio, and that is to rehabilitate our Native Hawaiians.”
DeCoite said during the news conference that the reacquired land “is a key parcel” that is great for grazing cattle and has plenty of feed in times of drought. She agreed that “it’s been a really long time” since land was transferred back to the state.
“The islandwide plan really dictates the priorities of these beneficiaries, and it is to get back on those lands,” DeCoite said. “So this is a first step in the right direction, and I believe that the administration will continue to look at other lands that have been leased out by other entities outside of Native Hawaiians that can be returned.”
Ikaika Anderson, the appointed chairperson of the Hawaiian Homes Commission, echoed the potential for pastoral uses and pointed out that the majority of the Hawaiian Homes waiting list “is not residential on the Neighbor Islands.” However, the availability and future uses of the land will ultimately depend on what the people of Molokai want.
“Before we make these lands available, I think it’s absolutely important that we hear from the beneficiaries on Molokai and the elected officials … because those folks know best as to what these lands could be used for,” Anderson said. “So it would be premature for the Hawaiian Homes Commission to do anything prior to consulting with our beneficiaries on Molokai and the people that they elected to represent them here. So we’ll do that first.”
Other parcels of land used by the U.S. military on Molokai are much smaller than the former Air Force site. A spokesperson for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said that according to the 2021 Hawaii Military Land Use Master Plan, the Army uses 10 acres and the Marine Corps uses 12 acres on Molokai.