Malama Makua

When I was about 22 years old, so over 20 years ago, I was able to visit the Waianae Coast with my dad, and it was one of the first times that I recall visiting, even though I grew up on the same island.

And when we went to Makua Beach as part of our trip to that side of the island, when I was getting out of the water, I encountered a woman, and she was tending to a garden that had these beautiful rock formations, native plants.

And she was standing in front of her garden and started talking to us about fires across the street in Makua Valley.

She's talking about the goats and pigs fleeing the flames, and the fire had been started as part of the military live fire training, the target practice that happens out in the valley.

I believe this fire was probably from the burning of military waste, but it raged out of control and just destroyed a good portion of Makua Valley.

And that story stayed with me.

About a third of the island of Oahu is occupied by military bases, but for much of my life, it had been hidden in plain sight.

That was our guest, Dr. Laurel Mainesing, talking about Makua Valley, located in the eastern part of the island of Oahu, where the U.S. military conducted live fire trainings for decades, exercises that sparked wildfires and damaged archaeological sites, forever transforming a valley home to some of Hawaii's rarest species.