Office of Hawaiian Affairs pushes ballot amendment to ban destructive live‑fire training, rallies community on lease expirations

Kyle Kahele, chair of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Hawaii Island trustee, told a packed community presentation in Waiʻanae that military leases covering large tracts of former crown and government lands are “one of the most consequential issues of our generation.” He outlined recent legal and political shifts — including a new mention of OHA in the National Defense Authorization Act — and described OHA’s strategy of combining legal review, public education and community organizing to press for land return and stricter oversight.

Leina Alalei, OHA’s director of advocacy, summarized OHA’s role in commenting on environmental impact statements, advocating for archaeological and cultural inventories, and enforcing state statutes when public‑trust lands are at issue. She said the history of ceded lands, the Admission Act and later federal statutes creates particular legal obligations for state agencies and places OHA in a fiduciary role for Native Hawaiians.

On policy, Kahele announced that OHA intends to pursue a constitutional amendment to prohibit destructive live‑fire training on state public‑trust lands and to place that amendment on the 2026…