(BIVN) – Island residents filled the Aupuni Center Conference Room on Thursday night to speak out on the U.S. Army Garrison Pohakuloa’s draft Integrated Cultural Resources Management Plan.

The Army says the plan will provide PTA managers with a guide to ensure compliance with applicable cultural resource management laws and regulations. That includes identification and evaluation of cultural resources, consultation with concerned parties, consideration of impacts, and decisions about how to treat the resources. Since the U.S. Army environmental assessment anticipates a finding of no significant impact, a public hearing is not required.

However, peace activists, environmentalists, and Hawaiian cultural practitioners, demanding to be heard in an open forum, held public hearings of their own. One on Thursday in Hilo, a second in Kona on Friday night. Organizers hope to insert the testimonies into the public comment record for the EA, which closes on December 7.