A wildlife refuge on a remote Pacific atoll hundreds of miles from Hawaiʻi may become a military rocket test site by the end of 2025.
The U.S. Air Force issued a notice this month proposing the construction of two landing pads on Johnston Atoll to test the viability of using rockets to deliver military cargo loads.
The announcement has concerned some scientists and conservationists familiar with Johnston and its unique biodiversity.
The tiny coral reef atoll, barely larger than a square mile, serves as a habitat for nearly one and a half million seabirds of 15 different species, according to Brad Keitt with the American Bird Conservancy.
He called Johnston “one of the few bright spots” where vulnerable seabirds can nest without fear of terrestrial predators.
"Its population of seabirds is actually increasing, while most of the world's population continues to decrease," Keitt said.
He added that the trick to getting seabird populations to thrive on Johnston is to leave them alone. "Seabirds, if left alone and provided a safe place, will recover as we're seeing on Johnston," he said.
The U.S. military stated in its notice that it expects to issue a Finding of No Significant Impact alongside an Environmental Assessment for the Johnston rocket project sometime in early April.
A Finding of No Significant Impact means a full Environmental Impact Statement is not required because the proposed action will not have significant effects.
But Keitt is skeptical that rocket testing could occur on Johnston without significantly disrupting the surrounding wildlife.
"I think that's difficult to believe," he said. "Starting up activities on Johnston Atoll, as they've described, would be incredibly damaging to the seabirds."
History of Johnston Atoll
For nearly a century, Johnston Atoll has served dual roles as a wildlife refuge and a base for U.S. military operations. President Calvin Coolidge designated the area as a home for native birds in 1926.
Shortly after, the atoll over 800 miles west-southwest of Honolulu was placed under the control of the U.S. Navy.
Johnston subsequently served several purposes for the military, including as a nuclear test site between 1958 and 1963. During that period, two hydrogen bombs were launched into the atmosphere from Johnston. According to NOAA, the atoll was seriously contaminated by several failed nuclear weapon launches.
After the nuclear program, the atoll was used to store and then dispose of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, sarin, and Agent Orange.
That effort was underway when scientist Richard Pyle, now a senior curator at Hawaiʻi's Bishop Museum, and his colleagues arrived on Johnston in the 1990s to study its coral reefs.
"We got off the plane and were immediately escorted into a room and given this very intense lecture of the symptoms of some of these poisonous, noxious chemicals," Pyle said.
Pyle was issued a gas mask and a kit with syringes that he needed to have with him at all times in case of a chemical leak.
"They played the siren sounds for us, so we knew that if we ever heard the sirens, we needed to immediately put on our gas masks and immediately inject ourselves with these scary looking hypodermic needles," he said.
When the chemical weapons disposal program ended in the early 2000s, it seemed like the military’s work on Johnston may be done. The area was stripped of infrastructure, and, save for a few scientists, people are rarely granted access to the atoll, which is now part of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
Nature has reclaimed the atoll in the decades since Pyle visited Johnston — a transformation he celebrates.
"It has been so heartening to see the transition of Johnston Atoll back to a national reserve, where it is essentially restored back to its original state," Pyle said.
But he worries about what will happen to Johnston's ecosystems if the military decides to build rocket test sites on the atoll.
"It [feels] like we're going in the wrong direction," he said.
