Archives and Political Processes: H-3 Construction

Life of the Land

Tony Hodges, an environmental activist, founded Life of the Land, a non-profit environmental advocacy organization, in 1970. The group’s mission was to protect the environment by fighting pollution, opposing inappropriate development, and serving as an environmental watchdog. Hodges stopped being an active member in 1976. In 1978, Life of the Land hired Dorothy “Dee Dee” Letts, who was vice president of the Kaʻaʻawa Community Association and a member of the Koʻolauloa Neighborhood Board, to coordinate opposition to H-3. She later became the executive director but stepped down in 1982 when the grant funding that the organization had relied upon to pay its staff ended. Life of the Land was one of the key opponents of H-3 and was a party to some of the lawsuits filed to stop the project. The organization still exists today.