(Note: It's not just "rural families say" -- it is FACT that "expansion plans" involve up to 2.5 Million Acres that lies in privately owned hands: the hands of ranchers and their families. This Huge chunk of privately owned land -- like all other privately owned land the American government covets and lusts after -- is an integral and vital part of Colorado's and America's economy and the custom and culture of both. It is, in the words of its owners, "NOT For Sale." No amount of official mollifying will sooth and put back to sleep the alert, aware and rightfully concerned folks that live in the crosshairs of this latest government land acquisition plan. This has Nothing to do with "need" by the Army, and Everything to do with the retaking of natural resources, including land, water, minerals and people. It is called The Wildlands Project, which is another exercise in Language Deception, for it is not about "wildlands," but rather about collateral that has been used with the knowledge or consent of the very people whose freedom and property rights are being stripped bare by it. It is about Control of Resources: All Resources. When viewed accurately, "wildlife buffers" are easily seen as what they really are: Language Deception, just like "land trusts," "conservation easements," "restrictive covenants," and many other uses of Language Deception to deceive people and steal from them -- using their own taxpayer dollars to do so.)

May 14, 2006

By Peter Roper proper@chieftain.com or 719-544-3528

The Pueblo Chieftain

P.O. Box 4040

Pueblo, Colorado 81003

800-279-6397 or 719-544-3520 x 201

http://www.chieftain.com

To submit a Letter to the Editor: newsroom@chieftain.com 

A crowd of more than 400 came to the the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library to voice their concerns about Pinon Canyon expansion. - Chieftain photo by John Jaques. http://www.chieftain.com/archive/2006/may/14/newsPinonCanyonmeet.jpg

Pueblo, Colorado - The Army came under heavy fire Saturday morning for its proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site and some of the verbal barrage coming from ranch and farm families hit Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., as well.

About 400 people came to Salazar's public meeting about Pinon Canyon, the crowd overflowing the conference room at the Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library.

Many in the audience came to oppose expanding the 240,000-acre training site southwest of La Junta and to sharply object to having any of their lands taken.

The mood was summed up by Otero County Commissioner Kevin Karney, who drew cheers and an ovation when he said emphatically, "My family's ranch is in the Army's 'area of interest,' and it's not for sale."

Members of the Kim County FFA (Future Farmers of America) brought a protest trailer along with animals to meet with Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., to voice concern about the Army's Pinon Canyon expansion plans. - Chieftain photo by John Jaques. http://www.chieftain.com/archive/2006/may/14/newsPinonCanyonprotest.jpg

Kimmi Lewis, a rancher who lives near Kim and treasurer of the Colorado Independent Cattlegrowers Association, showed Salazar a thick stack of papers representing landowners who do not want to sell their property to the Army.

"If you increase the size of Pinon Canyon, you will ruin Southeastern Colorado," Lewis said, noting that Las Animas County is the largest beef producer in the state. "You will lose the customs and culture that bind us together."

Another rancher drew cheers when he suggested the Army send its troops down to the U.S.-Mexico border for maneuvers and protect the nation from illegal immigrants as well.

For his part, Salazar told the audience early on that he is co-sponsoring Republican Sen. Wayne Allard's legislation to prevent the Army from condemning any private property as part of expanding Pinon Canyon, but that show of support got swept aside as the audience pressed him with questions about the Army's plans, questions that Salazar acknowledged that he couldn't answer, because the Army has not provided anyone with an actual expansion plan. He said the the Army hadn't given any more details to his office than what the audience has read in newspaper reports.

When one woman complained that the crowd seemed to know more about the Army's intentions than Salazar, his annoyance flashed. He responded that he could have spent the day with his family but scheduled a meeting with Pinon Canyon families instead. "I'm hear to learn what your concerns are," he replied.

At Salazar's request, William Armbruster, a deputy assistant Army secretary, attended, but gave the crowd little new information.

Armbruster emphasized that the Defense Department has made no final decision about whether to expand Pinon Canyon, and if so, to what size.

Army officials have said on various occasions last year that they are considering increasing Pinon Canyon to as many as 1 million acres. Last week, Army officials told a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee that an extra 400,000 acres was more likely.

Armbruster told the ranching families Saturday that no decision has been made, but if it is approved, they will be consulted.

"We're not going to go out there and do something that is counter to the interests of you folks who live and play out here," he said.

Which didn't appear to soothe anyone's concerns. Several audience members told Salazar the Pinon Canyon expansion plan was just "an Army land grab" and that the Army had used condemnation to put together the current 240,000-acre site in 1984.

"My father, Willard Louden, went to Washington to testify against the original Pinon Canyon site and all he got for his trouble was being audited by the (Internal Revenue Service) for three years in a row," Tamara Louden told the crowd.

Sparky Turner, a former staffer for Sen. Hank Brown, R-Colo., said the Army had assured area residents in 1984 they would never use live-fire training at Pinon Canyon or need additional land. Now both are occurring, she said.

"We're not going to be fooled twice," she told Armbruster.

Terry Fankhauser, of the Colorado Cattlemen's Association, sketched in the economic damage that critics predict will follow the expansion of Pinon Canyon. He said there are 1,928 farms and ranches in Las Animas, Baca, Bent and Otero counties that generate $270 million a year to the state's economy. Doubling, tripling or quadrupling the size of Pinon Canyon would take a large share of that land out of production, he said.

"There are other places and better places for the Army to do this training," he said.

Fort Carson officials have stressed that Pinon Canyon offers the Army open terrain to do joint-force training operations, with ample air space overhead.

Salazar, who has met with Fort Carson's commander, Major General Robert Mixon, Jr., said the Pentagon values Fort Carson as a training site for the Army's future. That's one reason it is bringing troop strength at the Mountain Post up to 26,000 during the next two years.

It is close to Peterson Air Force Base for rapid troop deployment and has good railroad access, which is why the Army calls Fort Carson a "force projection base" -- meaning troops and armor can quickly be dispatched overseas.

One woman in the audience said all of those factors also support the ranching families who do not want the training area expanded. She argued the Army already has a large desert training base at Fort Irwin, California, near Barstow.

"The Army can put those same troops on a transport and fly them to Fort Irwin just as easily as bringing them down to Pinon Canyon," she said.

Copyright 2006, The Pueblo Chieftain.

http://www.chieftain.com/metro/1147586400/1