Army eyes 1 million acres for warfare training

[Kat Kanning]

Army eyes 1 million acres for warfare training
Landowners unwilling to sell could face condemnation proceedings
Posted: November 7, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


? 2006 WorldNetDaily.com


The U.S. Army is eyeing another million acres of southeastern Colorado ranch and croplands for additional training grounds for its modernized Army, and landowners who don't want to lose their homesteads could be facing condemnation proceedings.

The Army, through spokeswoman Karen Edge at Fort Carson Army Base, said nothing has happened so far, and technically, the base doesn't even have permission to acquire any more land.

But landowners around the present Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site are preparing their arguments against what they see as an evitable land grab, just like the condemnation proceedings during the 1970s when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers used legal proceedings to get about half of the 235,000 acres in the current site.


Susan Savoia of the Williams Land & Cattle Co. in nearby Walsenburg told WND that it is about the "biggest 'land grab' since the Indians lost their land to the government."

On the agenda is an expansion by about 418,000 acres, although the areas of interest including about a million acres.

"After promises of never expanding or allowing live fire to occur at the maneuver site, under a BRAC (Base Realignment and Closing) recommendation the Army has AGAIN decided that productive ranch and farm land is insignificant to the world's economy and is planning another 'theft' of land to expand the maneuver site," she wrote.

Opponents of the plan have organized in a group at PinonCanyon.com, and are attending public hearings, writing representatives and lobbying for the land that, sometimes, has been passed down from generation to generation since the Spanish Land Grants.

For the record, the Army officially is seeking to expand the 235,000-acre training area by another 418,000 acres. Which land will be used isn't known because the Army says no plan is final until Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld makes a recommendation to Congress, which would have to decide.

The protest group said Las Animas County likely will be the most impacted by an army site expansion, and there are 567 farms and ranches with crop sales of $761,000 and livestock sales of more than $20 million that would be endangered.

"When the farms and ranches go, so does about 40 percent of already struggling businesses profits. There'll be trickle down economics alright, but not in a good way. Businesses will close, people will go bankrupt, and cities and town whose economies rely on agriculture will die off economically," the website said.

"Agriculture is one of the cornerstones of society, even though many people take it for granted, it is very much a national security issue. The United States is already dependent on foreign oil, what will happen if we become dependent on foreign countries for our food supplies as well?"

The group said entire towns would be removed from existence, "except as maybe urban warfare training sites."

Edge said the concerns are premature. "All we've done is identify a training land deficit," she told WND. There currently is a moratorium on acquiring more land, so the Army will have to ask the Department of Defense for a waiver, and move forward from there.

Army officials said the base needs to have "a dynamic, fully integrated battlefield environment" to train soldiers who are able to operation in smaller units and still control "significantly greater battle space."

The Army did confirm that condemnation proceedings would be used, even if only "as a last resort."

However, opponents of the expansion plans note that the Army is holding its fifth annual Fort Carson Sustainability Conference this week, without allowing a representation from "the people living within the planned Pinon Canyon expansion."

"The Pinon Canyon expansion has been going through the planning process for the last five years, but people living in Southeastern Colorado didn't have a clue that the Army was planning to 'sustain' Fort Carson by seizing their land and forcing them from their homes," the opponents' website said.

They also note the potential impact on the Santa Fe Trail Scenic and Historic Byway, which runs through the region, and more than 500 archeological sites have been documented in the area.

Opponents note the tracks of the allosaurus have been documented in the area, as well as evidence of past usage by Native Americans, Spanish explorers, Hispanic settlers and Santa Fe Trail travelers.

"As ranchers, farmers, school teachers, and business and community leaders in Southeast Colorado, we have strong core beliefs about environmental protection, humane animal care practices and private property rights. We also hold firm to the belief that our national security relies as much on our efforts to produce food as it does on a good national defense," the website said.

The citizens committee has not been alone in its opposition. The Lamar City Council has approved a resolution opposing the Pinon Canyon expansion, and Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave noted that in 1984 when Pinon Canyon first was constructed, "promises were made by the military and were broken and land was seized without proper compensation."

"That will not happen again," she noted.

The Army said Fort Carson is one of the top five installations responsible for the training of the nation's military, and Pinon Canyon services Fort Carson and a wide range of other divisions.

[AlanM]

  Steal more land. Expand military capability. The ever tightening vise.

[anthonybpugh]

Jesus H Christ.  How much more land does the army need anyways?  There are huge military bases in North Carolina, California and other places.  Half of the island of Oahu is military bases.  Okinawa has some huge bases.  There are massive bases all over the United States.  More than enough land to conduct whatever training they have ever wanted to do.  Then there are all those closed military bases.  Why not reopen one of those that they already own?  If they are tired of using their bases.  Go use some marine bases for a while. 

[Atlas]

Sounds like Rep. Musgrave is actually a good Republican.