Expansion not proven and NOT needed

It is not just a few ranchers who oppose this ill-conceived and unjustified scheme by the Defense Department and military industrial contractors; expansion is also opposed by the Colorado House of Representatives and Senate, the U.S. Congress, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Colorado Preservation Inc, County Boards of Commissioners, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Colorado Independent Cattle Growers and the Sierra Club to list just a few. What we object to is an ill conceived, misrepresented and wholly unjustified proposal by the Defense Department and Military Industrial Contractors to seize over 6.9 million acres of South East Colorado over a 20+ year period. Army map and documentation obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, FOIA which outlined this grand scheme can be viewed at www.pinoncanyon.com.

For the past 29 years we have been dealing with the cultural loss of 234,000 acres that once belonged to friends, relatives and our communities. We heard the Amy’s lies; of increased funding to offset the economic loss to the agriculture industry in South East Colorado, the plan to assimilate and become part of the culture in this region, permanent jobs, no live fire and no future expansion. The existing PCMS is a cultural black hole that we had adjusted to living with, but which had never become part of our community and culture.

Honestly, the isolation that the military maintained was just a precursor to what was the real intent of the Army since the first expansion was undertaken. I am sure many forget that the original expansion was proposed contiguously with Fort Carson and extending south west in El Paso and Pueblo Counties. Both counties and communities expressed outrage and opposition to the expansion until sites in Las Animas and Huerfano Counties where proposed. Colorado Springs and El Paso county are the only entities which have expressed and endorsed a “not in my back yard mentality”.

Residents and coalitions opposing the expansion have maintained that a wrong imposed upon Coloradans is not converted to a right if located and enacted upon other private property owners elsewhere. Under no circumstances do we propose that the military need only spend some cash here, place a few jobs in the area or attend our community functions in order to succeed in the plan of expansion. Quite the contrary. We refuse to sell out our wonderful communities such as the one found in many rural communities. We enjoy the rural agrarian lifestyle and if we had found the rigors of agriculture business and rural living too arduous for us we would not be here today. No, there is simply nothing that the Military has to offer that is worth trading our property rights, our communities, our future generations and our lifestyle/culture for.

A few suggest that the Army has done a good job of resource management upon the PCMS. I disagree. Upon acquiring the Site via the largest single act of condemnation upon private citizens in our Nations history the Army immediately altered the balance within the landscape. The Central Short Grass Prairie Ecosystem evolved into what we see today from not only the climatic and geologic natural processes but from the presence of grazing herbivores and the presence of humans in the balance. Most recently in the last 4 centuries the enormous bison herds migrated through and harvested the forages of our region. Native Americans influenced the path of the Bison herds with planned burns that re-vegetated with tender new plants which the bison would seek. With the Bison attracted to the burn scar the Native Americans had opportunity to harvest the Bison. This presence of man and grazer contributed to the overall balance of the soil, water and mineral cycle of the ecosystem resulting in a dynamic state rather than the static state as is currently found on the PCMS.

Any first grader has the management skill level to simply defer grazing and over a couple of years boast of proper management by pointing to the grass growth. Closer inspection on the PCMS today exhibits the oxidation of plant material above ground rather than the cellulotic material being incorporated into the soil where it is converted to organic material benefiting the soil cycle. Tremendous amounts of renewable resources are not harvested annually on the PCMS. The lack of cloven hoof impact upon the soil and vegetation results in poor soil surface condition and the lack of dung excrement from herbivores results in an unhealthy mineral cycle. Fewer insects exist that break down the dung and incorporate it into the soil. Those same insects are also a food source for reptiles and birds. The cycle goes on and only man can totally break the balance or enhance the balance but only by choosing to manage ALL the factors that contribute to a healthy ecosystem can humans exist in balance within the ecosystem. The Army chose to remove essential management elements to the progression of the landscape, yet continue to simply point to the tonnage of forage grown annually by deferment from harvest by cattle. The adjoining resource managers (ranchers) carefully balance the management of the renewable resource with the production of food and sustainability. They have been accomplishing this since the first cattle were grazed across the region on the way to markets for distribution to a hungry nation.

The Department of Defense also has repeatedly failed to adequately justify this expansion to the Government Accountability Office as ordered by Congress. The appearance of compromise by the Army in reducing the first stage of expansion from 418,000 acres down to 100,000 is based on polling by Booze, Allen, Hamilton, a military contractor that receives 100’s of millions of dollars annually in defense department contracts. The polling took place in 2007 and 2008 despite the congressional ban on expenditure of ANY money related to any expansion activity. The results of the polling made assumptions that since local residents opposed 400,000 acres that they may not be as opposed to a smaller expansion. WRONG! Large or small the justification still does not exist.

The military already owns in excess of 25,000,000 acres domestically. Once again in 2008 the Army failed to conduct a Congressional mandated inventory and assessment of existing Army assets. Why? If the assessment were to be completed the expansion would be proven to be unnecessary. There is ample proof of that more land is NOT needed as Dugway Proving Grounds is underutilized and has the acreage the Army is seeking according to Representative Bishop of Utah. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison also has testified that bases in Texas have the ability to meet the training requirements for the Army and that White Sands Missile Range is underutilized.

The rights of the citizens of Southeast Colorado to own property and be free of oppression from their own government is paramount to what this nation stands for. It is time for a bureaucratic behemoth to be fully accountable and live within its means as the rest of us must do. NO SIR the expansion does not make sense for any reason.

Steve Wooten

Beatty Canyon Ranch

[Steve is a 4^th generation rancher managing the natural resources on his family's property in the Purgatoire River Canyon. Their boundary is a quarter mile from the west boundary of the current Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) and was targeted in the original expansion in 1980. The Army was prevented from acquiring lands in the canyon structure because it was deemed too environmentally sensitive to sustain the kind of mechanized training intended for PCMS. Steve is also a board member of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, PCEOC, a non-profit representing the rights of all Colorado citizens, not just residents of Southeast Colorado.]