Jun 4, 2007 8:18 pm US/Mountain
Army To Announce Land It Wants For Pinon Canyon
by Colleen Slevin, AP Writer
Prepared for cbs4denver.com by Matthew J. Buettner, Web Producer.
DENVER (AP) ―
Fort Carson leaders plan to release a map this week showing which plots of land they would want to acquire if they move ahead with plans to expand their training site in southern Colorado, a spokeswoman said Monday.
The Army has previously provided an area of interest for the proposed 418,000-acre expansion of Pinon Canyon, which is opposed by many ranchers in the area. Fort Carson spokeswoman Dee McNutt said that the specific plots of land the Army is interested in would be released at a public meeting on Thursday in Trinidad. She declined to provide any details, including whether any landowners had agreed to willingly sell their land to the Army.
"This is just an area of interest," McNutt said.
Lon Robertson, a rancher in Kim who leads a group opposed to the expansion, said it doesn't make a difference which land the Army wants to acquire because acquiring that much ranch land would have a ripple effect on the region's economy and culture.
"It doesn't matter which leg you cut off. You still cut off a leg," Robertson said.
Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., said the Army didn't tell him about the meeting.
"I continue to not support the Army's expansion plan, especially when it takes agriculture land out of production," he said in a written statement.
The proposed expansion would nearly triple the size of what the Army now owns on the plains and canyon country of southern Colorado.
Ranchers are worried the Army could use the power of eminent domain to force them to sell their land just like when Pinon Canyon was first established in the 1980s. At their urging, last month Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill aimed at preventing that, even though he acknowledged he wasn't sure Colorado had the power to do that.
The Army is still studying how the expansion would be accomplished, but officials have said they can't rule out the use of eminent domain if the plans move ahead.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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