The House Armed Services Committee has approved a plan that will give ranchers and local officials in southeastern Colorado some leverage in their fight to prevent the U.S. Army from acquiring 418,000 acres to expand its existing Piñon Canyon Maneuver site.
Rep. Mark Udall is the only Coloradan on the committee, and he added numerous restrictions to the upcoming 2008 defense budget. They prohibit the Army from acquiring any land for the expansion until it meets several requirements, including:
A full environmental impact statement that includes analyses of alternative sites or a smaller expansion.
Exploring options other than buying land, such as land leasing or easements.
Providing property owners the right to seek third-party arbitration, whose costs would be assumed by the Army.
A commitment to public access to cultural and historic areas within the site, which includes Picket Wire Canyon, home to thousands of dinosaur tracks, prehistoric Indian pictographs, and portions of the Santa Fe Trail.
A guarantee of access for livestock grazing within the site.
The Post has repeatedly expressed concern that the expansion could damage the fragile Comanche National Grasslands and otherwise harm southeastern Colorado. In our view, the new restrictions, if rigorously enforced, offer significant safeguards.
Udall has been vehemently attacked by some foes of the Army’s expansion plan because his amendments didn’t flatly prohibit the federal government from acquiring land in the area by eminent domain.
We’re sympathetic, but anyone who is familiar with the House Armed Services Committee knows that was never a realistic possibility.
Even if the state could somehow totally rebuff the expansion plan, the Pentagon could retaliate by targeting Fort Carson in the next round of base closings. Even hinting at such a blow to the state economy would send Colorado politicians scrambling to give the Army carte blanche.
The fight over Piñon Canyon is far from over. But Udall’s amendments did move this discussion into responsible channels. Colorado Sens. Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar (who proposed similar safeguards earlier this year) should ensure that the Udall amendments stay in the defense bill when it hits the Senate.
