FORT CARSON, Colo.—Fort Carson is setting up a new department to manage the Army’s Pinon Canyon training grounds and oversee the planned expansion of the site.
The Army wants to expand the southeast Colorado site to about 1,000 square miles from the current 368 square miles, citing an influx of 8,000 additional soldiers at Fort Carson by 2011 and changing needs.
Some nearby ranch owners oppose the expansion, fearing it would force them to sell their property against their will. They say losing so much land from agricultural production will hurt the region’s economy, and they argue the Army isn’t making good use of the space it already has.
The reorganization signals that the Army wants to push ahead despite the opposition.
“The importance of Pinon Canyon to the Army and to Fort Carson, Colorado, is an imperative in my mind,” said Tom Warren, the head of the new department, which hasn’t yet been named.
Warren will also oversee the way the existing Pinon Canyon land is used to minimize environmental damage.
Most of Fort Carson’s environmental work, including toxic site cleanup to the management of endangered and threatened species in training areas, will now come under the post’s public works office.
The organizational change is part of an Army-wide move to put all its installations under the same management structure.
Warren said the changes aren’t expected to add or cut any workers.
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Information from: The Gazette,
