KIM, Colo.—Opponents of a proposed Army training site expansion in southern Colorado are disputing the military’s claims that it has been a good steward of ranch land it seized by force in 1983.
They include Gene Schroder, a third-generation rancher and one of a dozen ranchers who owned a grazing association when troops in military helicopters swooped in and ordered them off 33,000 acres of their land at gunpoint. That land went to the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, operated by Fort Carson south of Colorado Springs.
“This isn’t good stewardship. This is a fire hazard,” Schroder said, pointing across the Purgatoire River during a recent field trip to swathes of wild plains where the Army conducts its training.
Schroder said he visited his former property a year ago—with Army permission—and found windmills trashed, fences in disrepair and weeds and grass growing rampant, posing a wildfire hazard. The land is located west of Kim, 190 miles southeast of Denver, where roadsides are dotted with signs saying that private property is not for sale to the Army.
The federal government pledged to protect wildlife, prevent wildfires and preserve 3,397 Native American and prehistoric archaeological sites on the original 238,000 acres it seized. Those pledges appear in a draft environmental assessment obtained under an open records act request from the state Department of Public Health and Environment.
The 2005 assessment was prepared by a Loveland consultant, Gene Stout and Associates, and later approved by the Army. It was ordered to help justify the need for adding a live fire range at the original training facility.
Army officials insist they kept their promises—and will do so on 100,000 acres (156 square miles) they hope to add to the site. The Army wants more room for rapid deployment units that in training can quickly maneuver over a 30-kilometer (20-mile) range. It also wants to use weapons systems that require greater distances in training.
“The U.S. Army remains justifiably proud of our resource stewardship and sustainability legacy,” Army spokesman Dave Foster told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
There has been no increase in noxious weed populations, no loss of rare plant communities, no waterfowl killed by lead, “and wildlife species such as elk, deer, pronghorn and coyote have not been found directly killed from live fire exercises,” Foster said.
Troops train away from large wetlands to minimize the effect on wildlife, including golden eagle nests, Foster said. Officials also monitor populations of swift fox, black-tailed prairie dog, burrowing owls, Texas horned lizards and ferruginous hawks.
A lightning-caused wildfire in Pinon Canyon in June did spread to surrounding ranch land and blackened about 46,000 acres.
In response to a request for documents on possible hazardous waste at Pinon Canyon under the Freedom of Information Act, the Army provided an October map from the U.S. Geological Survey showing uranium concentrations in ground and surface water were normal for that area.
The Army says it has never used depleted uranium rounds at Pinon Canyon and insists there is no contamination risk to soldiers or to civilians outside the range.
Still, Schroder said he was distraught when he saw what happened to his former property, including what is now a makeshift “Iraqi” village of about 20 fiberboard buildings with pop-up targets, and two live-fire ranges. He said tests showed the military kept its promises to limit lead pollution at firing ranges, but that scarce water resources were being depleted.
Schroder and others say the Army hasn’t explained why it needs to expand on land that includes the pristine Pinon Canyon, Native American caves and drawings, and rock walls painted by a hermit who lived for decades in the desolate area.
Touring the canyon with fellow ranchers, Schroder pointed out a mysterious pictograph of a human hand carved into a rock wall that looks like it has acupuncture points. He said the area is rich with ancient artifacts, Indian caves and historic ranches built when the West was young.
Most of Colorado’s congressional delegation opposes the expansion. Democratic Sen. Ken Salazar, who is slated to become U.S. interior secretary, opposes the use of eminent domain to seize the land as the military did in the 1980s.
Following strong protests from landowners, the Army scaled back its expansion plans in July from acquiring 418,000 acres—or 653 square miles—to 100,000 acres.
In 2007, U.S. Reps. Marilyn Musgrave, a Republican, and John Salazar, a Democrat, warned that thousands of years of historic treasures would be lost to an expansion. They cited a trail of broken promises by the Army, including a promise there would be no live fire exercises.
“From dinosaurs to prehistoric settlements to settlements of the Old West, these canyon lands have seen them all, but if the Army gets its way, no one will ever see them again,” they said.
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On the Net:
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Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition:
