DENVER—The Army is backing off plans to expand a training site in Pinon Canyon—for now.
The Army has no money in its budget for next year to buy land to expand the southeast Colorado training site. Ranchers and other landowners near the current site oppose the expansion, and Colorado lawmakers have tried to block it.
Lt. Col. Martin Downie, an Army spokesman in Washington, says that there is no reason to set aside money to buy land if no one wants to sell land to the Army. But he says the Army is still interested in future expansion at Pinon.
The original Army budget included $17 million to buy land to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. Downie said that money was deleted from next year’s budget because the Army decided there was little chance of anyone in the area selling them land, which made the expansion not “executable.”
Colorado lawmakers who have tried to block the Pinon expansion applauded the Army’s budget shift. But they pointed out that the change simply maintains the status quo. The Army has never set aside money to buy more land at Pinon.
But neither has the Army backed off long-range expansion plans.
Rep. Betsy Markey, whose district includes the site, said Thursday she and fellow Democratic Rep. John Salazar still intend to push an amendment permanently banning expansion.
“We won the battle here. It’s not going to be this year. But it could be in future years,” Markey said from Washington.
The formal prohibition could come through amendments to a defense bill or a spending bill, likely later this year, said Eric Wortman, a spokesman for Salazar.
Landowners have been fighting expansion since the Army announced plans more than three years ago to increase the 238,000-acre site by about 414,000 acres.
Opposition to the plan hasn’t lessened despite the Army’s announcement last year that it would scale back the expansion to 100,000 acres. The group sent an e-mail to supporters Thursday saying the Army budget news, reported in The Denver Post, should not stop efforts to formally block Pinon expansion through legislation.
The Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition argues that expansion would hurt farming and ranching in the area, and possibly damage archaeological artifacts along the Santa Fe Trail.
Markey and Salazar wrote to Ritter Thursday urging him to sign a state bill attempting to block expansion at Pinon. The bill awaits Ritter’s signature.
“These are people’s lives and livelihoods at stake,” Markey and Salazar wrote.
