CHIEFTAIN
PHOTO/MIKE SWEENEY -- Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, addresses media
Sunday during a rally at the Pueblo County Courthouse in support of a
measure to block sale of Pinon Canyon land to the Army, co-sponsored by
Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo.
Southeastern Colorado politicians call for support for a bill to protect Pinon Canyon land.
By NICK BONHAM THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
March 29, 2009 11:20 pm
Blistering
remarks were fired at the Army and federal government Sunday during a
Pueblo rally opposing the Army's proposed expansion of the Pinon Canyon
Maneuver site near Trinidad.
The rally sought support for
HB1317, designed to block the State Board of Land Commissioners from
selling or leasing state-owned land to the Army to expand its training
site. The bill's backers say such a sale would affect ranchers, farmers
and private property owners.
Reps. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, and Wes
McKinley, D-Walsh, introduced the bill and hosted a rally on the steps
of the Pueblo County Courthouse.
They encouraged people to
testify at the state capitol at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday before the House
Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee, which will
review and vote on the bill.
If passed there, the bill will then be voted on in the House of Representatives.
The
event was attended by more than 50 community leaders, elected
officials, environmental groups, ranchers, farmers and private property
owners from around Southeastern Colorado who would be directly affected
by expansion of the 238,000-acre training facility.
Many of the
speakers reflected on the lengthy fight with the Army, its failed
previous attempts to expand the site and the distrust the land fight
has caused between the two sides.
"I feel like we're dealing
with an unruly child," state Rep. Liane "Buffie" McFadyen said of the
Army. "We'll have questions at the state capitol like, 'Why are you
running this legislation again?' We're running this legislation again
because the Army doesn't understand the answer is 'no!' We don't want
to expand Pinon Canyon.
"This issue needs to go away so people can get back to doing business on their own property," McFadyen told the crowd.
Pueblo
County Commissioner Jeff Chostner, a retired Air Force colonel, said
the Army hasn't been forthright with land owners and wants the land
only to have it.
"I've never seen the Army make a case for the
need of this property except because that they want it," Chostner said.
"The Army and the military services have core values, first and
foremost are honesty and integrity. They have failed those tests."
Chostner,
like many others, also said he doesn't believe the expansion would
boost economic development for the area, and that Army-owned land would
jeopardize archaeological sites in the prairie and canyon lands.
Ross
Vincent of the Sierra Club said the expansion is an environmental
threat. He said the land in Southeastern Colorado is among the last
short-grass prairie ecosystems in North America.
"It's time for
the Army's war on the people of Southeastern Colorado to end," Vincent
said. "It's time for everyone to stand up in one voice and say, 'Army,
stand down. The Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site will not be expanded.' "
Education is directly affected by the expansion, according to Pace and
McKinley. The State Board of Land Commissioners leases state land to ranchers
and farmers to use for cattle grazing and agricultural purposes.
The land leases have been a longtime revenue source for rural school districts and selling those lands undermines that funding.
"How
in the world can we even think about losing our school funding? Because
once it's gone, there's not going to be anymore," McKinley said.
