WHAT NEXT?
The Army insists it never approved a plan for Fort Carson to annex the
238,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site for budget management purposes.
It's
odd that such a plan would even exist on paper. A written annexation
plan was obtained by the Not 1 More Acre!, an organization of ranchers
who are against Pinon Canyon expansion. While continuing to fight
expansion, they also have pressed a successful federal court case
against Army plans to use the existing maneuver site northeast of
Trinidad more heavily than in the past.
At first glance, it
would seem the Army, which treats Pinon Canyon as part of Fort Carson
training ground, contemplated a fairly innocuous plan to "annex" the
site's separate budget into that of Fort Carson.
Southeastern
Colorado has learned that the Army cannot always be trusted to tell the
truth about Pinon Canyon. The mistrust has festered since Army promises
in the 1980s that the maneuver site would be a significant contributor
to the region's economy. It never happened.
Now, Not 1 More
Acre! suspects that annexation of the budget could mask Army spending
money on expansion - in direct violation of a spending moratorium
enacted by Congress.
The ranchers argued the recently disclosed
secret plan to make Pinon Canon a "sub-installation" of Fort Carson was
an attempt to evade the congressional moratorium.
Responding on
behalf of the Army, the Justice Department's Thomas Snodgrass said the
plan "has not been approved or implemented, nor is there any intent to
approve or implement this plan by Oct. 1, 2009."
Another
innocuous reference, this time to Oct. 1? But why put a short date on
assurances that the plan won't go forward? It raises suspicions that
the Army will keep trying to pursue Pinon Canyon expansion - in secret,
if necessary - even in defiance of the spending moratorium.
This
latest chapter is all the more reason for the ranchers to have the
public's support to keep their land without fear of losing their homes
and livelihoods to the Army.
