DENVER (AP)--Her family's ranch could be swallowed up by the Army as it looks to expand its Pinon Canyon training site but each night Lisa Doherty said she and her two sons offer prayers for the nation's soldiers and its leaders.
Doherty said she and her family live a "blessed life" on the wide open plains of southeastern Colorado even though it means working from dawn to dusk with no vacations. She'd like to give her boys the chance to become the fifth generation to work that land but fears the Army's plans could stop that.
"I love my country but I also love my home," Doherty told a Senate committee April 9 before they voted to back a bill aimed at telling the Army that ranchers can't be forced to sell their land to make way for the project.
The full Senate will debate the measure (House Bill 1069) next, even though lawmakers acknowledge they're not sure if a state law can stop the Army from using eminent domain.
Despite that, ranchers and others who oppose the expansion think it would still send a strong message to Washington that Colorado is concerned about the expansion. They think that could make it harder for the Army to win congressional should it move ahead with the plans to acquire 418,000 acres--or 653 square miles--nearly tripling the site it now has in southeastern Colorado.
The debate pits Colorado Springs, the home of Fort Carson, against the ranchers who live around Pinon Canyon, some of whom say landowners weren't treated fairly when the Army first created the maneuver site in the 1980s for Fort Carson's soldiers.
Ranchers endured years of drought, selling off many of their cattle, only to be hit with several feet of snow in storms this winter. They fear the loss of up to 80 ranches--many of them homesteaded in the early 1900s--which they say would have a ripple effect on the area's agriculture economy and rural way of life.
Fort Carson, meanwhile, is preparing to grow by 10,000 soldiers by the end of 2009 after emerging as a big winner in last year's round of base closures.
Fort Carson spokesman Col. David Johnson said running training exercises at both Fort Carson and Pinon Canyon give soldiers a chance to replicate the distances and the pace they experience in battle.
"We understand there's a lot of history and a lot of love and culture and family ties caught up in this. We don't take that for granted," Johnson said.
He said the environmental and hearing process could take another two years before the Army would even begin to acquire land. He said the Army intends to buy land from willing sellers but will not give up its right to use eminent domain.
Some ranchers said the existing land hasn't been used to train soldiers for the Iraq war or for Desert Storm. Johnson said the site was used by soldiers before 1991 and last summer.
Ranchers believe the arid landscape is too fragile for tanks to train. Mack Louden, a fourth generation rancher, said wagon ruts from the Santa Fe Trail can still be seen in the dirt in some places.
Opponents say the land is also home to dinosaur tracks, petroglyphs and Apache sacred sites. Rancher Steve Wooten said landowners are also working with scientists now on a study of what animals and plants live on the short grass prairie.
But he also said the expansion would destroy the bonds between the families and friends who pitch in to help each other because they wouldn't be able to buy adjoining ranches in a new area.
"We will be forced to spread ourselves to the wind," he said.
Date: 5/3/07
