A full brigade or no Piñon deal?

United States Senator Ken Salazar set a steep price for his support of Army plans to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site: one fully equipped combat brigade and all the trimmings delivered to southeast Colorado.

He said the troops would jump-start a stagnant economy and compensate the region for the loss of ranch land if the Army expanded the maneuver site to its target size of more than 1,000 square miles.

A brigade of combat troops and their families would bring about 10,000 people to Las Animas County, which now has a population of about 16,000. The growth could pump more than $200 million a year into the local economy.

The practicality of his proposal was questioned on several fronts Wednesday, and a spokesman for ranchers who oppose the expansion said Salazar’s plan would make mat- ters worse, not better.

Salazar said if he doesn’t see plans to deliver troops or a cash equivalent to boost the region’s economy, he’ll join his brother, U.S. Rep. John Salazar, in opposing a proposal to add 418,000 acres to the Fort Carson training area — a move that would likely kill the Army’s expansion hopes.

“The Army’s expansion proposal has caused great concern among local landowners and residents who fear that an expansion of the site will devastate the agricultural economy of the region,” Ken Salazar wrote in a letter asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates to examine moving a brigade to the area. “This is a concern that I share and one that will lead me to oppose the expansion unless it provides significant economic benefits to southeastern Colorado.”

The Army needs Salazar’s support in the wake of a 389-34 vote in the House last week to prevent the Army from spending money related to adding land to the training site. That measure, sponsored by John Salazar and U.S. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, awaits Senate approval.

Ranchers in the region have fought the expansion proposal since it was unveiled last year, claiming the Army will seize land under federal condemnation laws, taking them off land that their families have owned for generations and destroying the area’s agricultural base.

Opponents of the expansion reacted angrily to Ken Salazar’s proposal.

“I’m disappointed and angry that he can’t get a handle on what the people of southeast Colorado are saying,” said Steve Wooten, vice president of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. “We feel like he’s selling us out.”

Wooten said the ranches would be traded for troops in Salazar’s plan.

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, an expansion supporter, said he’s glad to see that Ken Salazar is at the negotiating table, even if the demands seem high.

“I want to commend Senator Salazar for thinking creatively about how this could be a win-win situation for everybody,” Lamborn said.

Only a handful of people work at Piñon Canyon yearround. The Army sends units there for training, but soldiers rarely leave the place except when training ends and don’t spend their money in nearby towns, including Trinidad, Ken Salazar said.

Salazar said he could help blunt local opposition, including winning over local politicians and ranchers, if he could show residents a payday for expansion, while guaranteeing ranchers grazing rights on the land the Army wants to acquire.

If troops moved to the area permanently, “I think the ranchers would have a very different take on what the Army is trying to do,” he said.

The soldiers would come from a planned six-brigade Army expansion to accommodate the demands of the Iraq war. Salazar said it would help the Army by putting a permanent force in the training area.

Two of the Army’s major training areas have full-time units that stay there. Fort Polk, La., and Fort Irwin, Calif., each have 5,000-soldier units that act as the opposing force in war games, “fighting” visiting units that are sent to those posts for training.

The troops and civilian workers at Fort Irwin pump about $225 million into the remote section of southeast California.

Putting troops permanently at Piñon Canyon would require a big construction budget because the training site has few amenities.

Facilities to house a brigade alone would cost more than $105 million — the price the Army recently negotiated for a new brigade complex at Fort Carson.

But whether the region could accommodate the growth remains in question. Fort Carson officials said they don’t have adequate water or other utilities to permanently station a brigade at the training site.

Trinidad City Manager Jim Soltis said Wednesday he didn’t know if adding that many people to the region was feasible or whether such a move would be good for the area. “It would depend on what those plans will allow for,” he said.

Bill Sulzman, a Colorado Springs peace activist and expansion opponent, said Salazar’s proposal, while “cockamamie,” is likely good politics.

Sulzman said he doubts the Army will meet Salazar’s demands, so the senator will be free to block expansion while saying he tried to accommodate the Army.

“He could think his proposal is so outrageous that the Army can’t or won’t do it,” Sulzman said.

The Army didn’t respond to Salazar’s request.

“It would not be appropriate for us to comment on pending legislation,” said Dave Foster, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com