Piñon is ‘back to drawing board’

A letter from the Army’s top civilian leader sent to Colorado Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard says the service is “going back to the drawing board” on expanding the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site.

But precisely what “going back to the drawing board” means remained a matter of some conjecture on Thursday.

Salazar, who issued a news release titled “Sen. Salazar Sends Army ‘Back to the Drawing Board’ on Piñon Canyon Expansion,” said the statement marks a major revision of Army intentions to acquire 418,000 acres of land in southeast Colorado.

“Our understanding of the letter is that the army is acknowledging they need to come up with a new land acquisition plan, and for the first time they’re recognizing the need for an economic win-win for southeast Colorado,” said Salazar spokesman Cody Wertz.

Allard drew a less dramatic conclusion, saying it pledges more economic benefits for southeast Colorado but isn’t a major overhaul of expansion plans.

“Expanding economic opportunities in our local communities and the protection of property rights must be a part of any proposed military land expansion,” Allard said in a statement.

The Army said the letter from Secretary Peter Geren is a pledge for transparency in the land acquisition process but isn’t a major change.

“What this letter does say is that there is an awareness that this is an extremely important issue,” said Dave Foster, an Army spokesman at the Pentagon.

The service isn’t redrawing its proposed acquisition maps and isn’t planning any changes to the kind of training it wants to do.

At Fort Carson, where instructions for changes to Piñon Canyon plans would be implemented, nothing new was in the works Thursday.

“We’re going to continue mission as far as I’m concerned,” said Tom Warren, the post’s environmental official.

Officials with the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce said they understood the Army’s letter to mean the Army would redouble its public relations efforts as opposed to redoing its expansion plan.

“We were a little surprised to see Sen. Salazar’s comments,” said Brian Binn, head of the chamber’s Military Affairs Department.

Earlier this year, Fort Carson got permission from the Pentagon to explore tripling the size of the training area near Trinidad.

The Army says it needs the land because it’s adding troops to the base and uses new battlefield tactics that require a larger area to simulate for training.

Ranchers who live near the training area have formed a powerful opposition group and have successfully lobbied two Colorado congressmen to attempt to halt the Army’s plans.

The full House voted last month to stop the Army from spending money on the expansion project. The measure is under consideration in the Senate.

Salazar has remained on the fence, not outright opposing expansionbut saying the Army needs to offer financial incentives, including moving a combat brigade to Trinidad if they want his support.

He said he wanted to ensure the expansion was a “winwin” for the region, which could include an influx of more troops.

Geren said he would solicit ideas from ranchers and others to improve the Army’s expansion plans.

Warren said it will be late this year or early 2008 before the Army moves ahead with meetings to determine what environmental impacts would stem from the proposed expansion, a required step before land changes hands.

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