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Public blasts Army plans to expand training site

Deborah Frazier, Rocky Mountain News

Published November 2, 2006 at midnight

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COLORADO SPRINGS - Ranchers, high school students and biologists Wednesday condemned the Army's plans to expand operations at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado.

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's vision of transforming the military is creating a global police force with permanent bases to protect the multinational corporations," said Doug Holdrad, of Trinidad.

Holdrad was one of several dozen opponents who spoke at a public hearing on the Army's draft environmental impact statement on increasing the number of military personnel at the training site south of Fort Carson from 38,300 to 59,700 by 2011. About 200 people attended the hearing.

The Army wants to add firing ranges where live ammunition would be used on the 237,000-acre site to train troops bound for Iraq to handle attacks on tanks as well as convoy transports.

The plan also calls for buildings constructed like villages, areas where troops could maneuver in tanks, helicopters and vehicles with machine guns. The site is about six miles from the nearest ranch.

Sam Johnson, an ecologist from Colorado Springs, said the study claimed that there was no baseline data available on the land, vegetation and wildlife, so no impact could be estimated.

"There are 300 species of plants, 250 species of birds, not to mention invertebrates," he said. "It's like saying I'm going to hit the motherboard of a computer with a hammer and it will still work."

While the study didn't involve plans to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site by up to 2 million acres now occupied by ranches, most of the comments focused on that possibility.

"This is a prelude to the expansion," said Kennie German, of Model. "When they started the maneuver site, they said they would never use live fire. We're getting used to getting lied to."

Thomas Warren, Fort Carson's director of environmental compliance and management, said all of the comments would be considered before the impact statement was revised.