June 25th, 2008

The latest on Pinon Canyon: Salazar Brothers Fueding?

FROM POLITICO:

Canyon expansion opens rift in Colo.
By: Patrick O’Connor

June 23, 2008 08:52 PM EST

Colorado lawmakers are feuding over a plan to transform hundreds of miles of arid
grassland into an expanded training facility for the U.S. Army.

The fight over the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site pits a freshman Republican against
one of his top benefactors. It puts strong supporters of the military at odds with
the Pentagon. And it has the Salazar brothers - Sen. Ken Salazar and Rep. John T.
Salazar, both Democrats - divided about the right path forward.

The Army wants to expand the site in southeastern Colorado so that it will have
more room for brigade-size training exercises involving thousands of troops from
nearby Fort Carson. But environmentalists and ranchers oppose the Army’s plan,
and Republican Rep. Marilyn Musgrave calls it “a colossal land grab.”
The Colorado conservative teamed up with Rep. Salazar last year to impose a one-year
moratorium preventing the Army from buying land around the site or completing a
congressionally mandated study on the economic and environmental impact of the planned
expansion.
The two seek another one-year moratorium as part of a military construction bill
scheduled to go before the House Appropriations Committee next week. But their
ban conflicts with an alternate measure - authored by Sen. Salazar and Colorado
Republican Sen. Wayne Allard - requiring the Army to complete a study on the expansion
by the end of July.
But the most public rift in the Pinon Canyon fight is the one between Musgrave,
a potentially vulnerable conservative, and freshman Rep. Doug Lamborn, a fellow
Republican who relied heavily on his GOP colleague to win a tight race in 2006.
Musgrave says the situation has gotten “a little sticky with some of the things
Doug said.”
Musgrave and Lamborn delivered competing proposals on Pinon Canyon during a Republican
Study Committee meeting earlier this year. At one point, Musgrave pulled Lamborn
aside and said, “You and I are just going to disagree on this. We can fight on
this, and then we can go back to the cloakroom and have a hot dog.”
But Lamborn apparently isn’t ready to share that red hot; he circulated a letter
to other lawmakers last week criticizing supporters of the Musgrave-Salazar amendment
for their “negligent disregard for the personal safety of our troops.”
“Don’t go there,” Musgrave replied, reminding a reporter that her son serves in
the Navy and her son-in-law served in Afghanistan.
Sen. Salazar is trying to find middle ground between these competing interests.
He and Allard in 2007 offered language calling on the Army to complete a comprehensive
survey, and an aide said the senator expects the Pentagon to complete that survey
by the July deadline. But he also backed the moratorium offered by his brother last
year, calling on the Army to suspend the process for a year.
The senator’s nuanced approach presents a stark contrast to his younger brother’s
outspoken opposition. For Rep. Salazar, the Army’s plan hits closer to home: Under
the expansion proposal, the Army would acquire more than 400,000 acres in his
congressional
district.
The Army favors this training site because of its proximity to Fort Carson and because
the terrain resembles that of Iraq. Fort Carson recently absorbed 8,500 additional
troops through the base realignment process, and supporters argue an expansion of
Pinon Canyon would give them the necessary additional training space.
But local ranchers and environmentalists largely oppose this expansion, arguing
that it would encroach on grazing land for cattle, stir the soil in a region of
the country that was once part of the desolate Dust Bowl and threaten fragile
archaeological
finds such as excavated dinosaur tracks and Native American pictographs.
A group of these ranchers and conservationists filed an injunction in federal court
to block the acquisition of this land. Their congressional backers are making the
case that they are fighting for ranchers in this showdown with the Pentagon.
“If you can’t stand up for the little guy, who can you stand up for?” Rep. Salazar
asked.
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