Pinion Canyon
Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colo., is asking Defense Secretary Robert Gates for official assurances that the Army will not use condemnation in trying to acquire another 100,000 acres for the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of Trinidad.
Udall sent the letter Friday, just two days after an emotional confrontation between ranchers opposed to the expansion and Army Assistant Secretary Keith Eastin in Trinidad. Eastin hosted the meeting to tell ranchers the Army wanted to deal with "willing sellers only" and would not condemn land in trying to add another 100,000 acres directly south of the current training area.
The ranchers, who have fought the Army's expansion plan for more than two years, walked out of the meeting. They told Eastin that Congress had specifically approved a ban prohibiting the Army from any work on the Pinon Canyon expansion in 2008. A week ago, the House approved legislation that would extend the ban through 2009 as well.
Udall had taken part in an earlier meeting between Eastin and the Las Animas County commissioners and afterward said it was encouraging that the Army was promising to abandon the expansion if they could not find a willing seller to provide another 100,000 acres.
Ranchers fighting the expansion are concerned that if the Army can find a willing seller for some acreage, it could isolate other private land - giving the Army even more reason to use eminent domain to consolidate its holdings. While Eastin repeatedly told the ranchers the Army is not interested in condemning any property, those assurances were met with deep skepticism. One of the long-festering issues in the bitter dispute is the Army's past assurances that it would not seek additional land around Pinon Canyon, some of which was acquired by condemnation in the 1980s.
-The “willing buyer\willing seller” purchase, as the only way the government will purchase property, is a system that assures the inevitable; i.e., the military will be the only purchase in the area. This will be because everyone assumes that the moment there is an emergency, the government will simply acquire the property interests that remain in the area after all the 'voluntary' purchases are made.
