November 18, 2009

Army Drops Appeal on One Piñon Canyon Expansion Lawsuit

In what sounds like a small victory to the opponents of the Army's desire to expand its training area in southeast Colorado, the Army has dropped its appeal to a court case over its environmental assessment process.

The news hasn't made it onto the opponents' Web site yet.

I have written before on my mixed responses to the creation of the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Area.

I tend to be on the landowners' side here, but I note ironically how the imagery of their Web site evokes SE Colorado of a century ago, more 1909 than 2009.

Meanwhile, Trinidad, Colo., blogger Doug Holdread rounds up all the conspiracy theories.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your reference to "but I note ironically how the imagery of their Web site evokes SE Colorado of a century ago, more 1909 than 2009." is ironic in itself. This is how SE Colorado looks TODAY. That is the point. The history and culture are centuries old and deserve to be preserved.

Chas S. Clifton said...

It's not how Southern Coloradans look.

And, as for the landscape, I bet you could find some changes between the pre-Dust Bowl era and now.

Not to mention the change from buffalo herds to sheep ranching, which was much more common in the late 19th and early 20th century, to cattle and/or crops.

Fire suppression is not such a big issue as in the mountains, but I suspect that the piñon-juniper groves along the Purgatory are thicker now too, meaning less grass.

Anonymous said...

Chas,
Besides the thislandisourland.org site you might also want to check out other opposition web sites such as:

pinoncanyon.com
not1moreacre.net
pinoncanyonsquareinch.com

Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition