Ranchers: Ruling topples Army dominoes on Pinon Canyon

Ranchers fighting the expansion of the Army's Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site believe a federal court ruling this week toppled the first domino in a series of Army studies used to justify sending more troops to Fort Carson with the expectation they can train at the 238,000-acre military reservation northeast of Trinidad. The lawsuit was filed by Not One More Acre!, one of the ranching groups opposed to the expansion of Pinon Canyon. Board members said Matsch's decision should call into question other environmental reports the Army has done to support sending more troops to Fort Carson with the expectation they will train at Pinon Canyon in the future. "The Army said in court they had not begun building any new facilities at Pinon Canyon (to support more training)," a group member said on background Wednesday. "But from our view, Judge Matsch's decision pushes them back to square one." Matsch agreed in his ruling Tuesday. He sharply rejected the Army's analysis and process, pointing out that Army reports produced during the lawsuit - but not made available to the general public previously - demonstrated the Army was aware of extensive environmental damage at Pinon Canyon from previous and more-limited training maneuvers. The judge said the Army's own land management analysis in 2006 said the Army could only use Pinon Canyon about five months of the year if the grasslands were to recover afterward. Even so, the 2007 impact study said that adequate mitigation plans were in place to support even a year-round training schedule. "That conclusion is inconsistent and irreconcilable with the Army's analysis in 2006," Matsch wrote. He also sharply disagreed with the Army failing to release the reports about environmental damage during the public comment period on the proposed environmental study...PuebloChieftain