On The Range of Piñon Canyon: Property rights or jobs?

Their land is more than property for cattle ranchers in southern Colorado. It’s their way of life. These modern-day cowboys work land passed from one generation to the next with the hope that the weather will hold, that strong grass will grow and that their cattle will make it to market. It’s not an easy life. Today’s ranchers face many of the same challenges that confronted their ancestors 100 years ago. Fences still need mending, horses still need shoeing and cattle must be fed — no matter whether there’s a blizzard or a heat wave. However, the southern Colorado ranchers whose land is adjacent to Fort Carson’s U.S. Army training site in Piñon Canyon face a unique challenge. In the 1980s, the Army built what is known today as the Piñon Canyon Maneuvering Site. The Army uses the 235,000 acres it now owns a few months out of the year to build trenches so that soldiers in tanks can train on the land. In order to secure the current site, the Army implemented the largest use of eminent domain against U.S citizens in the nation’s history. Not surprisingly, the land grab left a bad taste with the ranchers who remained. Owners of the land that surrounds the current training site support the military and believe their patriotism runs more than skin deep. But they are finding themselves at odds with the Army, which, over the past few years, has made several attempts to condemn more land to enable expansion of the maneuvering site. The exact amount of land the Army wants for expansion is among debate...read more