Ranchers want Udall to close Pinon chapter

Southern Colorado ranchers who have opposed the Army's efforts to expand the 238,000-acre Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site northeast of town, expressed their concerns loud and clear to Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., Thursday during a packed town hall meeting. Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was in town for a meeting at Trinidad State Junior College addressing the economy and job creation. The meeting quickly shifted to the Pinon Canyon topic with a last question from Jean Aguerre, of Not 1 More Acre! "You are familiar with all of the details, you have written a letter that has postponed developments for five years thinking that that is some kind of relief which it is not," Aguerre said. She said to live constantly under the threat of military expansion has been horrible. Rancher Stan White told the senator that the possible expansion is "crushing" the county and that it was going on way too long. White read a sentence that Not 1 More Acre! and the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition have prepared for Udall to bring to law. "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Defense shall not carry out any construction or acquisition of real property at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, Colorado; all other provisions of laws enabling military expansion in Southeastern Colorado are hereby nullified." Aguerre said that the one sentence would make a six-year-old spending ban on the expansion a policy...more