Not one more acre in Pinon Canyon So, years after the Pentagon's plans to massively expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado became public knowledge, Keith Eastin turned up in Trinidad last month to "open dialogue" with the local community. He was touting the latest in a long line of expansion plans — in this one, the Army has temporarily scaled back its request for 418,000 acres of our native grasslands to "just" 100,000 acres and apparently believes it has a willing seller for nearly all of that despite a funding ban. Judging by the commentary from some politicians and media outlets, we are meant to accept this as a fair compromise that should be allowed to proceed unhindered — as if no harm could possibly come of this. Those commentators will no doubt feign astonishment when they discover that when we said "not one more acre," we meant it. So did every member of the diverse alliance of groups fighting expansion, all the southern Colorado county commissioners and state and federal representatives who have clearly voiced their opposition, and especially those in Congress who voted overwhelmingly to block funding for all aspects of the Pentagon's plans. There are many reasons why the expansion plan should never happen. The environmental consequences for this fragile ecosystem and the rare wildlife it supports would be catastrophic. Ranchers whose relationships with the native grasslands go back many generations would lose our lands and our livelihoods. The region's ranching- and agriculture- based economy and the communities that depend upon it would be devastated. And a vast trove of historical, archaeological and paleontological treasures would be lost....