Ranchers vs. Army
Piñon Canyon opponents say ranchers deserve to win.
Categories: Old West Saviors
By: Jana Bommersbach 09/01/2007
The current proposal to expand to 418,000 acres would make Piñon Canyon the Army's largest training ground in the nation. The acting Army secretary said in July that without this expansion, it would cost millions to send soldiers elsewhere to train.
Robertson says he worries the expansion is more about money for defense contractors than it is for soldiers, since the site hasn't really been used to train troops for the last six years. "They're not using what they've got, but they want more," he says. "We've heard they want to use this site for high tech weapons and [one official] admitted it is 'all about the money.' To us, that means defense contractors."
He says he and his wife Anita were in denial at first about the expansion. "I liken it to grieving over a death," he says. "First you deny, then you grieve and think you're lost, and then the anger mode sets in." Not until March 2006 did the anger finally set in; ever since, he and his 14-member board have been devoting most of their time to this cause. (In their spare time, the Robertsons care for their 2,500-acre ranch that has been in the family since 1916, and they run a general store in Kim, Colorado.)
The coalition—ranchers, farmers, schoolteachers and community leaders—tries to inform Americans that this isn't solely a Colorado issue. As its website notes: "We hold firm to the belief that our national security relies as much on our efforts to produce food as it does on a good national defense.... The United States is already dependent on foreign oil, what will happen if we become dependent on foreign countries for our food supplies as well?" (Robertson says the recent crisis of tainted dog food from China underscores the point.)
The coalition's efforts at a national alert are paying off. This summer, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Piñon Canyon one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places
Other support, Robertson says, includes a majority of the Colorado State Legislature, the Colorado Cattlemen's Association (the nation's oldest state cattleman's group) and the American Land Foundation. Democratic Rep. John Salazar has received approval from the House to strip this year's federal appropriation bill of money to finance the expansion at Piñon Canyon. At press time, the U.S. Senate had yet to act.
"We'll keep fighting until the Army disappears over the hill—we expect to be fighting this the rest of our lives," Robertson says.
Robertson urges people across the nation to visit Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition or to buy a "NOT 4 Sale" t-shirt. The proceeds from these sales help finance the opposition coalition.
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