Ranchers: Fire proves canyon no place for Army
By PETER ROPER, THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN, June 14, 2008
Ranchers opposed to the Army’s planned expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site say the wildfire that has blackened 42,000 acres of the training ground, plus private and state lands, is just a preview of the fire danger that would come from giving the Army more land and heavier weapons to use in the area northeast of Trinidad.
“If this fire had broken out on private land, we’d have gotten on it sooner and knocked it down,” said Lon Robertson, a Kim-area rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition. “Landowners down here know they have to work together to fight fire and they keep a closer eye on their land than the Army does.”
Robertson said the Army’s plan to add another 414,000 acres to the training ground - plus have live artillery fire and other heavy weapons - will only increase the fire danger to surrounding landowners.
“They use heavier weapons in training up at Fort Carson and look how often they have to suppress wildfires up there,” he said. “We don’t need that added danger down here.”
In April, a wildfire that broke out during training maneuvers downrange at Fort Carson burned more than 14 square miles. A contract pilot, Gert Marias, of Fort Benton, Mont., was killed when his single-engine firefighting aircraft crashed in the blaze. A Fort Carson spokesman challenged the ranchers’ claim the Army is unprepared to fight fires at Pinon Canyon.
“We have firefighting personnel at Pinon Canyon and they began fighting the fire when lightning started it on Sunday,” said Doraine McNutt, senior public affairs officer. “They were able to put out a second fire that also was caused by lightning.”
A second group opposing the Army’s expansion plan issued a statement Friday saying the current wildfire is proof of the wildfire dangers of live-fire training at Pinon Canyon. … [more]