By TAMMY ALHADEF
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Kimmi Lewis
KIM - Rancher Kimmi Lewis has a different take than most when it comes to the Army’s plans for expanding the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.
While many of her fellow ranchers are racing to enter into conservation easements to protect their land and cash in on some of its value, Lewis said she believes that's what the Army has wanted them to do all along. Donating land to conservation, she said, could be equally as damaging to the ranching community as would its loss to the government’s power of eminent domain.
Lewis, who runs a cow-calf operation on her 11,000-acre ranch, said she considers conservations easement, called a "win-win" situation touted by U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar as a way for the government to tie up land titles and devalue the land, making it easier for the Army to buy it later.
"I don’t believe (the Army) will use eminent domain," Lewis said. "They’ve got a lot of people stuck on that issue so the landowners will think they’ve dodged a bullet when they enter into these agreements. But it will just clutter up all the land titles."
The Army proposes expanding the 238,000-acre training site by approximately 414,000 acres.
Most of the easements require a permanent restriction on development while allowing landowners to take advantage of transferable tax credits, which can be sold for cash. While the easements will keep the land in agricultural or ranching use for the next generation, Lewis said the diminished land rights could make the land less valuable to heirs. And, she said, there is no guarantee that the land will maintain agricultural status forever, even after it’s been put into a land trust.
If her six children decide that the land isn’t worth keeping because they can’t build houses to live in, they can sell out to the land trust, leaving a merged estate that would nullify the conservation easement, she said. For her, leaving room for the next generation to make some decisions about how to conserve the land is the way to go.
"We just have no idea what’s down the road," she said, adding that the economic value of developments in wind and kinetic energy could far outweigh what she could get for her land now. If she sells out for tax credits, she said, she could really do a disservice to her children.
"Sure, I could take a million dollars and run (by entering into a conservation easement agreement), but what I’m doing is setting an established price for my land."
The value of her property already has increased five-fold, Lewis said, since she and her late husband purchased it from her father in 1991.
"If you’d told me 15 years ago that there would be wind turbines in Baca County that I could see from here, I wouldn’t have believed you."
She said such developments in Las Animas County could help the community stay economically viable down the road.
As far as the lease agreements Salazar has encouraged ranchers to consider, she said it's a whole new concept - and one she doesn't think she'd ever consider.
"I'd have to be in pretty bad shape to take on a lease with the Army," she said.
Because the soil under Colorado's grasslands is extremely thin and fine, Lewis said she can't see the Army running tanks over the ranches without destroying the grasses and the soil itself.
"We're very careful to stay on the feed trail," she said. "If you go off the trail, you can see that track for years.
"To me it just sounds like really poor planning and the government trying to tie up private property," she said. "We've got to protect our property rights."
A real thinking woman...the ranchers better listen to her!
Bob N - CO
Interesting!
As any wise investor knows..... There is no Get Rich Quick scheme that ever works.
In all likelyhood the same applies to the Land Trusts being dangled in the faces of the property owners in Southeast Colorado.
Mrs. Lewis is wise to question the long term prudence of such an action.
M. S. Hollis - TX
I also have an "investigative" piece coming out soon you will "love". It connects all the the dots of taking.
You are doing a great job with your site on exposing all these takings. Thank you for your TLC on this
I am starting the development process to bring up a site to frame up all of this overwhelming evidence of taking over the last 231 years and more.
Keep it up!Jack V - Washington
There is an article in the Omaha World-Herald about Ted Turner buying all of the land here in western Nebraska. He said it is for environmental reasons. The ranchers in Western Nebraska are not happy about it because he is taking control of the water rights and he is driving out the other ranchers.
I will send it to you if I find it.Cindy M -Nebraska