Purgatoire, Apishapa & Comanche Grassland Trust
and
Not 1 More Acre!
PO Box 773
Trinidad, Colorado 81082
For more information or to arrange
interviews, contact: Hugh Lamberton, 303-748-9099
Jean Aguerre, 719-252-5145
The fire - which the Army claims was started by a lightning strike - has now spread to the Comanche National Grasslands and to private lands near the maneuver site. The 238,000-acre PCMS (double the size of Colorado Springs) is already the subject of heated controversy as the Pentagon has been pushing to triple its size and to expand facilities at the existing site, including more live-fire ranges.
Expansion opposition group Not 1 More Acre! has filed a Freedom of Information Act request regarding the Army's fire management practises at the PCMS. The FOIA seeks: "Any and all fire management plans for the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site; any and all records related to any prescribed burns planned or executed on the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site during 2008; and any records related to the so-called Bridger Fire on the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site and Comanche National Grasslands during June 2008."
Not 1 More Acre! board member and rancher Mack Louden said the community deserves answers about the fire's spread. It also needs to know whether the military has a fire management plan and whether that plan obliges the Army to notify local authorities and residents. Other federal land management agencies are required to have such plans.
"How can a huge entity like the US Army with all its resources let this fire get so out of control?" Mr. Louden said. "This is why everyone knows the military does not belong on the grasslands. And this type of threat would only get much worse under the Pentagon's expansion plan which would bring more frequent live-fire exercises and controlled burns, as well as the use of incendiary weapons."
"Does the Army even have a plan for managing fires and coordinating with local residents? The Army has consistently kept the community in the dark on all of its shifting plans for the PCMS and once again the community is paying the price."
Mr. Louden said local residents whose families have lived in the area for generations have a strong understanding of the threat posed by fires. They know the importance of working closely with neighbours and how to fight fires in the difficult terrain.
"Yet the Army cannot bring itself to work with the local residents whose land and lives are at risk. The county commissioners found out about the fire not from the Army but from television reports."
Las Animas County Commissioner Jim Montoya confirmed that the Army had failed to alert county authorities about the threat posed by the fire.
"It would have been nice for the Army to let us know about the fire for the safety and welfare of our communities," Commissioner Montoya said. "Once that fire leaves federal land, it becomes the county's responsibility."
Mr. Louden said the failure to contain the fire or to work effectively with local authorities and residents proves that military activities and mismanagement are ill suited to the fragile grasslands of southeastern Colorado.
"The Pentagon already controls 25 million acres across the nation and it is well past time that it looked to better use what the American taxpayers have already provided," he said. "Every level of democracy from the local counties to the US Congress has opposed increased military activity in southeastern Colorado and the Army's mishandling of this fire shows that those concerns are justified."
Purgatoire, Apishapa & Comanche Grassland Trust
Not 1 More Acre!
PO Box 773
Trinidad, Colorado 81082