Base Wars:  Fighting the Fort Carson Base Expansion in Colorado

The Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site Expansion

 By: Kimmi Clark Lewis, Rancher

R-CALF USA Property Rights ChairwomanColorado Independent CattleGrowers Association Secretary

Southern Colorado Livestock Association Past President

Superimposed Map of Draft Land

Acquisition

Colorado Legacy Grant Priority Conservation Area Map, Dated 1999

Memorandum of Understanding, Dated December 14, 2000

Memorandum of Understanding

SUBJECT: Working with The Nature Conservancy  Reference: Memorandum of Understanding Between the United States Department of the Army, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and The Nature Conservancy dated 14 December 2000.

Wildlands Project Map for Colorado,

Dated 1997

Cooperative Conservation Conference and TNC President, Steven McCormick White House Cooperative Conservation Conference September 9, 2005 

The White House just concluded the Cooperative Conservation Conference in St. Louis, Missouri where attendees heard from several branches of our government. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns told the crowd that USDA will offer re-enrollment and extensions of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts that currently affect more than 28 million acres of agriculture land. Johanns actually said CRP programs help keep farms and ranches from falling into developers hands and that forest protection programs sustain more than 400 million acres of private forests. The NRCS Ranch Land Protection Program and Grassland Reserve Program protects 300,000 acres of working farms and ranches and 300,000 acres of grasslands. "The President's Wetlands Initiative" will ensure one million acres of wetlands are registered in the next five years while improving and protecting another two million acres. Retired Navy Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, unveiled the President's new program; the "Open Rivers Initiative (OPI)." OPI will provide grants to communities committed to removing "obsolete and derelict stream barriers" (that's dams, in English). The Nature Conservancy's president Steven McCormick bragged about TNC's partnership with the Pentagon to acquire private land and funding for buffer zones around military bases, but Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield warned that environmental protections are not always compatible with military objectives. "When those concerns are not balanced, the consequences can be unfortunate," Rumsfield said.Link: info@libertymatters.org

Muddy Valley Ranch, LLCKim, Colorado

Fort Carson Potential Area of

Expansion

Army Compatible Use Buffers

Army Compatible Use Buffers (ACUBs) support the Army's mission to fight and win the nation's wars. Winning wars requires a trained and ready force. Trained and ready Soldiers require land for maneuvers, live fire, testing and other operations. ACUBs establish buffer areas around Army installations to limit effects of encroachment and maximize land inside the installation that can be used to support the installation's mission.

ACUBs support the Army's responsibility as a federal agency to comply with all environmental regulations, including endangered species habitat protection. By working in partnership with conservation organizations, ACUBs can coordinate habitat conservation planning at the ecosystem level to ensure that greater benefits are realized towards species and habitat recovery.

ACUBs also support local and regional planning and sustainability efforts by emphasizing partnerships with state and local governments and private conservation organizations to work towards common objectives and leveraging public and private funds towards those common goals.

Link: http://www.sustainability.army.mil/tools/programtools_acub.cfm

Key ACUB organizations and

participants: U.S. Army The Nature Conservancy Trust for Public Lands U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Colorado Department of Transportation Great Outdoors Colorado Colorado Department of Natural Resources Florida Department of Environmental Protection Florida Forever The Conservation Fund Hawaii North Shore Community Land Trust Hawaii State Parks Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota Crow Wing County Fort Ripley Township Crow Wing Township Land Legacy Department of Interior, National Park Service

Installations with ACUB Proposals August 15, 2005

Media Clip

Muddy Valley Ranch Crew in Action