418,000 acres

I just returned from a quick trip southeast ~ to the Mesa De Maya area in Las Animas County. I am working with Not One More Acre, a grassland group in opposition to the Pinon Canyon expansion. This trip was all on private land and the ranching family was kind to guide me around their enormous ranch. Mesa De Maya rises almost 1,000 feet above the surrounding grassland. From the top, one can see pinon pine and juniper give way to golden grassland - still waiting for spring rain, with canyons slicing through the landscape. These canyons were home to Ute, Arapaho and Comanche and are wealthy with artifacts. Our rancher friend once located 300 sites on his land in two days! It is a hard land, but the centennial ranchers have learned to adapt and would live nowhere else. The beauty takes awhile to grapple with, but over time this massive landscape has burned its way into my soul.

While on the mesa yesterday, I had a vantage point to see all of the planned Pinon Canyon expansion and most of it is captured in this image. I also have a composite pano that shows it all, but it's way to wide to post here. This view is to the north and Purgatoire Canyon can be seen in the upper third. The US Army intends to "acquire" all of the land in this picture. Although the Salazar/Musgrave bill requires a timeout from expansion/acquisition activity, the Army's PR firm is working to sway public opinion.

This is the last continuous, intact mass of shortgrass prairie steppe, on the most endangered ecosystem on planet earth. This land is as important to grassland as the Yellowstone/Teton ecosystem is to the Rockies.

The forty or so ranchers fighting to keep their land need our help. Please call your representatives if you're outraged and simply tell them you are opposed to the Pinon Canyon Expansion. Thanks!

A Native American petroglyph panel in one of the canyons below the mesa.

Thanks, Dave. It is a very beautiful landscape down there. The panel is really interesting.

I'd contact my local representative but it would be wasted paper. He (Lamborn) is one of the main proponents of the expansion. That's what I get for living in this town (COS).

Contact Salazar, Musgrave, Udall, and Allard, depending on where you live. Just a phone call will do.

Better to make the phone call and not know whether or not it helped (but thinking it just might) than not to call and always wonder if it could've made a difference. This is too important for if-onlys.

Geez! How much land does the Army need to teach people how to blow things up any way?
Mabe the good folks of COS should lambaste Lamborns office with emails, letters and phone calls and tell them how they feel about this. Mayb the whole state should so this for that matter. Fort Carson is big enough already.. Don't get me wrong I support our troops 100% I just don't think more land to Carson does that.
John

I grew up in that area and even though I have been gone for years,it's still home. I remember Pinon canyon before the Army got ahold of it and it was beautiful. I live down in Alamogordo now. White Sands Missile Range is right here and stretches for hundreds of miles. I think the Army has plenty of room right here to do their practicing. I read an article somewhere where the Army was saying that they wanted this new land so the soldiers wouldn't have to go so far away from home to practice and wouldn't be gone for so long from their families. Apparently they aren't too concerned about this when they send these guys over to Iraq and other places for months on end. Don't they realize that they are taking away these ranchers homes and lifestyle. I also support our troops having been part of the Air Force family for many years but I am totally against taking away these ranchers homes and lands that they have had for generations.

Right on, Debbie!

Nice shots Dave.

I wish I could comment, but I can't due to obvious reasons with my Employer, But let me say, I feel you present a Great Perspective worth hearing and acting on!