Wes McKinley

DENVER, March 18, 2009 — House Bill 09-1317, “The Piñon Canyon Landowner and School Protection Act,” was introduced yesterday by Representatives Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) and Sal Pace (D-Pueblo). The landmark piece of legislation would protect landowners from the federal government plans to take southeastern Colorado ranches.

“This legislation will keep the Army from taking State Land Board land,” said Rep. McKinley. “These lands are necessary for the funding of our schools. We need to keep them for their intended purposes. The sale of this property to the Army would have a destructive affect on the surrounding community, environment, and natural resources.”

“We are fighting for the private property rights of farmers and ranchers in southeastern Colorado,” said Rep. Pace, the bill's co-sponsor. “Prohibiting the state sale of school lands will prevent any further unwanted eminent domain grab of private lands, which would destroy an important and treasured way of life in southern Colorado.”

Piñon Canyon expansion has come under scrutiny locally and nationally. Local landowners, mostly ranchers, fear that Piñon Canyon expansion will only occur through forced removal from their land through eminent domain and condemnation. In 2007, the Colorado General Assembly voted to remove the federal government’s use of eminent domain to expand Piñon Canyon. That same year, Congress voted for the Musgrave/Salazar amendment, which blocked federal dollars from going toward the site. The federal nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has provided a study which criticizes a lack of a proven need for expansion.

Southern Colorado ranchers currently raise more than 400,000 head of cattle in this region. The current Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site is roughly 250,000 acres in size and gives Fort Carson one of the Army's highest land-per-brigade ratios, according to the 2005 BRACC report.

HB 1317 has several bipartisan co-sponsors. It now goes to the House Agriculture Committee for testimony