Wes McKinley

DENVER, April 8, 2009 — A landmark piece of legislation that protects landowners from the federal government plans to take southeastern Colorado ranches passed out of the House today. House Bill 1317, “The Piñon Canyon Landowner and School Protection Act,” sponsored by Representatives Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) and Wes McKinley (D-Walsh) passed on a strongly bi-partisan 47-17 vote and now heads to the Senate.

“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.”

The legislation prohibits the sale of State Land Board land for the expansion of the controversial Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. It also directs the Colorado Attorney General's office to uphold Colorado law and withhold any attempt by the Army to condemn those sections of state land. State Land Board land surrounds Piñon Canyon and is designated for funding Colorado's schools. That land has been owned by Colorado since the inception of statehood. Roughly 20 percent of the land that the Army has designated for future expansion is State Land Board land. Most of this land is currently leased to ranchers and used for grazing.

“I am thrilled this legislation passed out of the House, and believe it is a victory for the private property rights of farmers and ranchers in southeastern Colorado,” said Rep. Pace. “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.