A group opposing the largest planned military land expansion in the history of the United States today filed a challenge to the denial of records by the Medical Research Acquisition Activity, the 9.5 billion dollar biomedical, biological and chemical warfare research center at the Department of Defense, Ft. Detrick, Md. regarding its contract with The Nature Conservancy for acquisition of property to facilitate massive military expansion onto the last intact shortgrass prairie in the American Great Plains.

        Records are being sought regarding The Nature Conservancy’s September 2002 Cooperative Agreement with Fort Carson, Colorado and Fort Detrick, Maryland authorizing and funding encumbrances of property to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeastern Colorado.

        In December 2006, Not 1 More Acre! began seeking information through Freedom of Information requests about The Nature Conservancy’s partnership with the Army to expand the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS), Colorado, a 238,000 Army installation established in 1982 largely through condemnation of generational ranchland.  Following that bitter takeover, the Army promised it would never again return to expand the PCMS.

        When The Nature Conservancy signed the 2002 Cooperative Agreement, the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site was being used at historical levels – less than twice a year on a fraction of the 238,000-acre site. Residents of the region were unaware of any expansion plans at Piñon Canyon.

        Yet, the Cooperative Agreement (Section 1.3) states that encumbering lands surrounding Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site will “lessen land-use restrictions on Fort Carson and PCMS trainings lands” and will “help sustain military training at Fort Carson and PCMS.”  It continues, “[a]pproximately 400,000 acres and 50 miles of lands bordering Fort Carson and PCMS facilities” that present potential encumbrance opportunities. The “Initial Priority List for Encumbrance Acquisition” attached to the 2002 Cooperative Agreement identifies properties adjacent to or near the PCMS as primary properties to encumber.

        On January 12, 2006, the Army produced a document called  “Piñon Vision,” a detailed roadmap to expansion that would encompass all of southeastern Colorado.  The first property targeted for acquisition in the document is a so-called “Conservation Zone.” Piñon Vision (B-1-1 to B-1-2) describes the phased acquisition of 1,142,838 acres to follow establishment of the 80,057-acre “conservation zone.”

        According to limited records produced by the Medical Research Acquisition Activity at Fort Detrick, The Nature Conservancy is empowered through the Cooperative Agreement to enter into deals obligating the federal government to pay millions of dollars to private individuals and corporations for conservation easements, conservation leases, fee simple title to property and other property interests on and surrounding the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site.

        The Piñon Vision 5-18 document candidly admits that the Army is using public funds in an attempt to “buy” support for the massive expansion from “eco-groups” by funneling millions of dollars to one private, powerful land trust organization. Under the 2002 Cooperative Agreement, the Nature Conservancy is operating as a federal contractor receiving federal funds to carry out federal programs at the direction of the Department of Defense under contracts administered by its biological and chemical warfare center.

        Properties in the massive expansion plan include fragile lands that have been conserved by ranching families for generations, the Comanche National Grasslands, the Apishapa Wildlife Refuge and the Picket Wire Canyonlands containing globally significant Great Plains biodiversity, archaeology, paleontology and riparian systems.

        For the past three years, Congress, the Colorado General Assembly, counties and rural towns have overwhelmingly adopted public policies blocking expansion at Piñon Canyon.  The federal court ruled against the Army’s Environmental Impact Statement that hid expansion from the public.

        It appears that The Nature Conservancy is serving as a ‘straw man’ for the Department of Army’s acquisition of property for the expansion at Piñon Canyon while circumventing disclosure of their activities since 2002.