10.31.2008

US Army document reveals plan to take 7m acres in SE Colorado

TRINIDAD, Colorado — The Pentagon has been planning since at least 2004 to acquire almost 7 million acres in southeastern Colorado, forcing more than 17,000 residents off their land to establish the largest military base in the world, according to documents obtained in a federal court case.

The unprecedented acquisition of 6.9 million acres, or 10,800 square miles, of private and public land would result in a military reservation larger than some states, including Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New Jersey. The multi-service battlefield would be more than triple the size of the enormous White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, which at 3,200 square miles is currently the largest military installation in the United States. It would undermine the whole southeastern corner of Colorado east of the Rockies destroying the last intact shortgrass prairie remaining in the American Great Plains.

via Pimpin Turtle