[CPEO-MEF] Buffer zones

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Another Shade of Green:
Military Aids Nature Lovers

By JIM CARLTON
Wall Street Journal
January 24, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- When the Pentagon carved Fort Carson out of 
juniper-covered ranchland during World War II, the Army training camp 
was miles away from the town of Colorado Springs on the Front Range of 
the Rockies.

But this once-sleepy area has since exploded into a metropolis of more 
than a half million residents, enveloping much of Fort Carson's northern 
boundary. Tract homes and strip malls have crept close to the base's 
southeastern border. That leaves the 137,000-acre Fort Carson almost 
hemmed in by suburbanites, some of whom have complained about the sounds 
of bombing and other combat training.

So the Army has called in an unlikely ally: environmentalists. Through a 
little-known act of Congress, Army officials are tapping into a fund to 
help provide the Nature Conservancy and Colorado state agencies with 
money to buy remaining undeveloped land around Fort Carson. The goal: to 
set up a buffer zone against future sprawl. The Army has contributed $9 
million to keep development off about 10,000 acres around Fort Carson, 
or about a third of its total goal.

...

The entire article is available only to subscribers at
http://www.wsj.com

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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