Critics of the proposed expansion of the Saylor Creek bombing range near the Mountain Home Air Force Base say the Air Force should shelve its plans until several conditions are met.
Kerry Cooke, a spokeswoman for the Snake River Alliance, and Janet O'Crowley, from the Committee for Idaho's High Desert, urged Idaho's congressional delegation on Friday to place the project on hold for now.The project opponents said it should remain on hold until the Pentagon's budget priorities are set this summer and until the Defense Department has settled on a new force structure and sets new priorities for training ranges.
And, they said, it should remain on hold until a national needs survey is done for all pending military bombing and training ranges.
The military has proposed new or expanded ranges amounting to nearly 6 million acres in 16 states.
On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management's Boise District also urged the Air Force to perform a national-needs survey, saying the Saylor Creek range appears to be planned for the long-term needs of the Air Force, not for the aircraft at the Mountain Home base.
Attorney General Jim Jones this week also said the environmental impact statement process the Air Force has used so far may contain a basic legal flaw that could seriously impede or derail the Air Force's plans.
"The message is clear, they need to stop the process," Cooke said.
The Air Force wants to build a 2.6 million-acre range on mainly BLM land in Owyhee County. It also seeks to operate supersonic flights and drop live bombs in the desert.
Douglas B. Hansen, director of base closure and utilization for the Defense Department, said Friday a departmentwide review of defense forces and force structure must be completed before a national needs survey can begin.
Hansen said the results of that review are expected in June, and then he will begin examining training range needs based on the new size of defense forces set by Congress and Defense Secretary Richard Cheney.