"Green" Concerns Keep Cap on High-Altitude Training

The Colorado Army National Guard will keep its annual high-altitude helicopter training over land held by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service limited to 3,000 hr a year, the Rocky Mountain News reports. The state Guard runs the High-Altitude Army Aviation Training Site in Gypsum, Colo., which provides critical high-altitude, combat training to U.S. Army aircrews. Given the pace of operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the world, the Army has asked to increase training to 6,000 hr a year. But the land management and forest agencies, together with the Guard, agreed the 3,000-hr limit "meets the needs of the pilots without providing an undue burden on public lands resources." For related news