NARRATOR: Mountain Home Air Force Base in southern Idaho is home to the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing of the US Air Force. Colonel Jerrold Callen is vice commander of the wing.

COL JERROLD CALLEN: Right now we have a variety of aircraft that are stationed here at Mountain Home. The KC-135 Tankers, the F-16Cs, the F-15Cs, the F-15Es. We also have as part of our wing the B-1s which are stationed at Ellsworth.

NARRATOR: The 366th wing is pioneering what it calls a revolutionary new method of training Air Force pilots. Called the composite wing, it is, according to the Air Force, the cutting edge of training for the battles of tomorrow. A method of training which allows different kinds of aircraft to practice maneuvers together.

COL CALLEN: The advantage we have of bringing all our aircraft together here at one location and being able to take advantage of each specific aircraft's capabilities and having them work together on a daily basis really contributes to taking the different players of an organization, really making a team out of it that is really important when we go into a combat situation.

It's like an orchestra that has the different instru-ments. They can play solo, but when you put them together, they can combine for a magical sound.

NARRATOR: Mountain Home makes an ideal base for the Air Force. The weather is good yearround. It is remote. The closest urban centers, Boise and Twin Falls, are two hours away. The Air Force has special clearance to use the airspace above almost three million acres of land. This airspace is called "a military operations area," or MOA.

Saylor Creek, Mountain Home's bombing range, is less than 25 miles from the base. In fact, the conditions are so ideal here that Mountain Home was ranked as one of the best three bases in the country by the Base Realignments and Closures Commission in 1993.

But as good as Mountain Home is, the Air Force believes it could be better. The Air Force says it needs an additional bombing range called the Idaho Training Range, or ITR, to adequately train its composite wing. It has proposed building the ITR within their current military operations area, in a region known as the Owyhee Canyonlands.

To build the new bombing range, the Air Force says it needs over 21,000 acres of federally managed public land, and an additional 4000 acres of land that is currently privately owned.

COL CALLEN: If I can use a basketball analogy, when we go to Saylor Creek, it's like the professional basketball player shooting the foul shots. It doesn't provide us really the oppor-tunity for scrimmaging, but it does provide the opportunity to practice the very basic skills of flying operations.

The ITR, as proposed right now, gives us an opportunity to travel across the airspace and have a variety of targets throughout that airspace, both on the west side and the east side that we can attack, and also gives the adversary air a chance to set up and be challenged for a number of different targets.

NARRATOR: But the proposed bombing range would focus intense training activity in a new sector of the MOA, the Owyhee Canyonlands, a sector that some claim is unsuited to bear the brunt of military exercises.

HERB MEYR: It's location, location, location. It's in the wrong spot.

NARRATOR: Herb Meyr is a retired lieutenant colonel. A fighter pilot in the Air Force, he was stationed at air bases worldwide, including seven years at Mountain Home. He has been a resident of Idaho for 17 years.

Mr. MEYR: I am not against the Air Force and I'm not against the use of bombing ranges, but this location is just the wrong place.

NARRATOR: Bob Stevens is an avid hunter, outdoorsman and recreational pilot.

BOB STEVENS: When you draw a line around those assets, you form a rectangle of military operations area that is as big as the state of Connecticut. It's about three million acres. And within that rectangle, they can fly down to and train down to 100 feet above ground level, they can fly supersonic above 10,000 feet above ground level, they can drop flares and they can drop chaff. You have operations occurring at low level, mid-level and high level all at the same time, so that it will affect all of the canyons, the noise will affect all the canyons.

NARRATOR: Herb Meyr agrees that the proposed military operations in the Owyhee Canyonlands will impact a much broader area than the 25,000 acres the military is asking for.

Mr. MEYR: Anytime you're doing training, especially using new types of weapons deliveries, flying at night, practicing like a wartime situation where you're under attack, there's a lot of distractions, a lot of mistakes are made, wrong switches are turned on the aircraft. You can spread weapons out, practice bombs, over a large area. Yes, the airplanes are accurate if everything's going right and will drop in a 100-foot circle, but if you look at the history of bombing ranges throughout the West, you'll find weapons over a four to five-mile area around the targets.

NARRATOR: The Owyhee Canyonlands region is a high desert ecosystem. A diverse wildlife population inhabits the region. It is a fawning ground for desert antelope and home to the largest population of California Bighorn Sheep in the United States.

The California Bighorn Sheep are just one of the twelve species of birds and animals in the Canyonlands that the EPA considers at risk of being endangered. The Bald Eagle also inhabits this area. Both the wildlife and the fragile ecosystem may be harmed by the increased level of military activity proposed by the Idaho Training Range.

A recent study by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game found that the California Bighorn Sheep population in the canyons has already begun to decline. Many people believe this decline is linked to the increase of low-flying military jets and super-sonic flights authorized in 1992.

The Air Force looks for training areas in remote regions to limit the impact on human populations. Nonetheless, the Idaho Training Range threatens a way of life for the human communities who live and work in the Owyhee Canyonlands.

George Bennett, Jr. is the third generation of his family to own a ranch in the canyonlands.

GEORGE BENNETT: My family's been here since the early 1900s is when they first started to farm here and ranch back in the Owyhees. And I'm the third generation and I have a son that is the fourth generation that's with us now.

NARRATOR: Bennett is concerned that the Idaho Training Range will increase the number of military overflights of his ranch. The sudden intense roar of a low-flying aircraft and the noise of a sonic boom can be frightening to people and terrifying to livestock, inducing what is called the "startle effect."

Mr. BENNETT: The startle effect is really something. A sonic boom on flat ground like where we're at right here is nothing like it would be in a canyon up in the mountains where it's bouncing off the rocks. And the magnitude's probably five times as great, I would say.

NARRATOR: The people who will be most affected by the new bombing range are the residents of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation.

LINDSEY MANNING: The Duck Valley Indian Reservation is home to the Shoshone and Paiute tribes. It's 290,000 acres held in common ownership, held in trust by the federal government, and it represents our homeland. Of all the thousands of acres that our people used and utilized for centuries, Duck Valley is what's remaining of it.

NARRATOR: Lindsey Manning is tribal chairman of the Shoshone Paiute.

Mr. MANNING: This is an enchanted place upon the earth where you could come here and be to yourself and be with the Creator and call upon the natural powers to assist you.

NARRATOR: The Idaho Training Range would be located north-west of the reservation. But it would be located in an area that is central and essential to the religious beliefs and practices of the tribe. Battle Creek, located near the proposed range, is a traditional tribal camping ground, as it has been for over 10,000 years. The Shoshone Paiute bring their children here to teach them tribal lore and history.

CHILD: In those rocks over there, I got a great, great great grandpa buried out there.

NARRATOR: Another area that will be affected by the new range is Willows in the Row Butte. The rocky crags of the butte overlook a historic battle site that the Shoshone Paiute regard as one of their most sacred holy grounds.

Mr. MANNING: The ceremonies that we hold here is to pray and ask for a blessing for the land and for our people and to survive. This is the last remaining area next to our reserva-tion that we can really come to and have this type of feeling.

NARRATOR: The Shoshone Paiute consider this land so sacred that it was kept secret from outsiders until a few years ago. And they were hesitant to allow us to film their ceremony on the butte.

Mr. MANNING: If the Idaho Training Range goes through as proposed, it'll completely change this area. We'll never be able to come to this spot again and pay homage and pray and ask for guidance because the impact area is a stone's throw away here and they're going to build an 8000-foot mock runway, they're going to build targets throughout the area. A road system will come in and we could never be here doing these ceremonies with that going on right above us and right next to us. There's no way possible.

NARRATOR: According to federal regulations, the Air Force must evaluate the impact of its proposed activities on the region and offer this evaluation to the public for independent examina-tion. This process is called an environmental impact study, or EIS.

One of the most obvious impacts of military activity in the area is the noise of the jets and the effect of sonic booms caused by supersonic flying. During composite wing training, up to 80 aircraft could be flying above the training range at the same time. But the military's studies for the EIS did not find that noise would be excessive. Herb Meyr explains why.

Mr. MEYR: The EIS tries to average out all this noise over a year, but during these periods during the exercises, it's going to have a tremendous effect.

NARRATOR: Bill Weida, a graduate of the Air Force Academy, was a fighter pilot in Vietnam. He is currently a professor of economics at Colorado College. He questions the Air Force's use of the averaging technique and the methodology of the noise study.

BILL WEIDA: In the case of the noise statistics that were listed for Idaho, what they did was they used studies which were based on urban data, studies which had been based on Heathrow Airport in London, which had been based on Rome, Los Angeles International Airport, and they used those as a basis for saying what the effect would be on people enjoying a wilderness experience.

Now the studies themselves were very clear that they were not meant to be used outside of urban areas. The studies were also very clear that at decibel levels over 75, that they expected the people in those areas who were affected to be protected by buildings. The Air Force and its contractor, SAIC, nicely left those issues out.

NARRATOR: But it is not just jet noise that poses a hazard to the region. The new bombing range will allow aircraft to drop training ordinance, or practice bombs, such as the one shown here onto the range itself. Even though these training bombs do not explode, they are potentially dangerous.

Mr. MEYR: Each one of the practice ordinance carries a spotting charge, which is white phosphorous which is very flammable, heats to around 2000 degrees, starts a fire instan-taneously when it hits the ground when the grasses are dry. That area has a lot of sagebrush, cheat grass and once it starts a fire and the wind's blowing, it's very hard to put out.

NARRATOR: The Air Force took "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR" to Saylor Creek, the current bombing range, to watch a practice run. As our camera rolled, the F-16s flew over and dropped their practice bombs. But today, as caught on our camera, the bombs also start a fire, which burned from the time of the drop until after we left.

The ITR is far more remote, with much more vegetation. And the danger of fire poses a real threat to both the vegetation and the wildlife in the Owyhee Canyonlands.

Despite the potential impact to the Owyhee Canyonlands, the Air Force argues that training needs and national security considerations take precedence. They argue that they have to train somewhere and the ITR would allow the composite wing at Mountain Home to conduct full scale exercises.

At present, the 366th Wing must fly to other ranges to conduct this training. This additional flying time, the Air Force argues, makes their training more expensive.

COL CALLEN: It gives us the opportunity to use our valuable flying time, our costly flying time, to train on the more realistic high tempo operation as opposed to spending that time flying to and from the more distant ranges. That time that we're spending flying to and from, in terms of gasoline, maintenance on the aircraft -- if I can convert that to really hardhitting, meaningful training, I think it's a much better way of using our tax dollars to conduct training.

NARRATOR: Herb Meyr disagrees.

Mr. MEYR: Yes, there would be a little bit extra fuel that's used. But even if you're going to the training ranges proposed on the Owyhee Canyonlands, you would still take off, go out into Oregon and Nevada, and turn around and come back to those ranges if you're doing a large tactical exercise. And so, the only fuel you're really saving is the time leaving those ranges to come back and land.

NARRATOR: Admiral Eugene Carroll is a retired naval aviator and the director of the Center for Defense Information. In his testimony before the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands, he stated that the Air Force should use existing ranges rather than build a new one.

Admiral EUGENE CARROLL, Jr. (USN, Ret.) (before committee):

"There are existing -- existing range facilities in Utah, Nevada and Oregon within 30 minutes flying time of Mountain Home that appear to satisfy all wing training requirements. It provides ranges, impact areas, electronic facilities, and so on. The distance from Mountain Home to these facilities is actually an aid, because if you're going to run coordinated missions with a composite wing elements, you have to have time and space to rendezvous, to refuel, to form the strike elements, space them for timing and so on."

NARRATOR: Composite wing training itself has also come under attack. A 1993 General Accounting Office report criticized the concept of centralizing composite wing training at specific bases, including Mountain Home, as disorganized, poorly planned and an ineffective use of resources.

Aside from the environmental impact of the range, perhaps the most controversial aspect of the ITR is how the Air Force plans to acquire it. The proposal appears to skirt a law that governs transfer of public land to the military for training purposes. This law is called the Engle Act.

The Engle Act mandates that any transfer of over 5000 acres of public land to the military must be approved by Congress. In Idaho, the land that the military is asking for is close to 21,000 acres. This land acquisition proposal would ostensibly fall under the Engle Act because the land is managed by the federal government. But the Idaho Training Range proposal, as it now stands, would bypass the need for congres-sional approval.

Grace Bukowski, of the Rural Alliance for Military Accountability, has been opposing military takeovers of public land nationwide for over ten years.

GRACE BUKOWSKI: Any taking of over 5000 acres of public lands requires congressional approval if those lands are to be used by the Department of Defense. In Idaho, the United States Air Force in quote, unquote, "the State of Idaho," is attempting to usurp that federal law by doing this land exchange.

NARRATOR: The Air Force plans to acquire the Idaho Training Range by engaging in a land exchange with the State of Idaho. This is how it would work.

The state of Idaho has offered to swap state land in another part of Idaho with the federal government in exchange for the Owyhee Canyonlands. The state would then lease the canyon-lands to the Air Force, thus sidestepping congressional oversight.

Congressman Bruce Vento from Minnesota is chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forest and Public Lands. He has taken a leadership role in the House of Representatives on environmental issues.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe the current situation in Idaho right now is a deliberate attempt to sidestep the Engle Act?

Rep. BRUCE VENTO (D-MN): I feel it is, that's the effect of it. I can't ascribe motives to the people, but it is the effect of the trades going on. It really does have the effect of circumventing the Engle Act. It's interesting that that's the case because I think that Congress has generally been very responsive to, in fact, the withdrawal of various lands. I think sometimes there may be compromises that are involved and necessary. But, generally, I think all of us want the military to have the adequate space and training areas that they need.

NARRATOR: But why would the state of Idaho want to get involved in a land swap for the benefit of the Air Force in the first place?

Mountain Home was briefly on the base closure list and closure would have had a dramatic impact on the economy of Idaho.

Mr. MEYR: One of the reasons that the governor of Idaho got involved with this bombing range was the threats of the base closure act and that if we don't improve Mountain Home Air Force Base and make it look better than other bases around the country, then Mountain Home might close. But I think if you look into it, you'd find that Mountain Home is one of the top three bases in the continental United States.

NARRATOR: Current estimates of land and airspace that the military uses in the United States are precisely that, estimates. No reliable inventory exists. Since 1988, the General Account-ing Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has issued several reports criticizing military use and management of public land and airspace that it already utilizes.

A bill introduced by Congressman Vento would force the military to take an accurate inventory of the land it currently manages and perform a national needs assessment study to deter-mine if the military really needs more land and airspace.

Rep. VENTO: It's probably one of the more non-controversial aspects of this legislation is to get an accurate inventory, so that we can make an assessment of what is being used and how it's being used and have it used efficiently. You know, the fact is that the lands, the public lands are not waste lands. The West is becoming more aware and valuing more the type of solitude and other values that are associated with wild places and with more remote areas.

NARRATOR: Idaho is only one state out of 18 where the military is seeking expanded land and airspace for training. And in every state, they are meeting opposition.

Ms. BUKOWSKI: Today, anytime the military goes for an expansion, they're meeting up with what we call in Nevada the quote, unquote, "strange bedfellows." And when I say that, I mean that the cattlemen, and the miners, and the environmentalists and all these people who usually hate each other's guts are leaving the shotguns at the door.

NARRATOR: Ironically, it is these people that the military trains so hard to protect who wind up fighting the Air Force. And despite attempts by the military to train in remote parts of the country, these areas are often pristine wilderness. To those leading the opposition, the Air Force is jeopardizing a national treasure.

Admiral CARROLL: Forty years ago, General of the Army's and President of the United States Dwight David Eisenhower said, "The problem with defense is how far can you go without destroying from within what you are trying to defend from without." President Eisenhower's question is what we've been considering here today. The United States Air Force says we must have more land and airspace in order to defend America against enemies without. Opponents say, no, the Air Force wants too much, too much that will destroy the quality of life and the beauty in a very special part of America.

In presenting both sides of this argument, we've been taking part in the democratic process, presenting the issues which ultimately Congress must decide. I hope you have enjoyed being part of the democratic process here today.

Until the next time, for "AMERICA'S DEFENSE MONITOR," I'm Eugene Carroll.

[End of broadcast.]