About

Why a Peaceful Skies Movement is Needed.

The Peaceful Skies Coalition is a diverse group of organizations and people who came together very quickly in the Fall of 2010 to stop air force Special Operations from creating a Low Altitude Training Area (LATA) for military training flights over the skies of New Mexico and Colorado. The coalition has brought together an amazing cross-section of people: tribal leaders and local governments, ranchers and environmentalists, veterans and pacifists. People across the entire political spectrum have organized to save a place, a very special place.

Working together, in November of 2011, we were able to generate a groundswell of more than 1600 written comments to Cannon Air Force Base against this proposal. Hundreds of people spoke out in opposition at seventeen meetings held throughout the region in September and October 2011.

We, the people, spoke so loudly and so strongly in defense of this region that Cannon withdrew the Draft Environmental Assessment they had proposed. (Samples of these extensive, in-depth comments from organizations and individuals are available on the Comments page.)

But … the air force still wants to move forward its expansion of special operations here.

Peaceful Skies Coalition realizes that protecting the short grass prairie and Southern Rockies from destructive military activities will take ongoing vigilance. In 2012 the Peaceful Skies Coalition incorporated as a non-profit organization dedicated to working together to protect the environment; the watersheds; rivers, streams and acequias, wildlife, range animals, forests, grasslands, and the health of the public.