RS-2477 suit dismissed in Utah

[IntrepidXJ]

Court Dismisses County Suit Claiming “Roads” Ignored by Land Managers

On June 29, in a ruling with broad implications for federal public lands, U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Jenkins threw out a lawsuit by two southern Utah counties claiming that managers of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument disregarded so-called R.S. 2477 “highway rights-of-way.” SUWA and The Wilderness Society intervened in the case, and joined federal attorneys in asking the court to dismiss the suit.

The suit sought to stop implementation of the Monument’s 1999 management plan, which protects the fragile natural resources of the area by carefully limiting travel to a 1,000 mile network of roads. ORV use on these routes was banned. The plaintiffs, Kane and Garfield Counties, say right-of-way claims under a now-repealed statute known as R.S. 2477 defines dirt trails, dry stream beds and faint tracks as highways.

Judge Jenkins ruled that the counties could not require the BLM to base its management plan on R.S. 2477 claims until the counties establish the validity of those claims in federal court. Because the counties have failed so far to do so, the judge reasoned that the suit was premature. Judge Jenkins also ruled that the counties could not require the BLM to decide whether their R.S. 2477 claims were valid before the BLM completes its management plans.

SUWA's Heidi McIntosh summarizes it this way: “The court’s ruling reaffirms that counties may not undermine the protection of unique and scenic public lands like national monuments by simply uttering the “magical” phrase ‘R.S. 2477.’ And it should put some steel in the spine of the BLM, which has too often allowed the counties who do so to get away with it.”

This ruling also has promising implications for other landscapes worthy of protection. The court’s ruling should apply to lands managed by the BLM across the west, and affirms that counties have to prove valid rights-of-way first, before bulldozing or staking road signs. This will bolster efforts to protect areas proposed for wilderness designation, as well as National Parks and Wildlife Refuges from trumped-up RS 2477 road claims.

http://www.suwa.org/site/News2?JSer...2b&page=NewsArticle&id=6189&news_iv_ctrl=1162

 

[IntrepidXJ]

Kane, Garfield to appeal ruling on road ownership
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Less than two weeks after a federal judge rejected Kane and Garfield counties' claims on roads in a national monument, the two county commissions have decided to appeal the ruling.
Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the commissions decided on the move during a closed-session conference call Monday, believing the ruling's requirement to take each road claim to court separately is too great a burden.
Habbeshaw said the counties' attorney will file a notice of the impending appeal this week. The appeal would argue U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins' June 29 opinion goes against case law and congressional intent on how to determine ownership of the roads that crosshatch the 1.8 million acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the commissioner said.
Jenkins dismissed the lawsuit, ruling Kane and Garfield counties can't autonomously claim ownership of roads or expect the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to do so for them. That's because the BLM doesn't have the power to make binding decisions on road ownership, the ruling said. Further, until the counties prove ownership under legally required "quiet title" action, the lawsuit is premature, the judge said.
Jenkins' ruling reiterated an earlier federal appeals court decision that, based on Utah law, each claim had to be judged in court after a county claimed title to a road.
Central to the dispute is Revised Statute 2477, a Civil War-era mining law that allowed counties and cities to construct roads across federal land. The open-ended language was repealed three decades ago, but existing rights of way were grandfathered in.
Road claims are part of the ongoing battle over mechanized access to potential wilderness areas in Utah that has pitted environmental organizations seeking to conserve roadless areas against local officials who fear wilderness designation will harm their economies.
Several years ago, Kane County officials yanked down road signs banning all-terrain vehicles in the monument. Those stunts are in the past, Habbeshaw said.
"We're not doing those kinds of things anymore. We're in court now," he said.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6346034