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March 23, 2006:
The Great Terrain Robbery: Public lands Giveaways for Highway Construction
Protection of our nation's public lands and wild America is under assault. Using an antiquated loophole in a law known as Revised Statute (RS) 2477, outgoing Interior Secretary Gale Norton is pursing, without Congressional or public input, a policy that will put our wildlife refuges, national parks, monuments, wilderness areas, and other special public lands at risk of increased road development and damaging off-road vehicles.
The Department of Interior's proposed process for approving old claims to highways on federal lands across the West would make it easier for states or counties to promote highway construction on public lands. Anti-wilderness forces have identified dirt tracks, cow paths, hiking corridors, and off-road vehicle trails as potential roads. Too frequently these claims have no or little connection to real transportation needs.
Action Needed: Please call or write your senators about your concerns with the Department's proposal, and ask them to stop the Agency from moving forward with this scheme. Ask them to speak out about this proposal to their colleagues, in committee forums and on the Senate Floor. To call your Senator, dial the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
Talking Points: Removing federal protections from these routes could have major consequences throughout the West. RS 2477 puts wildlife refuges, national parks, national monuments, national forests, conservation areas, and other sensitive federal lands at risk of road development and damaging off-road vehicle use.
National parks, national monuments, designated wilderness areas, and lands proposed for wilderness protection are just too important to be unilaterally surrendered for damaging road development, and should be omitted from the administration's highway giveaway.
Under the new process, it is unlikely that the administration will seek meaningful public input or ensure that these roads, routes, tracks, and trails will not damage rivers, wildlife habitat, cultural artifacts, and other important resources. Examples of road claims include:
- In Utah's Canyonlands National Park, San Juan County is claiming that a streambed called Salt Creek is a highway under the loophole. The National Park Service considers the area rich in cultural artifacts and an important water source for the region.
- The state of Utah submitted a map to the Interior Department in 2000, claiming that 100,000 miles of routes, including every hiking trail in Zion National Park and routes across every designated wilderness in the state, are highways under RS 2477.
- In California, San Bernardino County has claimed that more than 5,000 miles of highways crisscross the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park, including more than 700 miles within designated wilderness. The great majority of these routes are ranch trails, cow paths, and other faint non-highway routes.
- Moffat County, Colorado has claimed that 240 miles of trails through Dinosaur National Monument, including part of the Yampa River itself, are highways.
- The state of Alaska has asserted 164 separate routes through 14 Alaska national parks, totaling almost 3,000 miles. Over half of those miles are in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, America's largest park. A 1993 National Park Service report concluded that the impact of these claims "could be devastating." The state also claims over 3,700 miles of potential roads and trails through 15 national wildlife refuges, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many of these routes are nothing more than dog sled trails or old horse paths.
Background: RS 2477 is a Civil War era law adopted in 1866 to encourage western settlement by granting states and counties rights of way across federal lands. Under RS 2477 off-road vehicle routes, cattle tracks, hiking paths and streambeds highways are considered potential highway routes. In 1976, over a century after its adoption, Congress repealed RS 2477 with the passage of the Federal Lands Policy Management Act, which updated the process to determine reasonable access to public lands.
However efforts to revive RS 2477 were led by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. Beginning in 2002, Secretary Norton issued a "rule" allowing RS 2477 claims to move forward under and agreement cut by the Bush Administration and the state of Utah.
Ensuring the selling-of of public lands continues after her departure, Secretary Norton would accelerate the RS 2477 road claim process, effectively ceding thousands of acres of public lands throughout West to local and state governments. Despite the fact the claims may be a cow path or ORV trail, under the new guidance, these routes could be viewed as highways.
Sample Letter should you wish to write your Senator:
Dear Senator,
One commonality among the 750,000 Sierra Club members is our belief that public lands should stay in public hands, and not be given away for development and the construction of highways. But the threat of losing our American heritage is very real. The Interior Department is poised to surrender rights of way affecting million of acres in our nation's wildlife refuges, parks, monuments and other special places. As a constituent, I ask you to protect our natural heritage and actively oppose a Department of the Interior proposal that would pave the way for road building on millions of acres of public lands using an obscure loophole known as RS 2477. Good stewardship of our public lands mandates that Congress stop the enactment of this damaging RS 2477 policy.
The Interior Department proposal puts millions of acres of America's treasured places at risk to damaging highway development. Our lands are the source of clean water, abundant wildlife, captivating beauty, historical significance and spiritual value; but the America's public lands and these qualities could be lost forever if the department goes forward with giving away roads, routes, off-road vehicle tracks, and trails across western public lands to those who seek to turn them into highways.
Please stop the Interior Department from institutionalizing the RS 2477 statue and handing over these federal lands to states and counties that do not have the management authority to ensure our public lands, wildlife habitat, and other natural and cultural resources remain protected. More than 10,000 road proposals have been catalogued in Utah alone. Other states are at risk of excessive highway development too. I urge you to take a leadership role in stopping this land giveaway to highway development.
Sincerely, etc.
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