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Alert: Help stop the destruction -- Click
here!
Across the West, state and local governments are exploiting a loophole
in a vague, long-repealed road statute to lay claim to thousands
of miles throughout our public lands. This loophole allows special
interests the opportunity to criss-cross America's National Parks,
Wildlife Refuges, National Monuments, Wilderness Areas, and other
special places with roads and development. The Sierra Club belongs
to a coalition of groups that are working on ways to close this
loophole.
BACKGROUND
The loophole called Revised Statute 2477 --RS 2477-- was included in the Mining Law of 1866 to allow road building on federal lands that weren't reserved for other purposes. It granted the rights-of-ways for construction of highways across public lands. With the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976(FLPMA), Congress repealed the statue and established an updated process for determining reasonable access to public lands. FLPMA did not affect pre-existing claims. There has been much controversy over the validity of old RS 2477 claims. Local jurisdictions in a number of Western states are claiming faint jeep trails and even footpaths as highways, even though in 1866 such a highway was thought of as a major thoroughfare. Also, the original statute used the word "construction," indicating that the establishment of the right-of-way would have required a serious attempt to create a route.
In January, the Bush administration breathed new life into this Civil War-era statute when the Interior Department published a so-called "disclaimer rule”. The new disclaimer rule eliminated the need for people claiming roads to possess a written title to the lands and removed the 12-year statute of limitations. By dropping these requirements, the new rule opens the doors for states, counties, and even individuals to file petitions for disclaimers of interest with the BLM for rights-of-way under the loophole.
THREATS
Although many of these claims are bogus, the threats are all too real. Counties and states continue to attempt to use these illegitimate claims to disqualify lands for wilderness protection and promote development and motorized use. By claiming a route on a map, many areas would be disqualified from Wilderness designation. In addition to paved roads, the ability of counties and states to establish RS 2477 claims could also result in the location of utility corridors and pipelines within our most treasured parks and refuges.
After the statute was repealed, a modern process based on science, public participation, and legitimate right-of-ways was enacted in FLPMA. Special interests are circumventing this process by using this loophole to go around environmental review and the public to claim routes all over our wildlands.
The potential damage these claims may have on our lands is growing. An explosion of rights-of-way across public lands causes a host of detrimental environmental impacts including uncontrolled, unplanned, and unmanageable construction of new roads in pristine areas increases the risk of vandalism to valuable archeological sites; encourages an explosion of noisy, soil-churning ORV use in sensitive areas; undermines federal management of public lands; increases noise and crowding; and creates significant safety risks to tourists who unwittingly travel these primitive routes which may, at first glance, appear to be routinely maintained.
You can find more detailed information on the coalition website www.highway-robbery.org
PLACES THREATENED
Utah:
County officials have asserted almost 15,000 claims, which extend into every conservation system unit in the state including Canyonlands and Zion National Parks. Their claims include wash beds, hiking trails, and cow paths.
Zion National Park |
California:
A momentum has been building in southern California to assert blanket claims. Six counties have now passed resolutions asserting road claims. Many of these claims invade our National Parks, Preserves and Wilderness Areas including Death Valley National Park, Joshua National Parks, and Mojave National Preserve.
San Bernardino County has been actively searching out through inventories old dirt roads, cowpaths, and wash bottoms to pursue as claims. Currently, they have claimed 4,986 miles of RS 2477 highways, which is more than twice the number of actual roadways in their network. San Bernardino claims include over 900 miles in Wilderness Areas including in the Mojave National Preserve.
Mojave Preserve |
Alaska
The National Parks in Alaska have been the target of most of these road claims. The State of Alaska has indicated they plan on claiming over 1,700 dirt roads, tracks, and dogsled trails. They are even claiming there is a road in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge |
Colorado
One of the first places to be threatened by bogus highway claims in Colorado was Dinosaur National Monument. Moffat County has claimed over 240 miles inside of this spectacular monument which is home of the endangered peregrine falcon and bald eagles.
Dinosaur National Monument |
For more information please contact Jessica Hodge at (202) 675-7910 or jessica.hodge@sierraclub.org.
Mojave photo courtesy of Bil Corry
Dinasaur National Monument photo courtesy of National Park Service of Dinosaur National Monument
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