Kane raising Cain over road signs

In the latest move over a long-standing dispute over control of local roads, Kane County has begun posting signs designating off-road vehicle routes in a wilderness study area.

The signs are next to some posted by the Bureau of Land Management specifically prohibiting motorized traffic several miles northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The county is locked in a dispute over the RS2477 statute, a Civil War-era law granting broad rights of way across public land until it was repealed by Congress in 1976, with existing roads grandfathered in.

Neither Kane County nor BLM officials could be reached for comment Friday, but word of the new sign postings drew a swift response from environmentalists.

"This is a huge line to cross," said Liz Thomas, a Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney. "The BLM has a duty to protect these (wilderness study areas), so I think the situation has changed. The county is clearly pushing the edge here."

The road in question leads to an old windmill used by ranchers to pump water. It is also the site of a rare grove of aspen trees along with manzanita brush and a variety of grasses.

Earlier this week, Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw reiterated the county's position that posting the signs is necessary to protect vital local interests.

"We're signing what we believe to be our county transportation system," he said. "If we're wrong, we'll remove them, but we think we're on pretty solid ground.

"We are trying to work with the BLM, and I think that's been demonstrated in a number of instances," he continued. "At the same time, we can't let them dictate over our property rights."

BLM officials in Kanab are in the early stages of crafting a new resource management plan for the area that would involve off-road-vehicle access and route planning.

Kane County "is acting as if the federal planning process has no standing as to how federal lands will be managed," BLM spokesman Don Banks said this past week.

A little less than two years ago, Kane County officials removed nearly three dozen BLM signs in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that either prohibited or restricted off-road vehicle use. That incident prompted a grand jury investigation of Habbeshaw and Kane County Sheriff Lamont Smith, though no charges have been filed.

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined comment this past week about the sign postings or the status of the earlier sign-removal investigation.

"However, that shouldn't be construed to mean there isn't anything going on," said spokeswoman Melodie Rydalch.

Habbeshaw says county road crews are moving west to east across BLM land as they post the signs, though they have been slowed recently by wet, muddy conditions. The plan, he adds, is to eventually post signs on all roads the county claims under RS2477.