A new Sierra Club report criticizes use of some roads in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Redrock wilderness lands.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s office said the report, titled "America's Great Outdoors," contains some misinformation and exaggerations.

The report says that officials in Kane County have placed road signs on wilderness lands that have been closed by the Bureau of Land Management. These signs, the report says, imply that the routes are open to motorized travel because of a 19th century statute allowing access to previously existing roads on public land.

"I believe it's basically a backhanded attempt to disqualify these lands from wilderness designation," said Marc Heileson, Sierra regional representative.

Heileson said Kane County is using a Civil War-era statute, RS2477, that was repealed by Congress in 1976, to claim land from the Grand Staircase-Escalante.

"Counties are using a power which they do not have and are illegally putting signs out there and we're learning that the federal government is going to sue them," Heileson said.

Tammy Kikuchi, spokeswoman for Huntsman, said about half of the signs posted by Kane County have been removed.

She said several portions of the Sierra Club's report are inaccurate. For example, she said, the report states that in Utah's San Juan County, hundreds of claims have been filled under RS2477.

"By our account there have been two or three claims that have been filed," Kikuchi said.

The RS2477 statute was intended to give prospectors easy access to their claims by granting use of rights of way for roads and trails over federal lands that are not reserved for general public use. It was repealed in 1976, but any road in place prior to that time would still qualify as a local right of way under the old law.

Wayne Hoskisson, Sierra Club public lands chairman for Utah, said that state, county or other local governments have the right to apply for right-of-ways across federal lands, something which Kane County has not done.

The "America's Great Outdoors" report, issued Thurdsay, also criticizes the potential use of 6 million acres of the Redrock wilderness for oil and gas exploration. Environmentalists hoped the land could be protected as wilderness. However, a 2003 agreement between state and federal officials made designating more lands as wilderness much more difficult and cut back a 1999 BLM estimate of 5.8 million acres of Utah wilderness to 3.2 million acres.

"It basically took those 2.5 million addition acres, which were headed for protection, and removed them from protection," Heileson said. "Now that's open for oil leasing."

Heileson said the Bush administration is directing the BLM to open up more areas to oil and gas drilling as part of an effort to make American less dependent on foreign oil. Heileson said his group believes these lands should be protected for future generations.

"If they found all the oil they thought they would in Utah, it would only be three weeks of our national demand," Heileson said. "Yet these are treasures that people come from all over the world to see."

Kikuchi said there is still speculation about where oil and gas may be found in Utah, how much is there and if there is any in proposed wilderness areas.

"It's disheartening that the Sierra Club continues to put forth information that is inaccurate," Kikuchi said.