Roads issue becomes even more tangled

Untangling the status of roads claimed by Utah counties under a Civil War-era law is about as difficult as driving a Jeep on a trail across slick bentonite.

The latest federal court decision, issued Tuesday, affirms the National Park Service's right to close a road in the Salt Creek area of Canyonlands National Park. The route had been claimed by San Juan County under the Revised Statute 2477 law that dates back well over a century.

But in a separate case last week, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered reconsideration of a federal district court ruling involving the same stretch of road in San Juan County and other routes claimed under the RS 2477 law. State officials hailed that decision as a victory for the rights of the public to access old road rights of way, though environmentalists said it would only lead to more suits.

The latest twist came Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge Dale A. Kimball ruled in favor of the National Park Service closing 11 miles of the Salt Creek road, which leads to Angel Arch. The case, filed by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, dates back 10 years.

Kimball had originally upheld the closure. Then the off-road vehicle group Utah Shared Access Alliance asked the appeals court to reverse the decision. The 10th Circuit ordered Kimball to reconsider the case, based on a technical legal matter involving the steps needed to arrive at the decision.

Kimball reconsidered and now has reaffirmed the agency's right to close the road.

"The Salt Creek Road is an unpaved and ungraded jeep trail that runs in and out of Salt Creek," wrote Kimball. "In various places, the road is the creek bed. . . .

"Because of the condition of the road, vehicles using the road periodically break down or become stuck, requiring NPS (National Park Service) assistance for removal. There have been instances where vehicles have lost transmission, engine or crankcase fluids in Salt Creek's water. There is no practical way to reroute the road to avoid the watercourse."

Other than the Green and Colorado rivers, Salt Creek is the most extensive riparian ecosystem in Canyonlands, the judge wrote. To protect the area's natural values from damage, the Park Service closed the route to motorized access.

He noted that in one assessment, more than 90 percent of the public comments favored closing the route to vehicles; in another, the Park Service received comments from more than 2,800 people and 25 organizations, with more than 97 percent favoring the closure.