Judge doubts claims of road ownership

A federal judge ruled Thursday that two conservation groups can sue a southern Utah county in one of the many disputes over roads claimed by the state and counties across federal lands, national parks and wilderness study areas.

In a 13-page decision rejecting a motion for dismissal, U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell said Kane County has offered no proof it owns any roads across large areas of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument where the federal government has banned vehicles.

Campbell said Kane County hasn't even tried to show that any dirt paths ever existed as roads that might qualify under an obscure Civil War-era law, Revised Statute 2477, that assured passage across federal lands.

"Certainly the county could defend the legality of the ordinance by attempting to meet its burden to show that it has acquired R.S. 2477 rights on the land. But that has not happened. All the county has done is claim it has R.S. 2477 rights and assert in its answer to the complaint that it will rely on R.S. 2477 rights as a defense," Campbell wrote.

"Therefore, as the litigation now stands, the county has not shown that the state of Utah and the county have an interest in the land," she said.

Jim Angell, a lawyer for The Wilderness Society, said Thursday, "Kane County has to come forward with proof, and unless they do, they're violating federal law."

The Wilderness Society and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance sued in 2003 after Kane County officials ripped up 31 monument signs banning vehicle travel and substituted them with county motor-route signs.

Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw didn't return a phone message left at his home late Thursday by The Associated Press.

The case is one of at least five that have conservation groups, the state of Utah or counties suing over claims of road ownership on federal lands.

Most recently, U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins dismissed a 10-year-old lawsuit brought by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance that sought to force the Bureau of Land Management to defend its turf against road-building incursions by Utah counties.

Jenkins ruled Aug. 16 that because the Bureau of Land Management was unwilling to get involved in the dispute, the wilderness group didn't have a case.