Utah drops lawsuit against feds over 6 BLM roads

The state has dropped a lawsuit it filed in 2005 against the federal government over county claims for control of six dirt roads across Bureau of Land Management land.

Rather than a sign of surrender in the matter, it may mark an era of greater cooperation between state and federal governments concerning R.S. 2477 roads, which are routes that counties claim rights to, under a statute dating to the late 1860s. Although the statute was repealed under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, any route that was in use before then might come under R.S. 2477.

Representing the counties, the Utah suit asserted claims for these routes: Geothermal Road in Beaver County; the Goose Creek, Grouse Creek, Pilot Mountain roads in Box Elder County; the Black Dragon to Hatt Ranch Road in Emery County; Atchee Ridge Road in Uintah County; Lytle Ranch Road in Washington County; and Bert Aver Road in Wayne County.

However, on Friday the state stipulated the U.S. District Court lawsuit should be dismissed. But the action kept open the possibility that it could be filed again. State and federal governments are to bear their own costs.

In a press release, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and The Wilderness Society said the state had filed the suit, Utah v. United States, "as part of an ongoing strategy to claim more than 10,000 such tracks ... the state and some rural Utah counties view R.S. 2477 as a way to wrest control of federal public land away from federal land agencies, arguing that these 'highways' are immune from federal authority and regulation."

Kristen Brengel, a director of The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C., said the groups consider it interesting that the state dropped the suit, "but they still have pre-existing lawsuits in Canyonlands (National Park), and San Rafael Swell and Deep Creek" areas.

The dismissal is "very encouraging" for those who love the public lands in Utah, she said, "but we hope that the state comes to the same conclusion to the pending lawsuits" over roads in park land and wilderness-quality land, she said.

Roger R. Fairbanks, the assistant attorney general in the suit, said wilderness advocates should not read too much into the dismissal. The roads are already highly developed, and the state and BLM do not disagree about their status.

"We have simply made a decision to concentrate our resources on more important matters that can't be resolved through cooperative efforts with the BLM," he said.

None of the six routes is closed, and they don't cross what the state would consider environmentally sensitive areas, he said. The Box Elder County route is "a main artery that goes from down near Wendover clear up to the Idaho border," he said. The state would pursue legal action if the BLM were to close one of the roads, however.

Since the suit was filed, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has clarified the legal situation. Also, he said, "I think there's a shift in attitudes" where state and federal representatives are better able to negotiate such questions.

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