Environmentalists: Utah road dispute costly

By Josh Loftin

Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, April 24 2012 9:37 a.m. MDT

Summary

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is expected to release maps showing the location of thousands of roads that Utah officials are trying to claim through a federal lawsuit.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance is expected to release maps showing the location of thousands of roads that Utah officials are trying to claim through a federal lawsuit.

The group is planning a news conference Tuesday morning along with the Sierra Club, archeologists and private property owners. They say vehicle use on many of the roads will threaten national parks, monuments and other designated wilderness areas if the state gains control of them.

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert announced in December that the state has filed a notice of intent with the U.S. Interior Department to file the lawsuit over more than 18,000 roads.

The threatened lawsuit is part of a decades-long dispute throughout the western United States. The contested routes can range from graded dirt roads to dry stream beds.

Featured Comments

See all 4 comments »

silkywiley

Cottonwood Heights, UT

The red greenies in their never ending toil to push humans (who they consider a plague on the earth) into the human coop cities and ban them from access to nature.

10:41 a.m. April 24, 2012
Top comment

rtn

Salt Lake City, UT

I suggest reading a book namw treason in America by Antone Chaitkin it outlines the history of withholding the development of the american west who wants it and why and how the environmental movement was created to help push this agenda

1:32 p.m. April 24, 2012
Top comment

Rifleman

Salt Lake City, Utah

"Mike and Chantell Sackett bought their land near a scenic lake for $25,000, but when they decided to build a property there in 2007, the EPA ordered a halt, saying the Clean Water Act requires that wetlands not be disturbed without a More..

2:28 p.m. April 24, 2012
Top comment

Comments