 |
Bogus road claims threaten California's national parks, monuments, wilderness areas
Across the West, counties and private interest groups are proposing to turn old trails and paths into new roads and highways across our National Parks and Monuments, National Forests, Wilderness Areas, and other sensitive public lands.
They claim that thousands of old jeep trails, cow paths, and washed-out routes qualify as "public highways," under a repealed statute known as RS 2477 -- a loophole left over from an 1860s mining law.
If permitted, these proposals to turn abandoned trails into new highways will badly damage parks, wilderness, and critical wildlife habitat. They will allow oil, gas and mining corporations to exploit public lands that should be protected. They also will exclude the public from decisions about how best to use and protect America's public lands. In a 1993 study the National Park Service concluded, "The impact of RS 2477 rights-of-way in National Park units could be devastating. ... Possible RS 2477 rights-of-ways in NPS areas could cross many miles of undisturbed fish and wildlife habitat, historical and archaeological resources, and sensitive wetlands... [and] Wilderness or potential wilderness."
In California, counties and off-road-vehicle interest groups have claimed thousands of miles of RS 2477 "highways" across the Mojave National Preserve, Giant Sequoia National Monument, Death Valley National Park, the King Range National Conservation Area, the Siskiyou Wilderness, and many other parks and wilderness areas overseen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Forest Service, and the National Park Service. These places belong to all Americans, and our nation has seen fit to protect them in order to sustain their wild ecosystems, plants and wildlife, and water resources. Proposed RS 2477 "highways" threaten to permanently scar our last wild places and extinguish their
ecological and intrinsic values.
Unfortunately, the Bush Administration recently created new rules and policies to facilitate RS 2477 highways across public lands. On January 6, 2003, Interior Secretary Gale Norton issued new "disclaimer regulations" that could be used to give away public lands in our National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and other special places. The new rule opens the door for states, counties, and special interests to file thousands of unsubstantiated road claims using RS 2477.
In California, the most threatening highway proposals are in the California desert. BLM records show that San Bernardino County has claimed more than 5,000 miles of "highways" criss-crossing the Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, numerous designated Wilderness Areas, and other public lands managed by the BLM. The great majority of these routes are abandoned prospector and ranch trails, cow paths, wash bottoms, and other faint non-highway routes. County officials say they intend to survey more trails in collaboration with special interest groups including the BlueRibbon Coalition, the Cattlemen’s Association, and mining groups. In addition, San Bernardino County has asked the BLM for a "disclaimer" under the new regulation, seeking total control of a road that crosses public lands and critical habitat for the threatened Mojave desert tortoise. The county says this disclaimer will stop BLM from requiring the county to protect tortoises on Camp Rock Road, where they are frequently road-killed.
Off-road vehicle interest groups also are making highway proposals on protected lands in California. The BlueRibbon Coalition, a national ORV group funded by the oil, gas, and mining industries, has asserted highways in the Siskiyou Wilderness and in the Giant Sequoia National Monument. The BlueRibbon Coalition has even proposed a highway on Black Sands Beach in the remote King Range National Conservation Area, in an area proposed for permanent wilderness designation in the California Wild Heritage Act.
The California Wilderness Coalition has documented and mapped RS 2477 highway proposals
in eight counties and numerous wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, and
areas proposed for wilderness designation in the California Wild Heritage Act. Six counties
in Southern California including Inyo, Imperial, Riverside, Kern, San Diego,
and San Bernardino, have passed resolutions since September 2001 asserting right-of-way claims.
 A number of these claims pose clear threats to designated wilderness areas, potential wilderness areas, national parks and preserves, desert tortoise habitat, and other environmentally sensitive wild lands, including:
Parks, Preserves and Monuments:
- Death Valley National Park
- Giant Sequoia National Monument (US Forest Service)
- Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park
- Joshua Tree National Park
- Mojave National Preserve
- Redwood National Park
- Sequoia National Park
National Conservation Areas:
- King Range National Conservation Area (BLM)
- California Desert Conservation Area (BLM)
Wilderness Areas:
- Chemehuevi Mountains Wilderness
- Cleghorn Lakes Wilderness
- Dead Mountains Wilderness
- Death Valley Wilderness
- Kingston Range Wilderness
- Mesquite Wilderness
- Mojave National Preserve Wilderness (11 units are threatened by claims)
- Orocopia Mountains Wilderness
- Palen McCoy Wilderness Area
- Palo Verde Wilderness Area
- Sheephole Valley Wilderness
- Siskiyou Wilderness Area
Proposed Wilderness Areas:
- Avawatz Mountains Proposed Wilderness Area
- Cady Mountains Proposed Wilderness Area
- Death Valley National Park Proposed Wilderness Additions
- Kingston Range Proposed Wilderness Additions
- Mineral King Proposed Wilderness
- Siskiyou Proposed Wilderness Additions
- Soda Mountains Proposed Wilderness Area
Potential Wilderness Areas:
- Sleeping Beauty Potential Wilderness Area
Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC):
- Chuckwalla Bench ACEC
- Cronese Lakes ACEC
- Denning Springs ACEC
- Dos Palmas Preserve/ACEC
National Forests:
- Klamath National Forest
- Los Padres National Forest
- Sequoia National Forest
- Six Rivers National Forest
Background
Revised Statute 2477, enacted at a time when road-building was essential to economic expansion, reads in its entirety:
"The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
-Revised Statute 2477, Mining Act of 1866
Congress repealed this frontier-era statute in 1976 with the passage of the Federal Lands
Policy and Management Act (FLPMA),
but grandfathered valid right-of-way claims pre-dating the repeal. Title V of FLPMA established the rules and
procedures under which the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) could henceforth grant such rights-of-way and was
presumably intended by Congress to supplant RS 2477.
However, 136 years later, many still view the antiquated statute as a means to claim rights-of-way
across our national parks, forests, wilderness, and other public lands. These claimants try to use RS 2477 to
keep open existing routes, and to re-open protected areas where motorized access has
been restricted or closed. In many western states including Utah, Alaska, and more recently, California,
RS 2477 has been used aggressively by rural counties and off-road vehicle groups as a tool to
disqualify lands proposed for Wilderness designation. Far from claiming legitimate "highways," these groups
have proposed thousands of jeep trails, two-tracks, wash bottoms, and even cow paths and rivers as rights-of-way
for new roads.
The abuse of RS 2477 as a means to take control of public lands has increased greatly under the Bush Administration. In January 2003 the Department of the Interior adopted a new regulation making it easier to give away federal public land to counties
and other entities under RS 2477, using the "disclaimers of interest" authorized by FLPMA for unrelated purposes. The revised "disclaimer regulation" threatens all past and present federal lands, including wilderness areas, national park and national forest
lands, national wildlife refuges, military bases, and even private property that was once federally owned such as homesteaded or patented lands. The rule gives BLM authority to give away federal lands with minimal statutory restraint in a way
that circumvents judicial proceedings and public involvement.
In addition, the Interior Department has begun a process to grant these "disclaimers" in bulk. In April 2003, Interior signed a Memorandum of Understanding allowing the State of Utah to claim thousands of miles of old trails across National Forests, the vast Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and millions of acres of potential wilderness on BLM lands. The department is touting this dreadful agreement as the model for other states and counties.
For more information please contact:
California Wilderness Coalition
info@calwild.org
|
|
Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
