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BLUERIBBON COALITION
APPLAUDS R.S. 2477 RULING
 POCATELLO,
ID (August 17, 2006) -- The BlueRibbon
Coalition, a national trails-based recreational
advocacy group, applauded yesterday's Utah
District Court dismissal of a decade old lawsuit
challenging rights of ways across public lands.
A federal judge in Salt Lake City on
Wednesday dismissed the 1996 suit filed against
the Bureau of Land Management by a coalition of
anti-access groups, including the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance and the Sierra Club. Judge
Bruce Jenkins granted a motion offered by Utah
counties to dismiss the case, citing a ruling
handed down by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
last fall.
"This is a huge victory for millions of
Americans who value access to public lands,"
said BlueRibbon's Public Lands Director, Brian
Hawthorne. "I think this decision throws a
bucket of cold water on efforts by green groups
to impose their closure agenda on local
governments and the public", Hawthorne
concluded.
The litigation began in 1996 when road crews
employed by Utah's San Juan, Kane, and Garfield
Counties graded sixteen roads located in
southern Utah. The Southern Utah Wilderness
Alliance (SUWA) and other anti-access groups
filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) , San Juan County, Kane and Garfield
Counties, alleging that the Counties had engaged
in unlawful road construction activities and
that the BLM had violated the law by not taking
more aggressive action against the road
maintenance. The BLM subsequently filed
cross-claims against the Counties, alleging that
their road construction activities constituted
trespass and degradation of federal property.
The Counties claim the road maintenance
activities were lawful because the activities
took place within valid "R.S. 2477" rights of
way. The district court ruled that federal law,
as interpreted by BLM, dictated critical legal
definitions in the case relating to the
establishment, scope and maintenance of the
"highways."
A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit
reversed, finding that state law properly guides
interpretation of the existence and scope of any
2477 roads. At the time of the 10th Circuit
decision, Paul Turcke, legal counsel for
BlueRibbon observed "it will take time to
evaluate the impact of this important decision,
but it appears that the Circuit Court has
reversed the district court's deviation from the
previously-established precedent and reminded
the parties to focus on state law concepts in
evaluating the counties' actions," After
yesterday's ruling, Turcke noted "this outcome
was predictable given the Circuit's guidance,
and will hopefully signal future certainty and a
hope for cooperation between counties, the
federal government and affected members of the
public where 2477 rights of way are concerned."
About BlueRibbon Coalition
The BlueRibbon Coalition is a national
recreation group that champions responsible use
of public and private lands, and encourages
individual environmental stewardship. It
represents over 10,000 individual members and
1,200 organization and business members, for a
combined total of over 600,000 recreationists
nationwide.
1-800-258-3742.
http://www.sharetrails.org.
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