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By: Robert Janis
Securing Access Is
Sole Purpose of Utah Shared Access Alliance
In the state of Utah there is one
organization that is focused like a laser beam
on the issue of access to public lands. That
group is the Utah Shared Access Alliance a.k.a.
USA-ALL.
The organization was founded as a wing of the
Utah Trail Machine Association in 1999 to
counter the actions of the Southern Utah
Wilderness Alliance, a particularly radical
environmentalist organization. “It started as
the land use arm of the Utah Trail Machine
Association, which is a group of guys who liked
to motorcycle on public lands in Utah,”
explained Michael Swenson, executive Director of
USA-ALL. “From that it branched off and became
its own entity. Instead of just concentrating on
motorcycle issues it expanded into all forms of
motorized access.”
Based in Provo, Utah, USA-ALL is a true alliance
that brings individuals, businesses,
associations, clubs, and others under one united
front. Most of the major organizations of the
State of Utah that represent dirt bikers,
snowmobilers, ATVers, Four-Wheel Drive, and Jeep
enthusiasts are allied with the organization.
According to Swenson, there are about 10,000
donor/members.
USA-ALL aggressively communicates with the
public about issues and solicits donations by
utilizing its website (www.usaall.org), Facebook, Twitter, a blog, direct mail and
aggressive e-mail campaigns. They have just
started using a new polling and survey tool on
their website and via e-mail to better serve
their members and gain an understanding of where
their membership stands on certain issues and
what they want USA-ALL to do about them.
Moreover, in the past couple of months USA-ALL
has gotten involved in viral marketing on the
Internet. It has a FaceBook and Twitter page,
and it is using a new html e-mail marketing
service. “We are coming out of the stone age
from just being a basic web page to becoming
much more aggressive on the Internet,” said
Swenson.
Road Ownership
The biggest issue concerning access in Utah is
road ownership, explained Swenson. “Who has the
right to manage and own a road? Who has title to
roads in the rural part of the state,” he said.
“It is not only a big issue here in Utah. It is
huge for the entire country and primarily the
western states. We think that if a key issue
known as RS 2477 Rights of Way were resolved
then the majority of the access issues will also
be resolved.”
USA-ALL is heavily involved in the issue. “We
are active in engaging the public and educating
them on the issue and advising them on what they
can do,” continued Swenson.
“It is an interesting problem in that USA-ALL
can’t actually file a lawsuit concerning
disputed roads,” added Swenson. “The court has
determined that it has to be an entity like a
county or the state. So USA-ALL is often
cooperating and working with rural counties, and
when we can, the state of Utah, by intervening
in certain lawsuits. We are also involved in
educating the public and working with the land
managers to identify roads they are willing to
concede are state or county owned.”
Swenson pointed out that there is a bill (H.R.
308 Rights of Way Recognition Act) that has been
introduced into the Congress in Washington, D.C.
that would resolve the issue and that the
USA-ALL had input on early drafts. He explained
that once passed, the legislation would not only
resolve the issue for Utah, but would do so for
all states.
The pending law was the result of a decision by
the 10th U.S. Circuit Court involving a suit
brought forward by the State of Utah and some
counties of the state. It was this appeal that
overturned a “poor and unprecedented” decision
in a lower court by Judge Tina Campbell and
rightfully set precedence to the status prior to
Judge Campbell’s decision. In addition, the 10th
Circuit Court’s ruling is the basis of the bill
pending in Congress. “In effect, the law would
codify the circuit court decision,” said
Swenson.
“The interesting thing about the court decision
and the legislation is that neither specifically
defines what a right of way is. It leaves that
up to state law,” said Swenson. “That’s the
beautiful part of it. Rather than the federal
government coming in and saying, ‘We are going
to tell you what is or is not a road,’ it is the
counties and the state that make that
determination.”
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