Tom's Turn: Notes from our Senior Editor

What is a Road?

October 20, 2006

Anyone who's been reading this column for any time at all knows of my fascination with roads - and, in our national forests in particular, the lack of roads. National forests contain official areas known as Inventoried Roadless Areas, which were identified in the 1970s and have been battled over ever since. Those are the focus of the Roadless Rule, about which we've had much to say and will have much more to say no doubt.

The other big road story about public lands falls under the heading RS2477. R(evised) S(tatute) 2477 is a Civil War-era law repealed in 1976 that said, in its entirety, "The right-of-way for the construction of highways across public lands not reserved for public purposes is hereby granted."

Various jurisdictions across the West, led by several renegade counties in Utah, have interpreted the law to give them rights-of-way to faint wildlife trails, cowpaths, even streambeds in national parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas - any federal land. In Alaska, the state argues that the section lines on maps are valid rights-of-way.

Defending these lands has become a career for Ted Zukoski, an Earthjustice attorney in Denver, about whom you can read much more here.

The battles have been in and out of court constantly, with our side winning its share including a recent victory that temporarily spares Bryce and Zion National Parks and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Entities that claim rights-of-way must prove that they existed before the law was repealed in 1976. Until recently they also had to prove that the routes were "constructed," but the appeals court in Denver recently ditched that standard in favor of requiring proof that the route has been in continuous use.


It's all extraordinarily important, dangerous, and complicated. In fact, we help maintain a website devoted to keeping up on RS2477 news. I encourage you to check it out:
www.highway-robbery.org.

Tom Turner, Senior Editor
yourturn@earthjustice.org