A Civil War-era loophole known as R.S. 2477 may allow states and counties to perform widespread highway maintenance and construction across federal lands, including protected areas such as National Parks and Wilderness in the West. The policy finalized by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton entails a new process for recognizing purported highway rights-of-way based on R.S. 2477, and opens the door for states, counties, and special interests to file road claims on public land.
Mining and logging companies, oil and gas developers, ATV users and other special interest groups are trying to use this 19th century statute to punch dirt bike trails and paved roads into our National Parks and National Wildlife Refuges, asserting that old trails should be considered "highways," and disqualifying deserving places from protection as wilderness areas. Maintenance and construction of these “highways” could directly conflict with long-standing federal protections for National Parks and other western public lands, with devastating impacts for rivers, streams, and archeological and cultural resources.
Wilderness advocates are concerned about the exclusion of public input in developing the new policy, which will guide every agency under the Interior Department’s jurisdiction, including the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (which manages National Wildlife Refuges).
The creation of a spider web of unnecessary roads in wild areas would increase the risk of vandalism to valuable archaeological sites, expand already unmanageable use of dirt bikes, ATVs and other off-road vehicles, increase habitat fragmentation and erosion, and undermine conservation efforts for lands that should be preserved for future generations.
Moffat County: An Example of Public Lands at Risk in Colorado
In 2003, the Moffat County Board of County Commissioners approved a resolution to claim more than 2,000 miles of R.S. 2477 routes in northwest Colorado.
Moffat County’s claims include 240 miles of so-called "constructed highways" within the Dinosaur National Monument; 53 miles of potential roadway within the Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge; and over 230 miles of claimed "roads" within the 77,000 acres of Vermillion Basin proposed wilderness.
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