The Clinton administration declared war Thursday on a bill Western senators say would make it easier for counties to clarify which byways, jeep trails and paths that crisscross federal lands are legal roads.
John D. Leshy, solicitor for the U.S. Department of Interior, told Congress the bill "poses a grave threat . . . to national parks, wildlife refuges, military bases and other sensitive federal lands" by giving counties sole control of roads there.He added that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt will ask President Clinton to veto the bill if passed because its "potential harm to wildlife, fisheries, cultural resources, park and wilderness values and subsistence resources is profound."
The controversy comes over rights of way established under an 1866 law, known as R.S. 2477, that allowed local governments to establish paths and roads across federal lands that were not already set aside for other purposes.
Congress repealed that law in 1976 but allowed existing R.S. 2477 claims to continue. The trouble is, no maps or lists of such claims were made - and federal and local governments disagree over what constitutes a legal highway under R.S. 2477 provisions.
The Clinton administration last year proposed not to recognize old rights of way across federal lands unless counties can prove they existed before 1976, are used by vehicles (not just livestock) and had construction that permanently altered terrain. The burden of proof would be on local counties.
Western senators - including Sens. Orrin Hatch and Bob Bennett, R-Utah - are pushing a bill to block those regulations, and a similar House bill is being pushed by Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah.
Their bills would require counties and others to file R.S. 2477 claims with the federal government, which would have two years to dispute them - and the federal government would have to prove they are not valid claims.
Hatch and Bennett submitted testimony Thursday to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee saying administration proposals could cut off access to farms, ranches and mines.
And Hatch said some routes that may no longer be allowed under administration proposals "provide necessary access for school buses, emergency vehicles and mail delivery."
Utah has more pending R.S. 2477 claims - more than 5,000 - than the rest of the states combined.
However, Scott Groene, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, testified many such claims are being pushed mostly to try to block proposed wilderness areas - which are not supposed to have roads.
He submitted photos taken by volunteers of some claimed R.S 2477 "roads" he said that were actually rivers, gulches and areas where no traces of even trails could be found.
Groene said the senators' alternative bill "rolls back legal precedent to create a property claim giveaway for those who seek to undermine wilderness protection."
Leshy added the administration feels "it effectively renders the federal government powerless to prevent the conversion of footpaths, dog sled trails, jeep tracks, ice roads and other primitive transportation roads into paved highways."
He said the senators' proposal "is one-sided, subject to abuse and seems designed to validate hundreds or thousands of rights of way by default across the Western states."