well, then they could put up tolls on the cowpath, and...

[Guest guest]

Forwarded Message Follows *******

 

White House Proposing Giveaway of Your Public Lands

 

Do you want your public lands given away to special interests for

unfettered development? If not, read this and send in an official comment

today! The deadline for receiving comments is Tuesday April 23, so act

now! Go to http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=139138 to send

an email protesting this proposal.

 

The Bush Administration has quietly proposed changes to an obscure federal

regulation that would allow states and special interests to claim title to

and build roads across millions of acres of the nation’s most spectacular

wild places. If successful, the proposal could pave the way for the

federal government to give states and special interests title to thousands

of miles of trails, tracks and dirt roads in places like Canyonlands

National Park in Utah, the Great Alaska Wilderness, and Death Valley

National Park in California. Send an email to the Administration today to

help protect America's wild places.

 

The proposal comes as the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) is engaged in

secret, closed-door negotiations with the State of Utah over the right to

build roads in national parks and wilderness areas. DOI is attempting to

circumvent a June 2001 court decision which blocks Utah’s over-zealous

efforts to have cowpaths and abandoned trails declared " highways. " If

approved, this proposal would grease the way for the Administration to

grant the state control over thousands of right of way claims without any

public involvement or say.

 

Road building in fragile forests, wetlands, deserts, and other backcountry

areas causes enormous damage in and of itself, especially when there are

no environmental safeguards or public input. Yet, the problem doesn’t stop

there. Granting thousands of right of way claims could effectively

disqualify these special places for wilderness protection, and open them

up to oil and gas drilling, mining, logging, and damage caused by rampant

off-road vehicle use.

 

The Bush Administration proposal is based on a mining law originally

passed in 1866 (and long since repealed) that allowed special interests to

make claims to rights of way on lands owned by the American public.

Mining, off-road vehicle, and other anti-wilderness groups have long

touted this statute – called RS 2477 – as a way of defeating proposals for

wilderness and parks. Thousands upon thousands of these claims have been

made – 10,000 in Utah alone.

 

These wilderness-destroying claims are a burgeoning trend throughout the

country.

 

The Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park in California

recently received a letter from local counties alleging over 2,300 miles

of RS 2477 routes in the Preserve and Park.

 

Under the Alaska Supreme Court's incredibly broad standard for RS 2477

claims, every section line in the State could qualify as an RS 2477

right-of-way, criss-crossing the State with over one million miles of

claims. These alleged claims would threaten Alaska’s most treasured

National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, National Forests and designated

Wilderness areas.

 

Several counties in Montana, Idaho & Oregon have asserted claims to every

road on the national forest lands within the county boundaries. Taxpayers

pay for all of these unnecessary " roads. " A 1993 Department of Interior

study found that costs relating to just the investigations of these

ill-founded claims run $1 million to $5 million each.

 

Many claims of rights-of-way for " highways " across public lands are not

valid claims, but are cynical attempts to thwart wilderness protection or

otherwise break up public wild lands. BLM should not be validating these

bogus claims through the expedited process allowed under the proposed

rule. The BLM should, instead, apply a rigorous determination process for

validating each claim to rights-of-way across public lands.

 

Western states like Utah and Alaska still have a lot of undeveloped public

land. There's a move afoot that will change this irreversibly. If you

think there's been enough development of the public lands check this out

and send a comment. Enough folks speaking out might protect these lands as

they are.

 

Act now! Go to http://www.capwiz.com/awc/issues/alert/?alertid=139138 to

send an email protesting this proposal.

 

Melyssa Watson, Chair

American Wilderness Coalition