tmsander
New member
Just another example of Republican wilderness-related land ethics....
Rights Of Way Restrictions Eased
WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2003 (ENS) - A controversial plan to ease restrictions on granting rights of way across public lands went into effect on Wednesday.
The rule allows roads and highways to be built along any route presently traced by a road or trail, even if the trail is 150 years old and has never been traveled by a motor vehicle. Criticized as a giveaway of lands owned by the public, the rule will hit especially hard in Alaska and the West.
"The statute is like a fish out of water - it just doesn't belong in the modern world," said Courtney Cuff, director of the National Parks Conservation Association's (NPCA) Pacific regional office. "In California, local counties have alleged more than 2,500 miles of routes in the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park. Counties in Montana, Idaho, and Oregon have asserted claims to roads on national forest lands. The new rule should be seen for what it is - a blatant land grab that defies public interest."
The 130 year old rule (RS 2477 of the 1866 Mining Act), designed to encourage road building in the Civil War era and repealed by Congress in 1976, has been resuscitated by the Department of the Interior. Beginning Wednesday, local and state governments will be able to expedite filing claims for rights of way under the Civil War era statute.
The NPCA said the regulation could allow mining companies and other developers to force the building of thousands of miles of new roads through pristine western public lands, including national parks.
In Alaska, the roads and trails that could be developed in national parks and preserves under the 1866 rule total more than 2,700 miles. More than half of those potential miles could be built in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the nation's largest national park and largest park wilderness area, potentially adding more than 1,600 miles of road in a park that now has about 100 roads.
Thirteen Alaska national parks and preserves could be affected, including Denali, Bering Land Bridge, and Yukon-Charley. The state of Alaska has already identified 24 routes into Denali National Park and Preserve that may be claimed under the rule, covering about 350 miles that are now almost all eligible for wilderness designation.
"February 5, 2003, marks a dark day in the history of public land protection in the United States," said Craig Obey, vice president for government affairs at the NPCA. "This Bush administration action to allow a cynical few to turn footpaths in national parks into paved roadways flies in the face of the conservation legacy of great Republican leaders like Theodore Roosevelt. Unless the administration reverses course and refuses to give away any piece of America's natural heritage, its legacy will be national parks scarred by pavement and mountainsides gouged for unneeded roadways, not parks and other public lands protected for posterity."
Rights Of Way Restrictions Eased
WASHINGTON, DC, February 6, 2003 (ENS) - A controversial plan to ease restrictions on granting rights of way across public lands went into effect on Wednesday.
The rule allows roads and highways to be built along any route presently traced by a road or trail, even if the trail is 150 years old and has never been traveled by a motor vehicle. Criticized as a giveaway of lands owned by the public, the rule will hit especially hard in Alaska and the West.
"The statute is like a fish out of water - it just doesn't belong in the modern world," said Courtney Cuff, director of the National Parks Conservation Association's (NPCA) Pacific regional office. "In California, local counties have alleged more than 2,500 miles of routes in the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park. Counties in Montana, Idaho, and Oregon have asserted claims to roads on national forest lands. The new rule should be seen for what it is - a blatant land grab that defies public interest."
The 130 year old rule (RS 2477 of the 1866 Mining Act), designed to encourage road building in the Civil War era and repealed by Congress in 1976, has been resuscitated by the Department of the Interior. Beginning Wednesday, local and state governments will be able to expedite filing claims for rights of way under the Civil War era statute.
The NPCA said the regulation could allow mining companies and other developers to force the building of thousands of miles of new roads through pristine western public lands, including national parks.
In Alaska, the roads and trails that could be developed in national parks and preserves under the 1866 rule total more than 2,700 miles. More than half of those potential miles could be built in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, the nation's largest national park and largest park wilderness area, potentially adding more than 1,600 miles of road in a park that now has about 100 roads.
Thirteen Alaska national parks and preserves could be affected, including Denali, Bering Land Bridge, and Yukon-Charley. The state of Alaska has already identified 24 routes into Denali National Park and Preserve that may be claimed under the rule, covering about 350 miles that are now almost all eligible for wilderness designation.
"February 5, 2003, marks a dark day in the history of public land protection in the United States," said Craig Obey, vice president for government affairs at the NPCA. "This Bush administration action to allow a cynical few to turn footpaths in national parks into paved roadways flies in the face of the conservation legacy of great Republican leaders like Theodore Roosevelt. Unless the administration reverses course and refuses to give away any piece of America's natural heritage, its legacy will be national parks scarred by pavement and mountainsides gouged for unneeded roadways, not parks and other public lands protected for posterity."
