Gibbons says feds should oversee rebuilding of national forest road

Scott Sonner

Monday, Nov. 29, 1999 | 9:09 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Federal land managers and wildlife specialists should oversee the rebuilding of a road on a national forest at the center of a dispute over local property rights in Nevada, Rep. Jim Gibbons said today.

Gibbons, R-Nev., said he believes there is a way to rebuild the washed out South Canyon Road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest without jeopardizing the survival of the threatened bull trout.

"I think the compromise is to put the road in so it does not endanger the habitat for the endangered bull trout," Gibbons told KOLO-TV.

"Let the Forest Service oversee how the road is put in. The Fish and Wildlife Service can be a part of it as well. Put it in and let people have access back to those campgrounds," he said.

Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service wildlife biologists say they've been unable to find a way to reconstruct the road without jeopardizing survival of the only remaining population of bull trout in Nevada, the southernmost segment in North America.

The road washed out in a flood in 1995 and federal officials say it is subject to flooding every decade or so, increasing sedimentation of the clear, cold waters of the Jarbidge River that the bull trout needs to survive.

State wildlife officials disagree and Elko County officials argue that the Forest Service did more damage to the river by closing off the road. County officials maintain the Forest Service has no jurisdiction over the road because it was built before the national forest was established in the 1900s.

Gibbons and Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, held a congressional hearing in Elko earlier this month in response to heightened tensions over the controversy.

A federal judge issued a court order blocking any local work on the road last month when State Assemblyman John Carpenter threatened to reopen the road in defiance of the Forest Service and state and federal officials expressed concern a confrontation could turn violent.

Gloria Flora, supervisor of the national forest, announced her resignation in protest of the dispute, warning that many of her employees have been threatened and don't feel safe working in Nevada.

Gibbons said today Congress is looking into allegations of threats made against federal workers in Nevada but that so far they have found no evidence of that.

"We're looking into whether or not there are in fact any instances of intimidation or threats," he said.

"Do we have people out there who threaten people? All the time," Gibbons said.

"We want to make darn sure the Department of Justice handles any activities which include life-threatening felonies or abuses which violate a person's civil rights," he said.

"If the Justice Department is not doing its job, then we need to look at the Justice Department. But let's bring out the facts," he said.

A Forest Service law officer complained to Flora two months ago that federal prosecutors in Nevada had declined to prosecute dozens of cases referred to it by the Forest Service since 1990 - at least 21 felonies and 52 misdemeanors involving more than 100 people.

"For whatever reasons, it appears the U.S. Attorney's office in Las Vegas does not understand that the lack of prosecution of these cases involving permittees or public officials has continued to fuel the open and flagrant lawless disregard for federal law and regulations in Nevada," Wayne Smith wrote in the Sept. 3 memo.

"This lack of support places federal law enforcement officers and agents at risk as they enforce the same regulations in the field," said Smith, a supervisory special agent. "As a result, there continues to be a very real concern for employee safety in these situations."

Gibbons said today that animosity toward the federal government in Nevada should be expected in a state where nearly 90 percent of the land is managed by the federal government.

"There are always those people fenced in, hemmed in, frustrated by the federal government, especially by decisions that are not made locally - decisions that are made in Washington that don't take into consideration concurrent local history, local use, management practices that are in the best interest of people here rather than in Washington," Gibbons said

"There is always that underlying current of frustration. It's always going to be there."