Rebels erect shovel monument as symbol in battle with Forest Service

Scott Sonner

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 5:05 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - A state assemblyman and others protesting the Forest Service's refusal to reopen a road on a national forest in a remote part of Nevada have erected a monument to their cause - a 30-foot tall shovel in front of the Elko County courthouse.

As many as 10,000 regular-sized shovels from all over the country are expected to arrive in Elko next week, donations from loggers, ranchers, miners, farmers and others who want to help activists rebuild the road along a river with threatened bull trout.

The ongoing dispute between the Forest Service and the county commission was the topic of a congressional field hearing in November and has become symbolic of wide-ranging conflict over federal land management policies, especially in the West.

A federal judge in Reno issued a temporary restraining order blocking reconstruction of the remote canyon road near the Idaho border after State Assemblyman John Carpenter and others threatened to rebuild it with teams of horses, picks and shovels in defiance of Forest Service orders.

"We're trying to keep this thing alive," said Carpenter, a Republican, who came up with the idea for the giant shovel and is helping pay for it. "We've got to win this thing or the West as we know it is not going to be around."

"The support we are getting, you just can't believe it," Carpenter said in a telephone interview Thursday from his insurance business in Elko. "This thing has really taken off."

The shovel's handle is 18- to 20-feet tall, the metal blade about 10 feet-by-12 feet.

"It is very impressive. Everybody is giving a dollar to have their name engraved on it. There's room for several thousand names and we're getting pretty close to the first 1,000 now," he said.

A special plate is being prepared for the shovel with the words "Jarbidge Shovel Brigade" and "No more roadless areas."

A federal judge in Reno has ordered the Forest Service enter into mediation with Carpenter, county commissioners and others in the ongoing dispute over protection of the bull trout and the South Canyon Road along the Jarbidge River that washed out in a 1997 flood.

The Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service maintain reconstruction of the road will accelerate erosion on the river banks and jeopardize the southernmost surviving population of the fish in North America.

The county commission argues the federal government has no jurisdiction over the road near the Idaho border because it was there before the Humboldt National Forest was established in the early 1900s.

Private property activists in neighboring states have rallied around the issue. Last month, Jim Hurst, a Montana sawmill owner, started the campaign to collect the shovels.

"The shovel campaign has taken on a life of its own," Hurst told the Elko Daily Free Press this week. "It's phenomenal what's happening."

Wyoming has 14 towns listed as shovel collection points. Hurst said he's also heard of shovel collections in Oregon and is getting calls from Northern California.

"I wanted to get 10,000 shovels to Elko," Hurst said. "My guess is we will collect between 5,000 and 10,000 in Montana."

Carpenter said Thursday the interest began in the West but has spread across the country.

"Now we're hearing from people in Arkansas, Tennessee, Georgia," he said.

A parade is planned down main street at noon on Jan. 29 to deliver the shovels to the courthouse. "We'll have jillions of them on the courthouse lawn next week," Carpenter said.