Southern Nevadans join Shovel Brigade

Monday, July 3, 2000 | 11:53 a.m.

A handful of Las Vegas Valley residents are traveling to Elko County today to join Shovel Brigade members who plan to reclaim a tiny, dirt forest road outside of Jarbidge.

"What goes on there is going to affect the entire western United States," said Blake Monk, a Las Vegas resident and member of the Nevada United Four Wheelers Association. "If we don't step up and support them now, eventually it will hit us. We have to speak up now."

They're speaking in favor of reopening a 1.5-mile section of South Canyon Road that washed out in a 1995 flood.

U.S. Forest Service officials originally planned to rebuild the road, which is inside the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest just south of the Idaho border. But they halted reconstruction when the river's bull trout population was designated a threatened species.

The change in plans rankled Elko County residents and officials who have vowed to reopen the road. The controversy sparked hostilities that reached deep into the rural community.

Nevada's top Forest Service official resigned over it in October. And other agency workers said residents ostracized and harassed them. The conflict prompted a federal investigation. No criminal misconduct was found.

Earlier this year, people from all over the West began sending shovels to a private group that calls themselves the Shovel Brigade. The collection has grown to about 13,000 and includes spades sent by three Clark County-based groups.

The Nevada United Four Wheelers Association, Vegas Valley Four Wheelers and the Southern Nevada Regional Trails Partnership, which has an office in the Clark County government building, sent shovels to Elko in March, Monk said.

"It's not a road issue anymore," he said. "This is going to set a precedence. They're violating our rights."

Doug Ruefer, president of the united four wheelers group that represents four-wheel-drive clubs statewide, said recent creation of more federal monuments and a Forest Service proposal to halt road construction on a quarter of its land shows the public is losing more ground every day.

Little South Canyon Road represents a huge issue for the West.

"Big Brother seems to want to define what we can do. Land is getting shut down all over the place," Ruefer said. "This has gotten to be really political for everyone west of the Mississippi (River). This has become a focal point."

Ruefer and his wife will also head up to Elko County today and attend Tuesday's rally and barbecue. Conservative estimates say it is expected to draw 3,000 to 5,000 people. Ruefer said any gathering of that size is cause for concern, but the controversy surrounding this one makes it more so.

"It could get ugly. I am going to be very careful who I talk to," he said.

Ruefer says he not only wants to support those trying to wrest control from the Forest Service, but also to see the road and the environmental situation for himself. If its construction does seem too close to the river, Ruefer says he'd be among the first to look for an alternative.

"I care very much about my state," he said. "I want to be fair and impartial. I want to come up with a compromise that works both ways."

Elko County and federal officials thought they did that June 22 with a tentative agreement that called for granting Elko County a right-of-way to rebuild the road under federal supervision.

Elko County commissioners have not signed the agreement that was reached through court-ordered mediation. They are holding off until after Tuesday's event.

County officials have always contended South Canyon Road existed as a road or trail long before the Forest Service was created in 1905. That, they say, means the road belongs to the county. Federal officials say the road belongs to the Forest Service.

On Thursday U.S. District Judge Philip Pro rejected a Justice Department's request to stop the Shovel Brigade from staging the Tuesday event, which will include a barbecue and shuttle bus system to relieve traffic problems.

Pro said the government failed to prove that reopening South Canyon Road with hand shovels would permanently harm the threatened bull trout and failed to show that the brigade's planned action would violate the Clean Water Act.

He also rejected the Justice Department's claim that people would be trespassing if they gathered along the Jarbidge River for the July 4 event.

Leaders of the Shovel Brigade and others, however, still may be prosecuted by federal officials if they dump anything into the river or harm the bull trout.

Two Shovel Brigade board members resigned last week after the group received a letter outlining this possible prosecution from U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth, Nevada's chief federal prosecutor.

Those planning to tote shovels into the fringes of the Jarbidge Wilderness welcomed a federal ruling that said they could gather, but said it wouldn't have mattered what Pro said.

"We're going regardless," Monk said.

The Associated Press

contributed to this report.

Susan Snyder

is a staff writer for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-4082 or by e-mail at snyder@lasvegassun.com

archive