Problems feared as thousands descend on tiny Nevada town

Greg Tuttle

Friday, June 30, 2000 | 11:21 a.m.

As thousands of people from around the country prepare to descend on a tiny river canyon in remote northeast Nevada to take part in an Independence Day protest against the federal government, Elko County Undersheriff Steve Bishop can only hold his breath.

"We're hoping it goes peacefully, but the potential is there for, I don't want to say disaster, but something equivalent," Bishop said.

Bishop's concern increased Wednesday after a federal judge in Las Vegas rejected an attempt by government attorneys to restrict the protest planned by a group known as the Shovel Brigade.

U.S. District Judge Phillip Pro denied a request for a temporary restraining order against the Shovel Brigade's plans to remove an earthen blockade placed by the U.S. Forest Service across the access of a disputed dirt road.

Pro said government attorneys failed to prove the plan by protesters to reopen South Canyon Road near the small community of Jarbidge creates a possible threat to the environment. The road runs adjacent to the Jarbidge River, home to the threatened bull trout that is protected by the Endangered Species Act.

Pro also said there was not enough evidence protesters would violate the federal Clean Water Act by shoveling tons of dirt and debris away from the road entrance near the water.

And the judge said a temporary restraining order based on the potential of protesters trespassing on federal land could have a "chilling" effect for those gathered to exercise their legitimate free-speech rights.

But Pro made it clear his ruling doesn't give protesters a go-ahead to break federal law. Violating the endangered species act is a felony that can result in a three-year prison sentence, he said.

Former U.S. Senate candidate Demar Dahl, an organizer of the two-day event scheduled July 3 and 4, assured the judge the gathering was only a "symbolic" effort to open the road in protest against the federal government's management of public lands. Dahl, a conservative Republican, ran against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., in 1992, losing in a landslide.

"We're going to be very careful not to violate the Clean Water Act or the Endangered Species Act," Dahl told the judge during a telephone hearing Thursday.

The hearing was the latest legal wrangling in a five-year dispute that has pitted the federal government against Elko County residents and elected officials. The county and federal government are currently involved in a lawsuit over ownership of a 1.5-mile stretch of the dirt road washed out by floods in 1995.

County residents want the road reopened, and an attorney for the Shovel Brigade argued in court Thursday the road is a critical access in case of a wildfire. The road is also used to reach campgrounds near the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

But the U.S. Forest Service decided not to reopen the road following the flood after federal officials declared the bull trout a threatened species. The fish thrive in the river that washed over the road five years ago.

Local citizens were angered when the federal agency dumped rocks and dirt across the entrance of the road, and the ensuing battle has gained national attention.

Dahl said organizers are expecting an estimated 5,000 people to attend the protest and road-opening ceremony. Some are traveling from as far as Florida and Maine, he said.

The Shovel Brigade was formed in April after plans for a similar protest were derailed late last year. The group has raised $60,000, Dahl said, for the event planned next week. The money will pay for portable toilets, shuttle buses, security and on-site emergency medical services.

But Bishop, the county undersheriff, said the event is expected to draw counter-protesters and environmentalists as well and could turn into a shouting match. Or worse.

"We are walking kind of a tight-rope," he said.

Thirteen sheriff's deputies will patrol the event both days, joined by two Elko city police officers and about seven state troopers, Bishop said. With several other large events planned across the rural county during the holiday, local law enforcement resources will be stretched thin, he said.