Editorial: Roads less traveled - for now

Monday, March 27, 2006 | 7:22 a.m.

Outgoing Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton has issued a policy that allows local governments to authorize roads on federal land, which critics say could open national parks and wilderness areas to off-roading and other environmentally detrimental activities.

Norton, who steps down from her post at the end of this week, on Wednesday announced how Interior Department agencies are to apply a 2005 decision by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver to determine the validity of local road ownership claims on federal land.

The ruling allows only courts to determine who owns a road on federal land and says such decisions must be based on the laws of individual states. Norton says Interior agencies may create administrative processes to analyze claims and give guidance, but not make decisions.

According to the Associated Press, Dan Domenico, special assistant to the Interior Department's solicitor, said neither the ruling nor Norton's policy will be enough to settle the most contentious disagreements over the historic and current uses of roads. Lawsuits are inevitable.

The conflict revolves around an 1866 law that allowed local authorities to claim rights-of-way across federal land. Congress repealed the law in 1976 but allowed existing rights-of-way to remain. The 10th Circuit Court ruling was in response to a lawsuit that a Utah wilderness group filed against the Bureau of Land Management.

A major concern is that neither the court ruling nor Norton's policy excludes national parks, monuments, wildlife refuges or wilderness areas. In theory, off-road-vehicle groups, mining interests and others could claim hundreds of miles of old Jeep tracks or 19th century wagon routes as "roads."

At least 14 such rights-of-way exist in Alaska's Denali National Park. Six exist in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This policy affects 507 million acres - one out of every five acres of federal land nationwide, the AP reports.

While it is disappointing that the ruling and Norton's interpretation of it expose some of the nation's most treasured lands to road development, it isn't surprising. As one environmentalist said, the parting shot is "classic Gale Norton." And it is what we have come to expect - or dread - from those whom President Bush appoints to the Interior post.