FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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OPPOSE USE OF R.S. 2477

RS 2477 is a statutory loophole that was overlooked when a Civil War-era statute was repealed in 1976. It allows states and local public entities, along with special-interest groups, to make bogus rights-of-way claims across federal-public lands. Attempts have been made to convert old-abandoned routes, livestock trails, tracks made by off-road vehicles (ORVs), and even streambeds into permanent highways, without meaningful environmental review or public input. Many of these routes could be claimed across designated wilderness areas, national parks and other protected categories of public lands. Efforts are being made to claim routes across officially inventoried roadless areas--to prevent them from being considered for future wilderness designation.

Secretary of Interior Norton has reached an agreement with the state of Utah to identify these routes and make them permanent roads. This precedent is intended to apply to federal-public lands in all of the western states. Attempts have been made in Congress to stop this environmentally damaging process. Recently Congressman Mark Udall offered an amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill to prevent the expenditure of public funds for this process. His amendment was defeated, but efforts continue in Congress to close this loophole which will, if not stopped, allow our most pristine public lands to be dissected by unneeded, permanent roads.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs calls upon Congress to repeal R.S. 2477 and to deny funding for its implementation in the interim. If unchecked, this provision will permit bogus claims for routes which will result in environmentally destructive roads across public lands which currently enjoy protection from such development. National parks, designated wilderness areas, inventoried roadless areas, and other currently protected areas are threatened by roads which could be permitted under R.S. 2477.


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