Here's a picture I took at Coral Pink a few months back:
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Kane sign deadline comes, goes
No action taken: The BLM ordered the county to take down its signs on BLM land by Monday
By Joe Baird
The Salt Lake Tribune
Salt Lake Tribune
The deadline set by the Bureau of Land Management for Kane County to remove its road signs from BLM-administered lands came and went on Monday.
In response, BLM State Director Sally Wisely sent a letter to the Interior Department's regional solicitor requesting that it take legal action to compel Kane County to remove the signs and put back any BLM signs that it has taken out.
"We're looking for a solution, not a confrontation. We consider local county governments essential partners in the management of public lands. So it's disappointing that our hand has been forced in this matter," said Don Banks, the BLM's state external affairs chief.
Kane County began posting signs in February designating off-highway-vehicle (OHV) routes across BLM-administered land, and in March designated a new route through an area northeast of Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park that is being studied for potential wilderness designation. Most recently, the county posted an estimated 60 to 80 signs inside the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument along the Hole in the Rock Road and its vicinity, directing OHV users into areas the BLM had previously closed to off-road use.
Kane County Commissioner Mark Habbeshaw said the county would offer a detailed response to an April 26 letter Wisely sent to the county demanding removal of the county signs. But generally speaking, he added, the signs will stay in place and new ones will be added.
"Our position from the get-go is to manage our transportation system based on valid road rights granted by Congress," said Habbeshaw. "These roads exist without the recognition of the BLM; that's what case law says. If we manage our transportation system based upon these rights of way, and within the scope allowed, we believe the courts will honor our legal position."
Kane County is claiming the BLM-administered roads under Revised Statute 2477, a Civil War-era law that granted rights of way to state and county governments across federal land. Congress repealed the statute in 1976, but existing roads were grandfathered in.
The BLM has argued that the county has made no RS2477 claims through existing claiming processes, and signed off on a BLM land-use plan for the roads in question several years ago.
The federal agency got support for its action on Monday from a host of environmental organizations, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Alliance, the Sierra Club and the Grand Canyon Trust.
Despite Monday's events, both sides say they are still amenable to discussions that might yet avert a legal showdown.
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2738984
