Controversial rule shifts power to states in parkland disputes.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Bush administration recently made it easier for state and local governments to gain control of roads and paths in national parks, a move that park advocates fear will devastate federal lands, wildlife refuges, and designated wilderness.
The Department of Interior in January revised a scarcely used 1984 rule that critics say will now indiscriminately give away public lands, allowing state and local jurisdictions to turn old trails and dirt roads into new highways.
"The new regulations are a substantial and serious threat to national parks," said Craig Obey, NPCA's vice president of government affairs. "They are a major giveaway of public lands. With 90 percent of public comments on the regulations opposed to the plan, this is clearly a sell-out to exploiters who want to pave, rather than protect, the national parks."
The new rule revives a Civil War-era regulation known as Revised Statute 2477 (RS2477), meant to encourage western expansion. The law allows states to assert rights of way for highways on federal lands that are not reserved for public use. Historically, these assertions went through a careful court process, with the state shouldering the burden of proof that a right-of-way existed. States have generally been unable to prove rights of way, and few were approved. The new rule allows the administration to respond to state requests with little or no review or public comment.
Administration officials contend that the new rule will make it easier to handle right-of-way disputes, thwarting costly lawsuits. Conservationists, however, say that shifting authority to states and local interests will result in the paving of federal lands.
A 1993 memo from the National Park Service revealed that about 17 million acres in 68 national parks, not including Alaska, are subject to claims, which "could be devastating" for parks.
In California, more than 2,500 miles of RS2477 routes have been alleged in Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park, as have 2,700 miles in Alaska, including 24 routes in Denali National Park.
"Alaska's national parks were not established to provide a new network of roads," said Jim Stratton, NPCA's Alaska regional director.
Analysts believe that the rule will also make it easier for local interests to allow off-road vehicles into national parks, damaging backcountry and wilderness.
Courtney Cuff, NPCA's Pacific regional director, said that the new rule "should be seen for what it is - a blatant effort to degrade parks and wilderness," which would carve up parklands.
