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Pearce introduced legislation last week that would require a state or county wanting to claim ownership of a route across federal land to present an official map, from any era, or an aerial photograph showing the road existed prior to 1986, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. That includes roads that run through national parks, wilderness study areas and defense installations.
Such a map or photo would give the state or county control over the road, regardless of the federal government’s desire for its use.
“There have been many proposals for clarifying road rights of way in the West,” the Tribune editorial states. “The one being sponsored by New Mexico Republican Rep. Steve Pearce is the worst.”
According to the Tribune, Pearce says the legislation is intended to start a discussion about road disputes. The Tribune calls Pearce’s assertion “grossly disingenuous, since a spirited debate has been going on for a decade or more. It seems more likely that Pearce wants the bill to serve as a threat of what could happen if access to public lands is curtailed by federal agencies or is disputed in court.”
In Pearce’s own district, a fight in
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that state laws should define roads that have been in dispute since the repeal 30 years ago of a Civil War-era statute that allowed counties and cities to create roads across federal land. Existing roads were grandfathered in when it was repealed, but the loose definition of a road has led to fights across the West.
Environmental advocates want to protect wilderness by closing some roads, and recreation groups want more access to roads.
“Pearce’s legislation would erase what little progress has been made toward resolving the roads issue and impose a standard of proof of historical use so ridiculously low that virtually all public lands would be open to virtually any use, no matter how potentially destructive,” the Tribune editorial states.