{"id":696,"date":"2006-10-10T14:19:00","date_gmt":"2006-10-10T20:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/paper-slams-pearce-proposal-on-road-disputes\/"},"modified":"2006-10-10T14:19:00","modified_gmt":"2006-10-10T20:19:00","slug":"paper-slams-pearce-proposal-on-road-disputes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2006\/10\/paper-slams-pearce-proposal-on-road-disputes\/","title":{"rendered":"Paper slams Pearce proposal on road disputes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Salt Lake City<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> newspaper has slammed U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., for his proposal to clarify road rights-of-way in the West. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

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<\/a>. That includes roads that run through national parks, wilderness study areas and defense installations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Such a map or photo would give the state or county control over the road, regardless of the federal government\u2019s desire for its use.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been many proposals for clarifying road rights of way in the West,\u201d the Tribune editorial states. \u201cThe one being sponsored by New Mexico Republican Rep. Steve Pearce is the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

According to the Tribune, Pearce says the legislation is intended to start a discussion about road disputes. The Tribune calls Pearce\u2019s assertion \u201cgrossly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In Pearce\u2019s own district, a fight in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename> over access to roads in a wilderness study area in the Robledo<\/st1:placename> Mountains<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> started in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The 10th<\/sup> 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.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Environmental advocates want to protect wilderness by closing some roads, and recreation groups want more access to roads.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cPearce\u2019s 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,\u201d the Tribune editorial states. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Salt Lake City newspaper has slammed U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., for his proposal to clarify road rights-of-way in the West. 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}