If an old wagon road, mule-train route, or trail existed before the U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management were established, does that make them public rights-of-way open to travel now although they’re on federal land? That depends.
Transcript
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A Montezuma County inventory
of historical roots
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across private and public lands,
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has identified nearly 140 rights of way
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including dozens in the Canyons
of the Ancients Monument.
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But does that mean the public
will have access to them all?
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That depends.
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You’re watching the Local News Network
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brought to you by Keesee Motor in Cortez
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and the Overlook at Edgemont Highlands,
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I’m Wendy Graham Settle.
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Montezuma County wants to
ensure that federal agencies
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include the county in any
land management decisions
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that affect historical
public rights of way,
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and that could mean more public access
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to federal public lands.
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In a letter sent December 29th
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to the Bureau of Land Management’s
Tres Rios Field Office
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and the Dolores Ranger District
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on the San Juan National Forest,
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the Montezuma County
commissioners asserted
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that historical roots
remain public rights of way
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whether they’re on
private or public lands.
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Last year the county
inventoried and accepted
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138 historical roots
as public rights of way
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under the county’s road management plan.
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Many of those routes
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currently are managed by the
Forest Service and the BLM,
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but that doesn’t mean those routes
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will automatically be
open to public travel.
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Complex legal questions
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over which agency has management control,
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whether the federal
government or the county,
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most likely will have to be
adjudicated in Federal Court.
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In the meantime, the
inventory opens a window
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on the historical pathways
that have been used over time
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to haul supplies to mining camps,
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deliver mail to isolated communities
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or move cattle from summer
range to winter pasture.
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This whole process really kind of conforms
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to the National Landscape
Conservation System Act
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where one of the purposes of that act
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was to identify and inventory
historic traces of pathways
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or historic routes.
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And so in essence, that’s
exactly what we’ve done here,
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not all of these roads
are open to the public,
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some are already open,
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it’s not that all these roads
were suggested to be closed,
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this is simply an inventory
of the ones that we think
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have some historic significance.
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The county basis its assertions
on Revised Statute 2477,
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a federal law passed in 1866
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that established
regulations for homesteading
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and road construction across public lands
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to encourage settlement.
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It was repealed in 1976
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under the Federal Land
Management and Policy Act,
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that gave the federal government control
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over historical travel
routes on federal lands.
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Montezuma County claims in its letter
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that public rights of way are
any routes regularly traveled
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whether by foot, horse, wagon or vehicle,
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and if they existed before 1976
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they should still be open to the public.
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As we can see, some of them are ones
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that most people are going to recognize,
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Bear Creek for example, the
Colorado Trail for example,
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Ryman Creek, Scotch Creek.
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So these are all trails
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that most of us in the area recognize
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as being very, very old trails,
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most of us probably don’t realize
they’re as old as they are
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or the significance, Bear
Creek Trail, for example,
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was a primary connector between
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the mining district up
around Kennebec Pass
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and the Rico District.
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And so at the time since
no roads really existed
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pack trail, that’s how you got supplies
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to and from the different regions,
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and we’ve got photographs of a pack trail
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running down that trail,
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supposedly it looks like
it’s loaded with barrels
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and supposedly it was a load of whiskey
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that they were taking.
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Dietrich says the inventory
and the letter are in effort
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to ensure that federal
agencies include the county
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on decisions that impact
access to public lands
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over historical routes
identified in the inventory.
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For example,
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the track once open to
motorcycles on Bear Creek
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is now closed to motorized vehicles,
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a move that many county residents opposed.
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In the Canyons of the Ancients Monument,
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Dietrich suggested that the government
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could improve historical routes
rather than build new roads
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to increase public access to remote areas.
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And in some cases,
Dietrich said the county
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also could assert jurisdiction
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over historical rights
of way on private lands
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where landowners prohibit
monument access now.
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So it’s really primarily
maintaining what access we have,
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if we have a situation where
access is going to be locked off,
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yet we’ve had that access
for all those years,
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then it’s important to
maintain that access,
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but in terms of really trying to reach out
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and establish new areas,
new economic development,
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that’s really not so much the factor
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it is just kind of maintaining
what we’ve already got.
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To learn more about the inventory,
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visit the county’s website
at montezumacounty.org.
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Thanks for watching this edition
of the Local News Network,
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I’m Wendy Graham Settle.
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