DENVER—A federal appeals court has rejected two Utah counties’ challenge of vehicle restrictions in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.
A three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the ruling Monday.
The judges denied a claim by Kane and Garfield counties that federal officials should have included the roads claimed by the counties in the nearly 2 million-acre monument.
The decision upholds one in 2007 by a federal court in Utah that found counties can’t shift the burden of proof to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
Kane County is pursuing claims to specific roads in a separate case.
The judges also dismissed the Kane County Water Conservancy District’s argument that BLM’s plan for managing the monument harms its water rights. They noted the plan allows for the district’s diversion of water for the nearby town of Henrieville.
Kane and Garfield county commissioners didn’t immediately return phone calls to The Associated Press.
Liz Thomas of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance called the court decision an important win for the country because the monument is a “jewel” that should be protected. She said the BLM’s plan includes 1,000 miles of roads.
The alliance, the National Trust of Historic Preservation, the Sierra Club and The Wilderness Society joined the federal government in fighting the lawsuit.
In a separate action, the groups have sued Kane County for tearing down federal signs prohibiting motor-vehicle traffic and putting up signs designating routes as county roads and declaring the roads open for off-road and other vehicles. Arguments in the case are set for May 6 in the federal appeals court in Denver.
The counties have claimed rights of way under an 1866 mining law that assured states and counties use of roads crossing federal lands. The law was repealed in 1976 with protection for existing roads. Determining whether dirt paths and other routes qualify as local roads has led to protracted disagreements across the West.
Then-President Bill Clinton designated the Grand Staircase-Escalante area a national monument in 1996. It’s rich in fossils and considered an important geological and archaeological area.
The monument is on public land in Kane and Garfield counties.
“These lands belong to everybody in the United States, not just a few county commissioners in southern Utah,” Thomas said.
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