Laxalt sides with Elko over ownership of public land roads

The Nevada Attorney General’s Office is siding with Elko County in a 16-year-old federal court case over the ownership of roads across public land.

Attorney General Adam Laxalt announced Tuesday that his office has filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the rural county in its long fight over the South Canyon Road near the tiny community of Jarbidge, just south of the Nevada-Idaho line.

The case dates to 1999, when the county and residents calling themselves the Shovel Brigade set out to reopen a 1.5-mile stretch of the remote road closed by U.S. Forest Service officials after it was damaged by Jarbidge River flooding.

The federal government sued over the unauthorized road repairs, which officials said threatened a protected species of bull trout.

The dispute became a symbol of the broader fight between locals and federal land managers over who controls access to public property — an issue that flared again last year during the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s failed roundup of cattle belonging to Clark County rancher Cliven Bundy.

The Forest Service and the county reached a compromise more than a decade ago allowing for all but the last half-mile of the road to be repaired and reopened. The county later tried to get the lawsuit dismissed, but a pair of conservation groups, The Wilderness Society and the Utah-based Great Old Broads for Wilderness, have kept the fight going because they argue the settlement was illegal and the road should remain closed.

Laxalt said his office is entering the fray because the case could define what constitutes a public road and shape who has jurisdiction over public land, dramatically impacting all Nevadans.

“This public land access issue before the federal court is one of tremendous importance to all of Nevada, given that most of our state is federal public land,” he said in a written statement. “Public access is vital for many different important activities in Nevada, including recreation, ranching, mining and a host of other activities. On behalf of Nevada, I am committed to fighting for our access to public lands.”

Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter.