State Lauds Ruling On Access to Old Roads

Summary

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State officials are calling a ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals a victory for the rights of the public to access old road rights of way that cut through federal land in three counties. But one environmental group says the ruling will only throw things into confusion and lead to yet more lawsuits.

In a ruling issued Thursday evening, the Denver-based Court of Appeals rejected the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's criteria for defining a road that a lower federal district judge used in her decision. Instead, three appellate judges, including former University of Utah law professor Michael McConnell, chose the state's criteria, which makes it easier to designate road rights of way and could open up areas of federal land to public access.

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State Lauds Ruling On Access to Old Roads

Among the BLM's criteria, a qualifying road must be established by "mechanical" construction. The state's criteria allows a right of way for road...

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