| |
San Bernardino County Goes After Federal
Lands
2001.
In California, an aggressive effort by San Bernardino County to survey
specific routes and map claims—including wagon roads, trails, and
horse and footpaths—has resulted in 2,567 miles of road claims in the
Mojave National Preserve and another 2,419 miles elsewhere in the
California desert. The Mojave National Preserve is home to colored
sand dunes, mile-high mountains, bighorn sheep, and the endangered
desert tortoise.
Read San Bernardino County's September 18, 2001, resolution in
which it claims as "constructed highways" any "trails, horse trails,
hiking trails and footpaths" used by the public as "constructed
highways" under RS 2477.
2003: San
Bernardino County continues to leave the door open for expanding foot
trails into highways through National Park Service lands, but promises
to be 'very judicious' in pushing forward its claims (whatever that
means).
Read a May 14, 2003, letter from the chairman of the San
Bernardino County Commission.
Read an opinion piece from November 16, 2003,
about the threat to
the Mojave.
2004:
Pursuing bogus RS 2477 claims squanders taxpayers' money and
undermines the recreation economy of Southern California's desert
community, argues
a June 21, 2004, op-ed in the Press Enterprise.
2006: San
Bernardino County begins its march toward the courthouse, filing a
notice of intent to sue
over a dozen or so routes on April 4, 2006.
San Bernardino
follows through, filing suit to 14 routes on October 26, 2006.
See
their complaint with maps of each route, all of which cut through
the Mojave National Preserve. Read a
January 2007
article about the suit and a
stinging January 21, 2007, editorial
from the San Bernardino
County Sun calling the lawsuit “largely pointless.”
Learn more about the
Mojave Preserve at
http://www.nps.gov/moja.
2007:
A Central District of California judge granted conservation groups
intervention in San Bernardino County's case seeking title to a dozen
routes inside the Mojave National Preserve. This is the third Quiet
Title Act (QTA) case involving R.S. 2477 claims in California in
recent months in which the groups have won the right to bring the
public interest to the table.
Read the October 23, 2007 Opinion. And a
press release. |
|
