The Boulder-to-Bullfrog Road, also know as the Burr Trail Road, is a
major collector road and
the only significant East/West travel corridor across the eastern part
of Garfield County, Utah. The Road runs through 66 miles of
federally-owned land from Boulder, Utah, to the Bullfrog
Basin Marina of Lake Powell.
Since the 1800s, the road has been used to drive livestock to
market, to facilitate oil and uranium
exploration, and to meet a host of transportation, emergency,
agricultural, economic
development, and tourist needs. It has been maintained by Garfield
County since at least the early
1940's, utilizing county, state, and federal highway funds.
In the mid-1980's, Garfield County, the State of Utah, the National
Park Service ("NPS") and the
Bureau of Land Management ("BLM") worked cooperatively on the
Boulder-to Bullfrog Scenic
Road project. That project was intended to improve the quality of the
road along its entire length.
In 1987, as part of the project, the County entered into a contract
for work on a section of the
road that crosses BLM Lands. Special interest groups immediately sued
the United States
Department of the Interior and BLM, alleging that the County did not
hold title to the road or,
alternatively, that the proposed work exceeded the scope of the
county's rights. The suit also
alleged that the federal agencies has not adequately studied the
environmental impacts of the
projects.
In that litigation, the federal government argued convincingly that
the County's rights and interests
in the road had attached first and that subsequently created or
designated federal interests has
been created subject to the County's rights. The federal government sat
on the same side of the
table as Garfield County and stated without reservation that the County
has certain rights and interests in
the road that could not be interfered with by the federal government,
such as the
right to maintain the road to ensure safety.
The courts agreed with the federal government and Garfield
County, ruling that the County held
title to the road and that the project was within the scope of the
County's rights. The courts also ruled that additional
environmental studies should be performed to determine if there might
be significant impacts degrading BLM wilderness study areas. The
alleged need for additional environmental studies became the sword that
special interest
groups, and later the federal government, brandished to slow down
completion of the project.
The federal government reversed course in l993. Despite a decade
of working cooperatively with
Garfield County to improve the road, and despite unequivocal law
establishing the County's right
to use and maintain the road, the federal government flip-flopped it
position to occupy the seat
formerly occupied by the special interest groups. Since 1993,
negotiations regarding maintenance
and construction activities on the road have been stymied by the
federal government's refusal to
recognize the County's right to keep the road in a safe condition.
While the County continually
proposed that objective standards, such as those established by the
American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials, govern maintenance activities,
the Department of the
Interior insists that such decisions be left to the unfettered
discretion of the Interior, which offers no objective standards for
guidance
All actions of Interior indicate that it's unfettered discretion
could put the road in an unacceptable
condition for all interests other than well-equipped, back-country
recreationalists. Garfield County cannot afford to sacrifice all other
legitimate interests in this
important travel corridor to those of a few special interests.
In February of 1996, the County conducted work on a portion of
the road inside Capitol Reef
National Park to ameliorate the dangers of a blind curve. Prior to
performing the work, the
County placed stakes along its right-of-way to indicate the boundaries
of the disturbed area. The
County checked and rechecked with NPS to verify that the prior
disturbed area of the right-of-way had been properly identified. The
County informed NPS personnel of the time when work
would commence on the blind curve. The County also invited NPS
personnel to observe the
work, however, the NPS personnel chose not to be present. At all times,
the County stayed
within the staked previously disturbed area.. Nevertheless, the United
States subsequently sued
Garfield County for the work, alleging that the County had trespassed
onto federal lands. That
case is still pending.
(Pictures taken before and after this disturbance inside Capitol
Reef National Park are available on
this website.)
In correspondence and meetings regarding the County's work on the
blind curve, representatives
of the federal government have repeatedly stated that the County should
have sought NPS's
permission prior to performing the work. It is clear that the real
issue to the federal government
is not the work that was done but, rather, Garfield County's assumption
that it possesses rights in
the road which allow it to perform some maintenance tasks without
seeking the federal
government's prior permission. Thus, it seems that the federal
government is using the road to
assert a new and absolute authority to control all activities on roads
that cross federal lands. Such
position is a substantial reversal of the United States' earlier
declarations and a stark contradiction
to established law.
Also available is a series of before and after photos of maintenance
work on the Burr Trail Road. Environmental groups have complained
loudly of the negative impact of this work. See if you can
tell which are the "before" and which the "after" photos and decide for
yourself!
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