BLM, county tangle over road closure

To repair fencing at his grazing allotment, rancher Keith Hill must pack in posts and other supplies by horseback, up a 4-mile trail that gains 2,000 feet in elevation. He could use his pickup truck, if not for the Bureau of Land Management's 1999 closure of Herd Creek Road, a dirt access route to Hill's allotment and other grazing land. Custer County officials have challenged the BLM's authority to close Herd Creek Road and other long-standing rural routes on federal land, which they believe are important for both agriculture and recreation. "We're paying to be here," Hill said. "Most of the roads that are in our allotments, they go to fences, water developments or tanks, or places where we need to put salt (for cattle)." The Herd Creek Road closure is scheduled for a hearing May 15 in Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill's courtroom in Pocatello. "We're setting a precedent for the Western U.S. We have to have our I's dotted and T's crossed," said Custer County Commission Chairman Wayne Butts. The county hosted a hearing a year ago to confirm that Herd Creek Road was created prior to the 1976 repeal of Revised Statute 2477, which granted counties and states a right-of-way across federal land for roadways. Butts believes the county has the sole authority to close an RS 2477 road. Butts said the county had intended to reopen the road, blocked to vehicles by earthen berms, on April 14. However, the federal government filed suit against Custer County, prompting Winmill to issue a temporary injunction April 13 to keep the road closed...more