By TJ Brown, Colorado Mountain Club Issues Organizer
Conservationists and Colorado property owners suffering
the consequences of a legal loophole from a 1860s-era law referred to as Revised
Statute (RS) 2477 received good news recently. In May, Federal District Court
Judge Wiley Y. Daniel ruled that individuals (as opposed to governments) cannot
use RS 2477 to assert public highway claims across public lands that may cut
through other landowners' properties or through recognized conservation areas
such as wilderness areas or national parks.
RS 2477 granted highway rights of way under limited
circumstances over public lands. Congress grandfathered existing highways
when it repealed the law in 1976. This has led to controversy, contention,
and ambiguity for private property owners, counties, states, federal land
managers, and the public.
Mark Boslough, the defendant in the case, said, "I'm
happy that the judge found that RS 2477 could not be used to establish a highway
across public land for motorized access to my family's property." Mr. Boslough
added, "Four-wheelers have long argued that they have the right to use our
property for recreation. My case is not entirely over, but this ruling shows
that they were wrong about that."
"We're happy about this initial ruling, but it only
addresses one small part of the larger threat posed by RS 2477 to our federal,
state, and open space lands," said Vera Smith, Conservation Director for the
Colorado Mountain Club. "The threats still loom until we settle the RS 2477
issue once and for all through federal legislation that provides strong protection
for our parks, monuments and other designated areas."
"Although most people have not heard of RS 2477,
its potential impact is unbelievably huge, affecting ranchers, hunters, homeowners—everyone,"
warned A.J. Chamberlin, president of a Colorado organization called Property
Owners for Sensible Road Policy and himself a victim of "RS 2477 harassment."
Anyone who has a mining claim or homestead near their property—or even
those that live close to open space, forest land, or BLM lands—should
be very concerned."
The Colorado Mountain Club has been bringing private
property owners, county officials, hunters, anglers, hikers, and others together
to urge Congress to resolve this potentially devastating issue legislatively.
"The bottom line is that Congress needs to pass legislation
with consistent standards and deadlines to adequately protect property owners.
Nothing less will do," concluded Boslough. "My family should not have had
to spend our resources defending our property rights, and I wouldn't wish
our situation on anybody else."
Recently the Colorado General Assembly recognized
RS 2477 as a significant problem to Colorado residents and passed a resolution
with overwhelming bi-partisan support calling on Congress to fix this issue.
Representative Mark Udall proposed legislation last session to resolve RS
2477 and is currently developing an updated draft to introduce into the current
session.