Fight for Access to Public Land Spills Over onto the Internet

Jarbidge Shovel Brigade Takes on the Feds

"The "Live free or die" State. I support your endeavors whole heartedly. I am fed up with big brother telling us how to live our lives. I wish you the best of luck in your fight against Uncle Sam."
- James Clark, Seabrook, New Hampshire

July 5, 2000
In a small northeastern Nevada town, a group of local residents have squared off against environmentalists and the federal government over a 900 foot section of county road. Not the kind of story that would ever make the national news. Maybe not even the state news. At least, not before the Internet.

But thanks to exceptionally extensive and high quality coverage on the Internet by the local newspaper, The ELKO DAILY FREE PRESS, and the savvy use of the Internet by the local protest group The Jarbidge Shovel Brigade, this issue is attracting attention and world wide coverage from major newspapers like The Boston Globe and magazines like Insight Magazine.

The on-line battle rages over the reopening of the South Canyon Road, which was washed out by a storm in the spring of 1995. The road led to several campsites popular with locals and outsdoorsmen. The road provided access to trailheads into the Jarbidge Wilderness, through which it once ran.

Facing an emergency after the flooding, in which other road repairs took precedence, the county agreed to let the Forest Service fix the South Canyon Road. The county and the Forest service had a long history of sharing of responsibilities for this road.

The story gets pretty dicey at this point. The Forest Service didn't fix the road for several years, probably just due to neglect, or conflicting schedules. In 1998, Elko County had the resources to fix the road and public outcry over the Feds largess reached a crescendo. But then, suddenly, the Federal Government protested, citing potential threats to trout inhabiting a parallel stream.

"I'm from the Government and I'm here to help."

The county took two days and performed rudimentary repairs on the road. County officials say they merely cleared away boulders blocking the stream path, setting the river and road back in their proper places and, in February, a state judge ruled that the county was within its legal rights to reopen the road.

But, for reasons both obscure and perverse, the Forest Service threatened federal lawsuit, claiming the county’s work violated the Clean Water Act, potentially meaning millions of dollars in accumulating fines. And U.S. Fish and Wildlife declared an “emergency listing” of the "bull trout" on the endangered species list.

the WIZARD feels compelled to note that the Nevada Department of Environmental Quality opposes any such "endangered" listing of the fish. Several times, most recently in a March 1999 report, the Nevada Department of Wildlife continues to insist that there was and is no apparent threat to the fish.

Meanwhile, the Forest Service spent a month-and-a-half in the fall of 1998 undoing what the county had done in two days, then demanded that the county reimburse the feds $460,000 for their trouble.

On July 4th, several thousand protestors and workers from all over the United States gathered and manually reopened the road using thousands of shovels sent by supporters worldwide through Internet driven protest.

The WIZARD's pointy cap is off to the power of a few people and their use of the most powerful tool for Individual Expression ever created, the Internet. the WIZARD strongly urges everyone to read the really excellent Insight Magazine article.