Climate change could deal a crippling blow to Western trout populations by heating up their coldwater streams, according to a new study — but those same warmer waters could actually help endangered fish like the native humpback chub.

The study, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the NationalAcademy of Sciences, uses data from nearly 10,000 fish surveys across the interior West, along with climate models, to try to predict the responses of native cutthroat trout, non-native brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout to climate change.

A fly fisherman tries his luck in the Dolores River. A new study says climate change could affect both trout and native-fish species. Photo by Wendy Mimiaga

Lead author Seth Wenger, a fisheries biologist with Trout Unlimited in Boise, Idaho, and his colleagues report that one of their analyses predicts a 47 percent decline in total suitable habitat for all trout.

“We project that native cutthroat trout, already excluded from much of its range by nonnative species, will lose a further 58 percent of habitat due to higher temperatures and competition with other species,” they write.

“Habitat for nonnative brook trout and brown trout is predicted to decline by 77 percent and 48 percent, respectively, driven by increases in temperature and winter flood frequency caused by warmer, rainier winters.”

According to the study, habitat for rainbow trout will decline the least, only 35 percent, because harmful temperature effects would be partly offset by higher winter river flows that benefit the species.

Some models predicted more warming than others, but under even the most optimistic model, native cutthroat-trout populations in the West could decline by 33 percent, the study found.

Cutthroat-trout populations are already in trouble, according to a statement released by the sportsmen’s conservation group Trout Unlimited — some subspecies have been removed from 90 percent of their historic native range and are listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Early warning

The study’s authors say large declines in trout habitat are likely, but with the early warning from research like theirs, management efforts could be targeted toward key habitats where trout could hang on.

Some such work is already under way. Matthew Clark, the Cortez-based backcountry coordinator for Trout Unlimited’s Sportsmen’s Conservation Project, said his group is working to analyze the upper Dolores watershed to determine the most pressing needs for habitat restoration and protection.

The local Trout Unlimited subchapter, the Dolores River Anglers, is also installing fish barriers and restoring tributaries to the Dolores that contain genetically pure strains of native cutthroat trout.

“This is important because cutthroat trout can hybridize with rainbow trout, so it is critical to protect genetically intact populations when they are identified, especially in light of the much-reduced range that they currently inhabit,” Clark said.

Mixed bag

Temperature increases by themselves are likely to play a dominant role in future declines of cutthroat trout, brook trout and rainbow trout. But the likely impacts from climate change reach beyond warmer waters, the study authors point out.

Different species are likely to have different responses to flow-regime changes, for example. Fall-spawning trout like brown and brook trout are sensitive to winter floods; the study predicts that if warmer and rainier winters increase flows in that season, those populations will suffer the most. Spring-spawning cutthroat and rainbow trout may actually benefit from higher winter flows, because high water in summer can scour their eggs from gravel nests or wash away young fry. Furthermore, many native trout are threatened by invasions of introduced trout species; brown trout have displaced native trout in much of North America.

Silver lining

The predictions in the study might not be all bad for warmwater natives like the endangered humpback chub. In some parts of their range, such as the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam, introduced rainbow trout are predators that hamper recovery efforts.

But Dan Luecke, a Boulder, Colo.-based expert in endangered Colorado River Basin fish recovery, says trout are coldwater species and are found in the upstream reaches of rivers, whereas the Southwest’s endangered fish generally are warmwater species in downstream reaches.

The non-native threats to the native fish tend to be smallmouth bass, catfish, northern pike, sunfish, and other warmwater species that are found in the same reaches as the natives, he said. One interpretation of the new study, he suggests, “is that as the coldwater habitat of the trout shrinks, the warmwater habitat of the listed natives will increase.”

Clark adds that on balance, “Native coldand warm-water species have co-existed across the natural temperature gradient in our Western streams and rivers for millennia. It is ultimately a question of protecting native fish, both cold- and warmwater-dwelling, not a question of trout vs. warmwater natives.”

He said the tailwater fishery below McPhee Reservoir includes an area of overlap between the warm- and coldwater reaches of river, which would be potentially suitable habitat for trout and warmwater species. But it’s a relatively small percentage of the river from McPhee to its confluence with the Colorado.

“Additionally, there are very small numbers of trout that inhabit that zone of overlap,” he said, adding that a much-greater concern is the establishment of invasive, fish-eating smallmouth bass in the lower Dolores that have the potential to share the entire warmwater reach with the native fish.

“Even though the impact of the trout fishery below McPhee is relatively quite small,” he adds, “TU is committed to exploring ways to ensure that the impact is minimized even further while still maintaining a high-quality trout fishery in the coldwater reach below the dam that is unsuitable as warmwater native fish habitat.”

Conservation mandate?

Wenger, the lead author, and Trout Unlimited have been quick to use the study results as a call to action. They point out that by restoring and reconnecting coldwater drainages and by protecting existing healthy habitat largely located on public lands in the West, some of the decline in trout populations can likely be avoided.

“Essentially, Trout Unlimited is already protecting remaining strongholds and restoring degraded habitat — exactly the kind of things that need to be done to reduce the impact of a changing climate on coldwater fisheries in the West,” Wenger said.

“This study validates the work TU is doing in the West and all across the country to protect, reconnect, restore, and sustain trout habitat,” added Chris Wood, Trout Unlimited’s president and CEO.

“It also reinforces the danger in congressional proposals that would remove protection from backcountry roadless areas and cut funding for state and federal natural resource agencies.”

Montezuma County is feeling the heat, with more than half of the days in August hitting the 90-degree mark and less rain falling on thirsty crops.

Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture declared farmers here eligible for certain loan relief because of the county’s proximity to drought-hammered parts of Arizona. Also eligible for the relief are both New Mexico and Utah’s San Juan counties, as well as other counties in both states. Shared borders can equal shared woes — it is hot and dry in the Four Corners.

Storm clouds gather over the Sleeping Ute Mountain as seen from near Aneth, Utah, in late August. Many storms missed Cortez during the normal monsoon time. Photo by Gail Binkly

As to Cortez, though, the word from National Weather Service is mixed: Month-tomonth since the current water year began last October, Cortez has swung between below- normal precip to well above, then back again, especially in June, which saw only 0.01 inches, compared to the average of 0.54.

As of Aug. 24, the Cortez area had received 5.03 inches of water for the year, according to local weather observer Jim Andrus. The average moisture for the year on that date is 8.72 inches, leaving 2011 at 43 percent of normal.

Throughout the usual monsoon season in late July and August, Cortez residents saw plenty of clouds but only spatters of rain. “It’s been a drier monsoon season for us,” Andrus said. “We’ve got the monsoonal humidity, but it’s a question of where storms will unload the rainfall when they do arrive. A lot of storms have been missing Cortez.

It’s like throwing a deck of cards into the air. You don’t know where the cards are going to land on the ground.”

Dust Bowl days

A strong La Niña weather pattern is driving storms north, said meteorologist Jim Pringle of the National Weather Service in Grand Junction. While La Niña has left Cortez a bit more arid than usual, she’s brought near-scorched earth in Texas, most of which is considered to be under “exceptional” drought conditions.

“It’s really bad for them,” Andrus said. “It’s been about the worst for them since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s.”

Parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico are also in drought. In Clovis, N.M., the lack of rain has led to a lack of feed for livestock. The Associated Press reported Aug. 15 that livestock sales there have nearly tripled. Ranchers are selling because there is no grass for their cattle to graze, and feed is at a premium.

According to the University of Arizona’s climate study for August, drought conditions in Arizona and New Mexico waned slightly, but remain “widespread and intense,” while a strong pressure ridge raised temps to 2 to 8 degrees above average.

“I think a lot of why certain areas of the southwestern United States have been dry, and others not, can be explained by the El Niño Southern oscillation pattern,” the weather service’s Pringle said.

The pattern dictates the track of storms — whether a northern-moving La Niña, a southern-moving El Niño, or “Niño-neutral,” he explained.

“We’re watching it very closely,” Pringle said. “There are a lot of implications if we go back into another La Niña this winter. It’s a little too early to say for sure if we’re going to be into that or a neutral pattern, which looks right now to be the two possibilities this winter.”

Based on measurements volunteers collected at Cortez Municipal Airport, October 2010 was above normal, with 1.54 inches of water received. November lagged behind — 0.36 inches compared to an average of 0.92. December was another high month, with 1.81 inches vs. an average of 1.07, but January plummeted to just 0.11 inches, far below the normal of 1.05.

“That’s pretty dry,” Pringle said.

February was also low — 0.47 compared to an average of 1.05, as was March, with 0.51 inches compared to a normal of 1.15.

But rains slammed the area in April and May, which both saw 1.19 inches. In June, things were back down again, and July, at 0.92 inches, was behind its normal moisture content of 1.25 inches.

“It wasn’t that far off normal. We did have some dry months, but we had some abnormally wet months,” Pringle said. “The further north you go across western Colorado, the wetter it has been, generally speaking.”

Rainfall has also varied from point to point in Montezuma County, he said, sometimes significantly.

“Southwest Colorado is doing pretty well this year, all things considered, for the water situation,” Pringle said.

“The monsoon is still in place; it’s just a matter of where the main plume is,” he said, adding that the area could get a weather pattern vulnerable to monsoons early this month. But whether Cortez and surrounding areas see a significant surge is “the question mark,” Pringle said.

“It’s just a matter of whether there are big surges, or little spurts in Southwest Colorado.”

McPhee holding steady

Water users have not been left high and dry this summer, says Mike Preston, general manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District.

“We’re going to meet all allocations this year, in terms of our obligations,” he said. “We filled the reservoir this spring.”

The district oversees McPhee Reservoir, which serves farms north of Cortez, to Yellow Jacket and Dove Creek along the Highway 491 corridor, as well as Ute Mountain Farm and Ranch Enterprise. The reservoir also supplies municipal water to Cortez, Towaoc and Dove Creek.

“Those are first priority. Municipal water supplies don’t get shorted,” Preston said.

Inflows to the reservoir between the key period of April through July stood at 260,000 acre-feet. The 30-year average is 320,000 acre-feet for the period, so this year, McPhee is at 81 percent of average in terms of the amount of water that came in.

That was enough to fill the reservoir, and release about 58,000 acre-feet downriver for rafting and ecological work, Preston said.

“The reservoir was full, and we were spilling until June 25. We had a late start to the irrigation season, so we were able to keep the reservoir full,” he said.

The 260,000 acre-feet surpassed the 235,000 forecast for the period in May. Storms at the end of that month boosted the water supply, though, Preston said.

“What really turned this from what could have been a low spill year … was those late storms that we got in the month of May. Otherwise, it could have been touch and go as far as filling the reservoir.”

The conservancy district plans a few years in advance, always trying to carry over as much water as possible from year to year — sort of a “non-rainy-day” fund.

“We started out in pretty decent shape even before the runoff, because we’ve been carrying water from previous years,” Preston said. “This year, we didn’t even have to start using the reservoir storage until the latter part of June. … But an 81-percent year without that kind of storage could have been a problem.”

Irrigated crops in the county appear to be holding on, according to information from the Colorado Agricultural Experiment Station/Southwestern Colorado Research Center in Yellow Jacket. Dryland crops are experiencing more difficulty.

“This year, it’s been pretty dry,” said researcher Abdel Berrada, who also noted May’s big rain helped.

“So far, we have about 6.8 inches (of water) from January to now. Normally, we’ll get close to 10 inches for a normal-year average. For the year, we are only about 42 percent of an average year.”

Winter wheat did “surprisingly well,” he said, though kernels were on the small side.

As for dryland beans, some fields are OK, Berrada said. Irrigated beans are doing fine — though farmers might have to continue irrigating, unlike last August, when rainfall was above average.

“We have to irrigate constantly. I’m not sure we’re keeping up with the demand,” Berrada said.

“The dryland crops, I’m sure, are not as high-yielding as they could be. The winter wheat was not bad, but spring wheat is being harvested now. Beans are probably low, and sunflowers – it’s too early to tell yet.”

Irrigated sunflowers, like irrigated beans, are doing better than their dryland counterparts, which Berrada said are “hanging in there.”

“We planted on fallow ground. It benefited from the moisture already in the ground. But it can badly use rain now.”

Without additional moisture, he expects an average harvest at best, and possibly below-average. “Everything is going fast, because we’ve had some warm weather and dry weather,” he said.

Although the first cutting of alfalfa had a lower yield than average, the quality is good and the prices “excellent,” Berrada added.

“We’re definitely dry,” agreed Andrus, “but we can limp along.”

Part 2 of a two-part series. Last month, the series covered the long-running legal battle betweenSan Juan County, Utah, and the National Park Service over ownership of the Salt Creek trail inCanyonlands National Park.

In 1866, the U.S. Congress passed the Lode Mining Act, a bill regulating mining on public lands. Section 8 stated, “And be it further enacted, That the right of way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted.”

A decommissioned Forest Service road on Haycamp Mesa in the San Juan National Forest. Both the closing of some roads and the method of doing it – using a bulldozer to tear up the route – have been criticized. The dispute is part of an ongoing debate over old public-lands routes, some of which are claimed under the 1866 statute RS 2477. Photo by Duane Likes and Rick Newby

One hundred forty-five years later, that brief provision, known as RS (Revised Statutes) 2477, has become the basis of one of the biggest ongoing controversies in the West, spawning endless litigation and furious debate.

In the view of environmentalists, RS 2477 is “a nightmare for America’s wild public lands,” a description provided on the web site of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, which has fought 2477 claims.

“People say, ‘Hey, there’s this law from the 19th Century – maybe we can use this to stop them from closing roads.’ So it gets dusted off any time the Forest Service does something to protect its lands,” Ted Zukoski, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, told the Free Press.

“There are 400,000 miles of roads on Forest Service land. You can almost get to the moon and back on Forest Service roads but it’s not enough for some people.”

But advocates of motorized access see the historic statute as an unequivocal right that requires many old roads and trails across both public and private lands to be kept open.

There are countless thousands of RS 2477 claims and potential claims throughout the Intermountain West, including some 15,000 to 20,000 claims in Utah alone, many within Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion national parks as well as in proposed wilderness areas.

A firestorm

In Montezuma County, Colo., no formal legal claims under 2477 have yet been pursued. But the statute emboldens constitutionalists and public-access advocates who see it as a basis for opposing road closures on local public lands.

In the view of Dennis Atwater, numerous routes on the San Juan National Forest qualify as RS 2477 roads. Atwater is a member of the Montezuma County Planning Commission as well as two advisory committees – one in Montezuma County and one in Dolores County – appointed to study issues involving federal lands for the county commissioners.

He is also a vocal critic of Forest Service policies and officials.

“They’re disingenuous and they’re not working in good faith,” he said. “They do not negotiate on anything. In all the meetings we’ve had, absolutely nothing has been negotiated. Every meeting you start at Ground Zero and every contentious issue is still out there. Nothing gets resolved.”

Locally, the contentious issues center around travel management on the forest. A firestorm erupted last year with the approval in 2010 of the travel-management plan for the Boggy-Glade forest area north and west of Dolores, with residents furious over proposed closures of some 62 miles of roads and the end of cross-country motorized travel, even for game retrieval.

In vain did the Forest Service point out that most of the roads were two-track dirt roads, user-created routes, and old logging roads, and that the ban on cross-country motorized travel is being implemented nationwide.

Locals said there should be flexibility for local circumstances and that the road closures were largely illegal because the routes were de facto RS 2477 routes.

The Boggy-Glade travel plan was eventually appealed and overturned for reasons unrelated to RS 2477 – in fact, because its road density was too high – and is currently in limbo. A new round of public comments were taken and the Dolores Public Lands Office is currently “taking all of those comments and trying to come up with another alternative that incorporates people’s concerns and comments into a decision we hope to have out later this fall,” according to Tom Rice, deputy district ranger with the Dolores Ranger District of the San Juan National Forest.

Confusion and controversy

Much of the confusion and controversy surrounding RS 2477 results from the statute’s very brevity. What constitutes a “highway”? “Construction”? “Public lands, not reserved for public uses”?

The statute was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, meaning no new 2477 roads could be created, but FLPMA left intact existing 2477 routes.

The problem is deciding what those routes are.

According to Atwater and those of like mind, any road that pre-dates the passage of FLPMA might qualify.

“Our position is certainly there are some roads up there that should have been closed,” he said, referring to the Boggy- Glade area. “Some are old logging roads or go to a [grazing] lease. They required remediation at the end of the contract, and a lot of those were never done.

“Now we’re in a predicament where a lot of those existed on Oct. 1, 1976, and became a route. A two-track that fell into ‘right-of-way’ or ‘right of use’ under FLPMA – if you read the law it is very clear. FLPMA is very explicit about right-of-way and right of use.”

He said it is not necessary that a court first certify RS 2477 status. “They would like you to believe that, but the only time it has to be enforced through a court is if someone objects.”

Under FLPMA, he said, “only Congress can close RS 2477 roads. If a federal agency or its employees closes such a road it would be a violation of federal law.”

Statements like that led to talk of Montezuma County Sheriff Dennis Spruell possibly arresting Forest Service employees, something that has not come to pass so far.

At an Aug. 15 meeting of the local 9-12 Project/Tea Party in Cortez, Spruell briefly addressed the 2477 issue. “I think I have the backing legally to stop any encroachment on an RS 2477 road; however, I’m not going to take a case to court unless I can win,” he said.

But he said he is prepared to fight for search and rescue parties’ rights to travel closed roads. “If they [the Forest Service] try to tell us we can’t go somewhere you just watch and see what happens,” he said.

However, Rice told the Free Press that emergency use of closed roads is certainly allowed, even if a search and rescue group has to cut a lock. “The [travel-management] decision allows search and rescue operations to access the forest via any of these roads.” Off-road travel for fire control and medical emergencies is also permissible.

“So the assertion that we would be prohibiting search and rescues, firefighting efforts or emergency access – that is false,” Rice said.

Up to the courts

But to Atwater and others, the question isn’t whether the agency grants access on the roads, but whether the agency has control of them in the first place. To him, any publicly used roads across the forest pre-dating FLPMA should automatically have 2477 status.

But Atwater’s interpretation is not the prevailing view. Courts, attorneys and the Forest Service say an RS 2477 claim must be proven in court.

“The Forest Service is not in business to decide whether a road is an RS 2477 road,” said Rice. “That is the courts’ decision, and we would be bound by any court decision that a road is a 2477 road. It is the responsibility of the claimant, typically the county, to pursue that assertion by going to court.”

However, no claims have been brought before a court regarding the San Juan National Forest, he said. “I know there’s some interest by some members of the public who have talked to the Montezuma County commissioners about potential 2477 claims and we’ve even taken a look at maps.”

The commissioners have said if they feel they have a strong claim, they will follow up, Rice said.

However, there has been discussion of the agency voluntarily turning over some specific roads to the county or counties, such as the Dolores-Norwood Road and Red Arrow Mine Road (Forest Road 567). Another significant difference between the views of constitutionalists such as Atwater and the prevailing interpretations of RS 2477 is the date used in determining the validity of road claims.

Most courts have held that routes across national forests have to pre-date the creation of that forest, rather than the passage of FLPMA, to qualify as 2477s. That’s because, earlier in the nation’s history, land was considered unappropriated public land until it was “reserved” – for an Indian reservation, a military post, or a national forest. After that date, there would not be an automatic grant of right-of-way.

“Most of the Forest Service lands were designated by [Theodore] Roosevelt or in that era,” said Zukoski. “So the proof [that a route existed] is going to have to go back to the 19th Century in a lot of cases and it’s hard to find people or photos, so you’re relying on really old evidence. You have to hope the courthouse hasn’t burned down in the last 100 years.”

In Southwest Colorado, national-forest lands, including those now belonging to the San Juan National Forest, were reserved by Roosevelt in 1905.

The standard is different for BLM lands; in that case, 1976 is often considered the cut-off date.

Another key question is what standard is used to show that something is a public route. Because the statute is so vague, courts have turned to state standards for guidance; however, those can vary widely.

Colorado, for instance, has no specific time frame for showing “continuous use” of a route, while Utah does, Zukoski said.

“If you look at the Colorado cases, most involve uses of 15 to 20 years or more, but the state law itself does not require that,” he said. In Utah, though, a route must have been used for 10 years continuously.

Other arguments have arisen over the terms “highway” and “construction.” In general, state and county governments and off-road-vehicle activists believe those terms should be broadly interpreted, meaning an old road need only be, in extreme cases, a dirt track where someone moved a rock out of the way to constitute an RS 2477 road.

Environmentalists say the terms should be more strictly defined and point to cases where claimed routes go through extremely narrow slot canyons, along winding stream beds or up almost-impassable rocky slopes. “I’ve got a case in California where the claimants have an old map that shows a route around in the general area, but it doesn’t go where it goes now,” Zukoski said. “It goes up and down vertical cliffs.”

He said assembling evidence to convince a court that a route is an RS 2477 road is very difficult. “Locating evidence is the first major hurdle, and then you have to have a trial. You have to sue the federal government and that is in federal court, so you have to travel. All that costs money.”

Questioning costs

Cost is an issue that has been raised by others. A 2010 article in the Denver University Law Review that discussed the legal complexities of RS 2477 stated, “Growing evidence in the local media suggests that state and local governments, as well as their citizens, are growing weary of R.S. 2477 litigation. While counties continue to file and prosecute R.S. 2477 claims, the fact remains that an R.S. 2477 right-of-way claim can take years to resolve, all at the expense of the taxpayer.”

San Juan County, Utah, has spent at least $1 million battling for control of a Jeep route in Canyonlands National Park, according to commission chair Bruce Adams, who told the Free Press, “Once you’ve invested a million, you’d better fight for the result you want, hadn’t you?”

And Kane County, Utah, allegedly has spent that much fighting its own battle over some 60 roads going through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The head of the Taxpayers Association of Kane County, Sky Chaney, told High Country News that his examination of county budget spreadsheets indicated the county had spent at least $1 million and possibly much more if overtime and contract time for mapping were considered.

“You have to wonder, what aren’t they spending money on because of these other costs?” asked Zukoski. “Of course, Utah counties have money to spend on the claims because they have a state legislature that requires all the taxpayers in the state to pay for the litigation.”

More than a decade ago, the Utah Legislature created a Constitutional Defense Fund and, according to a review by the Utah Office of Legislative Auditor General, from 2000 to 2004 appropriated nearly $8 million from that fund to an RS 2477 rights-of-way account.

This year, the Utah Legislature passed HB 76, which establishes a federalism subcommittee of the Constitutional Defense Council to review federal laws applying to Utah, and encourages state officials to attack “unconstitutional” laws and mandates, providing up to $1.2 million a year for them to do so. The bill will provide cash to support lawsuits related to RS 2477 roads.

Yet despite the sizable amounts of money poured into the battle, Utah’s victories regarding road claims have been few. In May of this year, a U.S. district judge ruled that the Salt Creek road in Canyonlands did not qualify as an RS 2477 road. San Juan County has decided to appeal that ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

In the case of Kane County, there have been mixed results.

In August 2003, a county commissioner and the county sheriff removed 31 BLM closure signs from roads and trails in the Grand Staircase monument they considered to be county-owned 2477 roads. The county also passed an ordinance encourag ing off-road-vehicle use on closed areas in the monument and a wilderness area. In September 2009, a panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Kane County hadn’t established any road rights and that its actions violated the U.S. Constitution’s supremacy clause, which says that disputes between federal laws and state, county or local laws will be resolved in favor of the feds.

However, a few months later the court reviewed that decision in an en banc hearing (before all of the circuit’s judges) and ruled that the environmental groups that had filed the lawsuit had no standing, meaning the U.S. government would have to pursue the case. Subsequently, the Obama administration granted Kane County the rights to five of the least-controversial roads in question.

“The court did reverse that,” Zukoski said. “The court didn’t endorse anything Kane County had done but said we were the wrong people to bring that lawsuit, and if anybody could bring suit against Kane County for tearing down signs, passing an ordinance that opened closed roads and so on, it would have to be the United States.”

However, Zukoski said the case was not to actually determine an RS 2477 claim. “Kane County wasn’t trying to get the roads through 2477. They said that 2477 allowed them to manage any roads that they think are 2477.”

Right of access?

That’s the view espoused by Atwater. However, he said he is not necessarily fighting for local counties’ rights to maintain old routes, as many Utah counties are doing, just for the people’s right to continue to use them.

“Most of our folks that I’m dealing with that want to protect our rights agree that the forest has a wonderful way of mending itself,” he said. “Many, many of these old roads and trails that are in fact 2477 have trees growing up through them that are 8 and 10 inches in diameter and we don’t propose that anybody go disturb that, but we want the right to use it – without doing habitat damage or unreasonably disturbing wildlife.

“We don’t want the county to do a darn thing except to protect our rights to these roads and they can exist just as they do today. But we have a right of access. We want to use them like we have always used them.”

However, motorized use is not as damaging as some maintain, Atwater said. “Years ago, prior to the explosion of the ATV market, when we went berry-picking or hunting we would put chains on our four-wheelers and we did have a tad damage, but you could go back the next year and not find the same trail,” he said.

Today’s ATVs are much less damaging, with smaller tires, he said. “The uses we use them for – getting firewood, getting our deer and elk, berry-picking – are not doing resource damage.”

Forcing ATVs to stay on designated trails is merely concentrating the usage, he said. “Those trails in places show massive habitat damage because they’re shoving it into one area.”

Atwater admitted that desert habitat is more fragile than forest. “Yes, the areas vary and each has its own ecological differences, but the travel-management plan is a cookiecutter plan. One size fits all. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the grasslands in Missouri or the high mountains of Colorado. That’s ridiculous.”

Most motorized users are responsible, he said. “There are always going to be 2 to 5 percent of the people that screw things up but 95 percent of the population loves our forest and we’re going to be good stewards.”

Breaking an ankle

A particular bone of contention for Atwater and others is the way the Forest Service has been decommissioning the old roads – building large berms, laying logs across routes, ripping them up with bulldozers.

He spoke of the old Lost Canyon Stock Driveway, once the only road to Rico, which starts off Highway 184. “When Rico became a boom town, all the equipment for mining came up that road on 13-mule-team jerk lines,” he said. “All of this has been researched. It’s obviously an RS 2477 road.”

Today, Atwater admits, “you can’t even access part of the road where it goes down into Bear Creek,” but he takes issue with the Forest Service’s having torn up part of the route. “They have taken it a couple of miles and obliterated it where you can’t even walk on it. You’d break an ankle – it’s that bad.”

Rice agreed some of the work had been excessive. He said forest officials took a field trip recently with the Montezuma and Dolores County commissioners and representatives of motorized and non-motorized user groups to look at the types of road closures being used.

“The large berms, the ripping of roads – we agreed with them in many cases that we did not need to go to that degree and we could just put a couple of boulders in front of an old road and let it grass in on its own.

“That review of what we did up on Haycamp with those road closures, I think, was indicative of Forest Service and local governments and user groups working well together. I believe that was a positive step in the right direction.”

‘What is the point?’

Jimbo Buickerood, an organizer with the local environmental group San Juan Citizens Alliance, said he would like to see more dialogue and less animosity.

Buickerood said the road dispute has become more of a philosophical argument than a battle over something truly worthwhile. “In Montezuma County, one of the routes in discussion is the Lost Canyon Stock Driveway. It’s not even a road or a used trail any more. It’s an elk trail. What is the point? Is the point to prove philosophically that the county’s in control? Does the county want another road to maintain?

“I think after a series of non-wins, people will be saying, ‘Do we really want to continue this?’”

He called for a fair discussion about balancing the need to protect watersheds, wildlife and even cattle-grazing with the desire for access.

“I think the important thing is to have a community dialogue on what these lands need and how they support our community, and I think it’s much more than just public access to the roads.”

He added that cost is indeed a concern when taxpayer dollars are involved.

“What do people want to spend money on? Trying to keep open, and in good enough conditions, some low-value roads not used by many people or for many purposes? We can’t do it all. We need to make some choices here. How much of the federal budget do we want to put into maintaining thousands of miles of roads?

“I think the day of reckoning is going to come when citizens will ask counties, ‘What do you have to show for the hundreds of thousands of dollars that you have invested in this?’ ”

But Atwater said the roads in question are important for diverse uses and for now, the fight will continue. He said a nonprofit, 501(c)3 group has been formed called the Southwest Public Lands Coalition to represent forest-users of all stripes — the disabled, seniors, oil and gas companies, hikers, bikers and motorized users. “We are going to build a war chest in case we have to take the Forest Service to court. We will defend everybody’s use as much as our own,” he said.

For Montezuma County, the issue comes down to several things — having a good case, really wanting the road in question, and being able to afford the costs, according to commission chair Larrie Rule.

“If you claim an RS 2477 road, you’ve got to be able to prove it,” he said. “As commissioners we’ve got to look at the law., and we’ve got to listen to our attorney.

“Another question is, do we want to claim all these 2477 roads if they’re going to leave them open, because if we do, we could wind up taking care of them. That could be an expensive deal for us. We can’t spend money we don’t have.

“Now, if they’re going to close the roads, that’s a different story.”

But some roads, such as the Lost Canyon Stock Driveway, may not be worth a fight because a nearby road goes to about the same places, he said.

For now, Rule said, the county is waiting to see the revised travel plan for the Boggy- Glade area. “It’s not a dead issue, that’s for sure, but we are waiting to see what they are going to do.”

A stagnant national economy has hurt local tourism in some ways, but tight vacation budgets are inspiring residents to visit attractions in their own backyards more, boosting sales and making up for losses.

In Arches National Park, Utah locals are jamming the parking lots, says park ranger supervisor Sharon Brussell.

Visitors enjoy a tour of Long House at Mesa Verde. Photo by Wendy Mimiaga

“We’ve had overflow to the point that many go on to Canyonlands National Park down the road,” she said. “With the poor economic conditions, it stands to reason that people who may have been planning a big trip far away are instead staying around, exploring their area.”

Brussell attributes Arches’ 4 percent increase in visitation, and Canyonlands’ 6 percent increase from this time last year, to people vacationing closer to home. “They’re looking to save a buck,” she added.

As of July, Arches had seen 626,757 recreation visitors for the year, up from 604,448 from the same time last year. Canyonlands National Park went from 233,967 total recreation visitors by July last year to 269,327 by the same month in 2011.

Other parks are being hit harder by the sluggish economy, but have come up with creative solutions to attract visitors.

Mesa Verde National Park has seen a 17 percent decrease for 2011 to date. As of July of this year, the park drew 274,507 visitors, compared to 329,913 by the same time last year. The month of July totals were especially low, dropping 26 percent from last year.

To help offset the fickle tourism, park managers began offering several backcountry hiking tours to ruins not usually open to the public, and the response has been huge.

“We’re selling out of tickets for these tours. People really have a great experience,” said Laurel Rematore, executive director of the Mesa Verde Association.

Special care is taken by park archeologists to protect the thousand-year-old structures in remote areas of the ruins-rich park, but managers also understand the importance of sharing this cultural heritage with the public.

“It’s great for locals who have already visited the park’s main features, like Balcony House and Cliff Palace, a few times and want a different experience, so it gets people back to the park who might not have otherwise returned,” Rematore said.

New tours are on a trial basis to monitor any potential impacts, but so far there have been no problems. Now visitors can sign up to explore (with a guide) remarkable ruins such as Spring House, Square Tower House and Oak Tree House and Fire Temple. Go to www.mesaverdeinstitute.org for tour availability and more information.

In general, Cortez has had a steady tourism industry, reports Mesa Verde Country director Lynn Dyer, in part because the area does not suffer from boom-and-bust cycles, so the highs and lows are never too extreme.

“Some lodgers and businesses are up one month, while others are down, and then the next month it is the other way around, so overall it has been OK, considering the economy,” she said.

July visitation at the Colorado Welcome Center in Cortez was higher than expected, Dyer said, and Mancos and Dolores also saw good numbers this summer, though those have dipped recently.

“I think people are driving more for vacation because that is still the cheapest way to travel, and it is cheaper to explore your own backyard, too, so we see a lot of regional travelers,” she said.

“But I’ve seen license plates from Washington, Oregon, Canada, Florida and Maine as well. Motorcyclists are very fond of this area’s excellent roads and are coming through in droves yearround.”

A few hours away in Arizona at Grand Canyon National Park, attendance is holding at approximately 2.6 million year-to-date, nearly exactly the same as last year, reports Shannan Marcak, public-affairs specialist.

“We fluctuate just like everyone else does, but because the Grand Canyon is a destination park, away from urban areas, people tend to be more resistant to changing their plans once they have decided to come here.”

In tough times, visiting national parks is a good bargain, she said.

“Parks are nice because they offer opportunities for traveling for different budgets, so if you were planning to stay at hotels but can’t afford that now, you can still make the trip and stay at a park campground.”