Mark Habbeshaw is a Kane County commissioner. Four other county commissioners, the county sheriff, state Sen. Tom Hatch and Rep. Mike Noel also signed this submission.

A commentary, an advertisement and letters in the Tribune recently have questioned the validity of rural roads and claimed that local officials installing signs on county roads were acting illegally.

While rural roads might, at first glance, appear haphazard and unnecessary, they actually form county transportation systems sustaining our local cultures, traditions, ways of life and economies. Rural transportation systems are as important locally as state and federal highway systems are important regionally and nationally.

The Kane and Garfield county transportation systems consist of historic roads established at least 30 to 40 years ago and in many cases more than 100 years ago. Any roads across public lands created more recently than 1976 must be permitted to the county by a federal agency.

Congress delegated to federal agencies the authority to manage and protect public lands. Congress, however, did not delegate agency authority to terminate existing rights congressionally granted across federal lands under a 19th century law known as RS2477.

The counties, the state and the federal government do not want a bad test case resulting from the debate over rural roads. The counties, however, are confident they have accurately identified valid county transportation systems based on several years of research and documentation.

The counties' process of putting up signs will allow private property owners, the federal government and others an opportunity to discuss the status of a disputed road. County road signing moves us toward resolution of the RS2477 controversy by focusing on the core issue: Are these roads RS2477 rights of way or not?

Other efforts at resolution of the RS2477 issue have been problematic, and the issue is as unsettled as it was 10 years ago.

The counties' road signs are equally important for the safety and convenience of the traveling public. For example, the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument estimates it attracts approximately 700,000 visitors annually. Many of those visitors are traveling extremely remote and rugged country that has already claimed the life of one visitor exploring back-country roads.

The Bureau of Land Management was recently quoted in the Tribune as stating that current management and travel planning efforts will resolve this issue. However, the first document of that planning process, the Scoping Report, states "Resolution of RS-2477 assertions is a legal issue beyond the scope of this RMP [planning] effort."

It is clear that BLM planning will attempt to close and restrict county roads while failing to properly recognize existing county rights on those same roads. The BLM cannot have it both ways. It must either address the RS2477 issue or not make planning decisions conflicting with existing county rights of way.

In addition to designating county roads closed and restricted, the BLM has recently attempted to issue permits authorizing third parties to take over construction and maintenance activities on county roads. In those cases the BLM determined that "no rights exist" on the roads.

In fact, the BLM has said it does not recognize a single RS2477 road in Kane County. These actions have been taken in spite of congressional mandate that "all actions" by the BLM "shall be subject to valid existing rights" and that rights of way cannot be terminated without the counties' consent.

The conflicting BLM/Kane County signs on the Windmill Road, as recently reported by the Tribune, demonstrate the validity of the counties' signing programs. The BLM's closure of the road was only discovered through the county's signing effort after it was closed without consultation with the county.

County documentation confirms the existence of the road at least as early as the 1940s, long before the Wilderness Study Area designation. The road was also identified in the wilderness inventory as pre-existing. If the county is without authority in signing the road, the BLM can consider legal action. However, legal action could also result in binding recognition of the county road.

Kane and Garfield counties recognize the BLM's authority to manage public lands and have consistently offered solutions in trying to resolve planning issues and management decisions with the BLM.

The counties ask only that the BLM operate within its granted authority and that it respect the right of the counties to operate county transportation systems based on roads granted to the counties by Congress under RS2477.

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Mark Habbeshaw is a Kane County commissioner. Four other county commissioners, the county sheriff, state Sen. Tom Hatch and Rep. Mike Noel also signed this submission.