Local Rights Group Spies King George in Washington
Comparing their cause to that of participants in the Boston Tea Party, leaders of a rebellion against federal protection of a threatened fish urged Congress on Saturday to recognize local control of a road that they say was theirs before the government established a national forest.
“If the feds do not change their ways and begin to listen to the local people, there is going to be a lot more tea thrown overboard,” said state Assemblyman John Carpenter, one of the leaders of an effort to rebuild the road along the Jarbidge River in defiance of the U.S. Forest Service.
Two Republican representatives who held the congressional field hearing said mounting tension in the fight over the bull trout and the road in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest symbolizes a larger rift between federal land managers and citizens.
Federal wildlife biologists say reconstruction of the road--washed out by a 1995 flood--near the Idaho border would jeopardize survival of the southernmost population of bull trout in the nation.
The Humboldt-Toiyabe forest was established from 1906 to 1909. Elko lawyer Grant Gerber, who wants to see the road rebuilt, said cowboys and miners used it long before the forest was created.
Rep. Helen Chenoweth (R-Idaho) said at the close of the four-hour hearing that she was disappointed that Forest Service officials were refusing to turn over documents about the road.
“This is one of the most discouraging issues I’ve been faced with,” said Chenoweth, chairwoman of the House Resources subcommittee on forests and forest health.
About 500 people attended the hearing, which was dominated by strong criticism of the Forest Service and the federal government.
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