‘Shovel Brigade’ Defies U.S., Digs Away at Roadblock

Using shovels donated by sympathizers around the country, activists angry at the closure of a remote dirt road Monday began tearing down an earthen roadblock erected by the U.S. Forest Service.

Defying authorities who promise prosecution, more than 200 men and women who turned up on the eve of a planned Independence Day protest event toiled for several hours to remove dirt and rocks that block a road washed out five years ago.

U.S. Forest Service officials have said any work on the road without permits would violate federal laws, but rangers were not present at the site Monday and local sheriff’s deputies said there were no confrontations.

The group, known as the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade, promised to return today to finish the job by removing one of three boulders placed by the Forest Service two years ago.

Locals want the road--deep in the shadow of fir trees, mountain mahogany and aspen--reopened for camping, hiking and firefighting. Their cause has attracted opponents of federal land policies around the nation.

“Their fight is my fight,” said Scott Traudt, 34, a commercial fisherman from Warwick, R.I., who said loggers, ranchers and others who make their living from natural resources are frustrated by increased government regulation. “We’ve had enough. We’re all getting united.”

Derek Cooper, a Defense Department engineer from Ridgecrest, Calif., wore a T-shirt that expressed the sentiment of many. “Department of the Inferior” and “Bureau of Land Grabber Maggots,” it read.

“We’re in the middle of the Mojave Desert and have had all our roads closed,” he said of his own conflicts with federal land policies. “It’s time to make a stand.”

Demar Dahl, president of the Shovel Brigade, stressed the group’s position that county government should have more say in land management. “I think this is a great day for local government and it is a step in the right direction of us in the West who are tired of the government telling us what is best for us,” he said.

Despite widespread publicity about the Independence Day event, Forest Service officials Monday afternoon said they were unaware of what had happened at the road, two miles south of the hamlet of Jarbidge in rugged northeastern Nevada.

Service spokeswoman Erin O’Conner declined to say if rangers would attempt to stop today’s planned work. But “after the event, the Forest Service will have specialists visit the site and do a preliminary damage assessment,” she said. “Any federal laws that were violated will be dealt with in conjunction with the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Last week, a federal judge in Las Vegas refused to block the efforts of the Shovel Brigade to reopen the disputed road, but reminded the protesters that they could face criminal or civil action if they trespass on federal land or violate the Endangered Species Act or the Clean Water Act.

Shovel Brigade members have long argued that the dirt road is owned by the county, and that they had the right to repair the road after it was washed out in 1995.

But Forest Service officials in 1998, noting that the road borders a river filled with the threatened bull trout, told the county it had no authority to repair the road without necessary environmental permits.

Protesters are camping on a private meadow across the state line in Idaho, where anti-government T-shirts, bumper stickers and shovels are being sold in a festive atmosphere.

Leaders had predicted that several thousand would participate, but by Monday afternoon only several hundred had gathered. Organizers expected more to arrive today.

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Associated Press contributed to this story.