Official Skeptical of Reopening Rural Nevada Road

The federal official who might have more say than anyone else about whether a rural Nevada county rebuilds a washed-out road that stirred a national controversy last fall remains skeptical that it can be done.

Bob Williams, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Nevada, said it is unlikely the road can be rebuilt where it was along the Jarbidge River without violating federal laws protecting the threatened bull trout.

“Our position will basically be that if it . . . would put the road at the bottom of the river, or next to the river, or that requires moving the river--that kind of alternative would not be acceptable to us,” Williams said. “It would jeopardize the existence of the species.”

The comments raise new concerns about a settlement the Forest Service and Elko County are trumpeting as a solution to a five-year dispute over the washed-out South Canyon Road in northeast Nevada.

The battle, which included court-ordered mediation and a citizens attempt to reopen the road, gave rise to the Shovel Brigade and became a symbol of some Westerners’ dissatisfaction with federal land-use policies.

Williams said one alternative would place the road higher up the mountainside. But he estimated costs at more than $1 million per mile, which Elko County would have to pay.

At a cost of up to $10 million, that might be beyond Elko County’s $30-million annual budget.

Elko County commissioners and state Assemblyman John Carpenter (R-Elko) say they will sign the agreement tentatively approved by the Justice Department, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Environmental Protection Agency.

The proposal would allow the county to rebuild the road, but only if the county paid for it and followed federal environmental laws protecting the fish. Federal biologists have opposed the road for fear it would accelerate soil erosion and send sediments into the waters that serve as home to the bull trout.

The final plan will probably be subject to a review under the National Environmental Policy Act as well as formal consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service as required under the Endangered Species Act.