WHAT WE STAND FOR
Take Back Utah protects access to our public lands and defends the freedom of all American’s to explore and experience America’s Wild Places, while preserving America’s small town economies and rural lifestyles through responsible land use.
Kane County Commission
Douglas K. Heaton, Daniel W. Hulet, Mark W. Habbeshaw
Kanab, Utah76 North Main Kanab, Utah (435) 644-4901
On August 30, 2010, in a Kane County quiet title suit in the United States District Court, the United States acknowledged Kane County's ownership and jurisdiction of approximately 26 miles of the 33 mile long Skutumpah road. The County will start signing, maintaining and repairing the road today.
The Skutumpah road is believed to be the first Utah R.S. 2477 highway with title confirmed in court, and may be the first R.S. 2477 road adjudicated on lands managed by the Department of the Interior (Interior).
The State of Utah joined Kane County in the suit to quiet title to twelve roads, including the Skutumpah road. Several environmental groups were denied intervention in the case by the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Kane County will continue to press its case and expects to quiet title to the remaining roads, and the rest of the Skutumpah road,
within the next few months.
R.S. 2477 public highway rights-of-way were granted to states and counties from 1866 to 1976 to facilitate the settlement of the West. The majority of roads crossing public lands were established under R.S. 2477 and our communities depend on the secure and continued existence of these roads. Although repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, all established R.S. 2477 highways were grandfathered as valid existing rights.
In 1997, Secretary Bruce Babbitt directed Interior to ignore R.S. 2477 rights and created unnecessary controversy and conflict. Interior agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), have closed and restricted numerous county roads across the West claiming that R.S. 2477 rights must be "determined" before the agency will "respect them as valid existing rights," and yet Interior has vigorously worked to avoid having any R.S. 2477 right-of-way recognized as valid.
For the last two years in court Interior denied that Kane County had any right to the Skutumpah Road, but it separately informed the public that Kane County should maintain it. U.S. District Court Judge Clark Waddoups recently advised U.S. attorneys that the federal government had placed Kane County in a "catch 22" and suggested that the attorneys coordinate with the county to resolve some of the roads in the county.
The failure of the BLM to maintain the Skutumpah road resulted in many public safety dangers along the road that warranted an expedited court hearing.
When pressed, the United States finally acknowledged Kane County's ownership of the Skutumpah road. Although the full extent Kane County's rights are yet to be defined in the litigation, the County now has the necessary jurisdiction to properly maintain, repair and manage the Skutumpah road as it historically has done.
Kane County is in the process of securing quiet title or formal recognition of all of its roads documented as R.S. 2477 roads.
WHAT WE ARE ABOUT
1. We are focused on enacting public policy change at the federal government level to protect access to our public lands for all.
2. We serve as an inclusive and unifying voice to diverse groups of American's who want to access and experience America's Wild Places for themselves, regardless of age, ability or other factors that may be limiting.
3. We are a loud voice of truth about public land access issues – we speak with veracity to educate our fellow citizens and government officials about how today's "Wilderness" policies exclude most American's from having the ability to personally experience America's most wild places, as well as how these policies weaken the ability of America's small towns to survive.
VOLUNTEER
We need people to help with our cause. If you would like to volunteer your talents to help save Utah, please fill out the form below and we will contact you as soon as we can.
Thank you.
WHATS HAPPENING
- Watch some video clips on important events and rallies that are going to take place and have already taken place to get you up to speed on the public land situations.
- "Wilderness" is the word the environmentalist's hide behind when they are trying to close our public lands to recreation.
DID YOU KNOW
- The federal government controls nearly 65 percent of the land in the state of Utah, as opposed to states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, New York or Virginia where the Federal Government controls less than 2% of the total land mass of those states.
- Utah has 52,696,960 acres of land, and a staggering 33,258,253 acres of federal land 63%.