A U.S. federal judge sided with environmentalists on Monday and reduced the authority of local officials to claim rights of way over trails on federal land. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell upheld a decision by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that three Utah counties did not have the rights of way on 16 routes. Enviros filed suit after the counties used bulldozers to grade roads in wilderness study areas and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Because lands with roads are ineligible for wilderness status, local officials in many Western states have claimed jurisdiction over routes to preserve access and disqualify areas from being designated wilderness.
