RENO, Nev. (AP) — A dirt road in a national forest at the center of a decades-old dispute between the Forest Service and a rural Nevada county will remain in federal hands after a judge ruled county officials failed to prove it was theirs before the remote wilderness was permanently reserved in 1909.
U.S. District Court Miranda Du says the agency had no authority to cede control of the land to Elko County in a 2001 settlement agreement granting a rare right of way to the road near the Idaho line.
Du ruled the fact some miners and sheep herders may have traversed the route before the national forest was created doesn't constitute a legal right of way under a 1866 law intended to promote mineral exploration.
Conservationists say it's a critical victory in the face of similar confrontations across the West.