{"id":110831,"date":"2015-07-23T20:28:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T02:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-forest-at-odds-over-ohvs\/"},"modified":"2015-07-23T20:28:02","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T02:28:02","slug":"county-forest-at-odds-over-ohvs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/county-forest-at-odds-over-ohvs\/","title":{"rendered":"County, forest at odds over OHVs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma
Montezuma County has installed a dozen of these signs to remind drivers of the new ordinance allowing off-highway vehicles on County Road 31, also called the Dolores-Norwood Road.<\/span>Cortez Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A U.S. Forest Service ranger told Montezuma County commissioners this week that local officials continue to overstep their authority in regard to the Dolores-Norwood Road.<\/p>\n

District Ranger Derek Padilla said jurisdictional confusion over the roadway resurfaced over the July Fourth weekend after complaints were lodged about ATV use.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe confusion led to in-fighting among the community itself,\u201d Padilla told commissioners on Monday, July 20.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Montezuma County officials installed a dozen \u201cShare the Road\u201d signs accommodating off-highway vehicle use on county roads, including the Dolores-Norwood Road.<\/p>\n

To clarify any confusion, Montezuma County attorney John Baxter told commissioners on Monday that people were allowed to operate off-highway vehicles on the roadway.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot according to our travel management rules,\u201d Padilla interrupted.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour travel management rule is incorrect,\u201d Baxter replied.<\/p>\n

Baxter continued, stating that federal officials had yet to provide any evidence that the roadway had ever been transferred to the Forest Service.<\/p>\n

Padilla countered, stating the two parties needed to enter into a formal process to settle the jurisdictional question.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the books, it\u2019s the jurisdiction of the Forest Service,\u201d said Padilla. \u201cThat\u2019s the part we need to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baxter contended that the issue could be informally resolved if federal officials would simply agree to sign over jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe say it\u2019s ours,\u201d Baxter told Padilla. \u201cIf you think it\u2019s yours, then maybe you should take us to court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla said the Forest Service was unlikely to take any action, informing commissioners that it was there responsibility to provide evidence in a courtroom to prove their asserted jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

The jurisdictional issue over the corridor initially surfaced in 2013. The 55-mile, mostly graveled, network of roads passes through portions of Montezuma, Dolores, and San Miguel counties and the San Juan National and Uncompahgre national forests.<\/p>\n

Upset about commercial travel fees and regulation by the U.S. Forest Service, Montezuma County officials have claimed historic-use rights utilizing Revised Statute 2477.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores-Norwood Road is hot point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,109,2344,549],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-road-transport","tag-united-states-forest-service"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110831"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}