Thursday, April 10, 2003

Documenting Roads - RS 2477 The US Department of Interior has put up a new website since I last visited.  It looks good and is a huge improvement from where they have been in the past.  Featured on the main page is the landmark agreement that was reached yesterday between the State of Utah and Interior on the RS 2477 issue.  At the core of the agreement is the State's use of technology to demonstrate and validate the existence of roads throughout Utah.  According to the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's multi-million-dollar digital warehouse of detailed rights-of-way data -- Leavitt said it required 300 terabytes of computer disk space -- illustrated to Interior officials that the state was serious about its June 2000 announcement to file suit against the agency to quit the title to thousands of rights of way on federal land in Utah. The project was begun several years ago and contains detailed GIS data with spot photographs along thousands of miles of roads throughout rural Utah.  The MOU recognizes the scope of work contained in the State's database: "The State of Utah has spent many years and millions of dollars cataloguing, photographing, documenting, and verifying the history and use of many roads in the State.  Through this process, the State has filtered out some R.S. 2477 proposed claims and developed the evidence that will be used to submit acknowledgement requests for well-documented roads under the terms of the MOU." In another similar development, the US Senate passed a bill that adjusts the boundaries of the 44,553-acre Mt. Naomi Wilderness Area.  This bill has been snaking its way through Congress for a year now.  It really only affects 31 acres near Logan city that are needed to provide access for utility maintenance. 7:46:45 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 David Fletcher.