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Show New BLM Rules on County Road Building in Effect County governments are being notified by the Bureau of Land Management that there has been a change in laws and procedures for obtaining ob-taining authorization for road construction across lands administered ad-ministered by the bureau. This change in procedures, according to Paul L. Howard, BLM Utah State Director, is a result of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 which repealed many earlier statutes affecting the use and disposal of national resource lands. One of the statutes repealed was Revised Revis-ed Statute 2477 which had permitted local government entities to construct public roads across unreserved public pub-lic lands without first obtaining obtain-ing advance approval or a formal right-of-way permit from the BLM. Under the new law, local governmental entities in Utah must now file an application with the BLM State Office in Salt Lake City and obtain a right-of-way permit before road construction across unreserved un-reserved national resource lands can begin. Mr. Howard emphasized that this new law and procedures pro-cedures apply only to the unreserved national resource lands administered by the BLM. Roads across other federal agencies will continue to be authorized under permit systems established by those agencies. The BLM state director pointed out that under the new procedures local government govern-ment entities will, for the first time, be able to obtain a right-of-way document that will define the location and width of the right-of-way, and will ensure reservation of the land for public road purposes in any later transaction which transfers the land out of federal ownership. The new procedure also will provide better coordination of new road construction with BLM multiple use management of other public land resources, he added. |