Opinion ID: 791655
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Other related litigation.

Text: 5 SUWA's motion to intervene in San Juan's quiet title action cannot be understood without discussing the broader ongoing litigation between these parties concerning whether, and to what extent, motorized traffic should be allowed on the R.S. 2477 right-of-way San Juan is now claiming. In the 1990s, the NPS prepared a Backcountry Management Plan for Canyonlands National Park. 2 See S. Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Dabney, 7 F.Supp.2d 1205, 1207-09 (D.Utah 1998), rev'd, 222 F.3d 819 (10th Cir.2000). During that process, SUWA submitted comments to the NPS advocating closing Salt Creek Road to all motorized traffic. Instead, the NPS's final plan called for a permit system that would limit, but not eliminate, daily vehicle traffic on Salt Creek Road. See Dabney, 7 F.Supp.2d at 1208-09; Canyonlands National Park-Salt Creek Canyon 69 Fed.Reg. at 32,871 (June 14, 2004) (to be codified at 36 C.F.R. pt.1). SUWA sued the NPS in 1995, challenging this decision. See Dabney, 7 F.Supp.2d at 1206, 1209. In that case, the federal district court held that the NPS had violated the National Park Service Organic Act by permitting motorized vehicles in Salt Creek Canyon above Peekaboo Spring. See id. at 1210-12. This court reversed that determination, however, holding that the district court had employed an improper standard in reaching its decision. See S. Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Dabney, 222 F.3d 819, 822, 824-30 (10th Cir.2000). This court remanded the case to the district court, see id. at 830, where it remains pending. 6 As a result of the district court's 1998 decision, later overturned in 2000, there was no motorized traffic in the canyon for several years. Trees and other vegetation . . . returned to the vehicle tracks, and sections of the stream channel . . . moved, since motorized vehicles were prohibited. In light of these changes, the NPS decided in 2001 to prepare an environmental assessment to re-evaluate allowing motorized vehicles in Salt Creek Canyon. See 69 Fed.Reg. at 32,872. SUWA again submitted comments against allowing any motorized traffic along the road. The NPS this time agreed with SUWA and closed Salt Creek Canyon above Peekaboo campsite to all motorized traffic, erecting a gate to accomplish the closure. See 69 Fed.Reg. at 32,871. 7 Meanwhile, following this court's remand of SUWA's action challenging the NPS's original decision refusing to close Salt Creek Canyon to all vehicle traffic, the federal district court, in 2001, permitted SUWA to amend its complaint to add San Juan and the State of Utah as defendants. Although [n]either the State nor the County . . . asserted a cross-claim against the NPS, and they did not assert a counterclaim against SUWA, San Juan and the State filed a motion for partial summary judgment in that action against SUWA seeking a finding that the Salt Creek Road from Peekaboo Spring to Angel Arch and Upper Jump is a valid and perfected R.S. 2477 right-of-way and also that the gate at Peekaboo Spring interferes with the public's right of access over the Salt Creek Road. In response to that summary judgment motion, the NPS and SUWA argued to the district court that San Juan and the State had never adequately pled a claim under the federal Quiet Title Act and that San Juan and the State could not join the United States, an indispensable party to such a quiet title claim. The district court agreed, holding it did not have jurisdiction to grant San Juan and the State the partial summary judgment those parties sought and, therefore, dismissed those two parties from the lawsuit. 8