Butte Field Office
| Contacts: | David Abrams 406-533-7617 |
BLM Trailhead No Longer Accessible After Court Rules Road Is Private
Bureau of Land Management officials report there is no longer public access to a trailhead on Upper Jackson Creek Road after the Jefferson County 5th Judicial District Court determined the road leading to the trailhead was privately owned.
Upper Jackson Creek Road, west of Montana City, was one of the access points for the Clancy off-highway vehicle area. Until recently it was thought that this road, which leads to a BLM trailhead on the north side of the OHV area, was under Jefferson County's jurisdiction. However, multiple landowners in the area filed a lawsuit claiming the road is actually private. The case was recently resolved, with the judge ruling in favor of the private landowners in the area.
Therefore, BLM has legally lost any public access to the Clancy OHV area via the Upper Jackson Creek Road.
Officials from the BLM’s Butte Field Office recently installed informational signs instructing the public to access the Clancy OHV area using the Ohio Gulch trailhead, located west of the town of Clancy, via the Lump Gulch and Sheep Mountain access roads.
“This does not mean we’ve closed any BLM-managed roads or trails in the area,” said Butte Field Manager Scott Haight. “Only the status of one access point to the area has changed. We still want the public to enjoy the trail system near Sheep Mountain in a safe, responsible manner—they’ll just have to get there from a different location.”
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2011, recreational and other activities on BLM-managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends. In FY 2012, nearly $5.7 billion will be generated on lands managed by the BLM, which operates on a $1.1 billion budget. The BLM's multiple-use mission is to sustain the health and productivity of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. The Bureau accomplishes this by managing such activities as outdoor recreation, livestock grazing, mineral development, and energy production, and by conserving natural, historical, cultural, and other resources on public lands.
Butte Field Office 106 N. Parkmont Butte, MT 59702