What Happened?
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Wyoming landowner who contested the United States Forest Services’ right to use a rail on his property for a 21-mile trail through Medicine Bow National Forest. The ruling could have a ripple effect nationwide where other parks services are looking to convert unused railways into bike and walker-friendly trails to connect communities to green spaces.
The Goal
The Wyoming landowner in the case argued the land deal the U.S. government made with his family in the 1970s enabled the rail to be used for trains not trails. After appealing all the way to the Supreme Court, the landowner won the case based on a Congressional act dating back more than 100 years.
However, the ruling does not make a clear stance on other rail-to-trail projects, but rather clears the way for debate. In 1922, rights of way abandoned by the railroads were allowed to become the property of a local municipality or a landowner. In 1988, however, Congress changed its stance on the matter and passed a law to reserve rights to right of ways to the government, during the boom of the rails-to-trails movement. Because the Wyoming landowner’s family finalized the land deal prior to 1988, the law did not apply.
The lone dissenter, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, pointed out that the ruling “undermines the legality of thousands of miles of former rights of way that the public now enjoys as means of transportation and recreation.”
Opening the door for other landowners to challenge the development of rails to recreational trails may generate lawsuits that cost taxpayers millions of dollars. In fact, after the ruling was made, 80 similar cases were brought forth nationwide, the Atlantic Cities reported.
Rails-to-Trails
Nationwide, a rails-to-trails movement has taken place in areas where railways are no longer in use and communities opt to convert them into recreational trails for bikers and hikers. More than 1,400 bike and nature trails have been built along railroad rights-of-way since the movement took off, but a surge of lawsuits could quickly derail these initiatives.
According to the Rails to Trails Conservancy, federal, state or local governments could exercise eminent domain proceedings to keep the transformed trails in operation. These government entities would have to pay affected landowners for the ability to convert the rails into trails, hoping to ward off detrimental lawsuits.
The conservancy is interested in protecting all rail-trails as they are shared by local residents and provide significant benefits to the community including:
- Source of healthy, affordable and safe recreation and transportation opportunities
- Viable transportation corridors for a seamless urban multimodal transit system
- Tools for ecology and conservation that preserve natural landscapes, provide links between fragmented habitats and offer opportunities to protect plants and wildlife
- Economic revitalization along trails where foot traffic to businesses is greatly enhanced
- Enhancement of community identity and pride by highlighting and creating access to historical and cultural resources
Keep to the Trail
Gov1 has kept an eye on a variety of trails projects such as paths creating to enhance consolidation efforts.