Offroad group plans to submit validation forms
This is the section of road that has been blocked off multiple times by Pine Creek resident Joe Avery. The road in question (with the blue dots) is a definitively outlined, separate property from the parcels it runs through. However, according to the Shoshone County GIS Parcel Information System, there is no specifically named owner of the road before it stops at the Bureau of Land Management property at the bottom of the image (colored in green)
Shoshone County GIS
PINE CREEK — The dust hasn’t even remotely begun to settle as the wheels of process are beginning to turn concerning the stretch of road following the maintained end of West Fork Pine Creek Road.
Last weekend it was discovered that Pine Creek resident Joe Avery had once again blocked off the road, this time utilizing a gate instead of the log blockade he had previously built over the road, which runs through Avery’s property.
While the ownership of the road has been in question for the last 12 months, it hit a fever pitch over the last few days after Avery’s gate was placed, specifically as it was torn down, replaced, and then asked to be taken down by Shoshone County officials.
During a previous interview with Avery, he discussed how there are two different roads near his property that allow people to access a section of lands owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for recreational purposes.
One of those roads, locally known as the Langlois Road, or Coeur d’Alene NFD 2313 Road, has very specific seasonal closures on it and partially cuts through a section of property owned by Avery.
The other road is an unmaintained extension of West Fork Pine Creek Road that appears on Shoshone County’s GIS (geographic information system) parcel information as some sort of unowned right-of-way that cuts through property owned by the Averys and Hancock Forest Management before heading back into BLM lands.
The lands in particular are near Middle Fork Pine Creek Road and are specifically designated by the BLM as “a motorized trail for rock crawling (extreme 4WD) activities,” according to the Action RC-1.5.7 in their Resource Management Plan (RMP).
The North Idaho Trail Blazers is a group of offroading enthusiasts who enjoy recreating on the BLM lands to the south of where Avery placed the gate and they are now in the process of petitioning Shoshone County to verify the roads.
Shoshone County Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald explained the process of getting a road validated.
“When the roadway is not within a designated county right of way or defined within the County Roadway Inventory, the county does not impose authority nor intervene,” Fitzgerald said. “For roads not in these two categories, individuals can ask the county to make a determination of the county's interest in a road. The determination is a formal process defined in Idaho Code called ‘validation.’ If asked to validate a road, the county is then obligated under Idaho Code to make a determination of whether or not the road is a county or a non-county road.”
Fitzgerald outlined some of the criteria for determining a road’s validation, including showing any bit of active maintenance, historical use and county expenditures on the road.
Darrell Raver, the president of the North Idaho Trail Blazers, gave a statement where he believes that the road was maintained using public funds over the years and that there has been active maintenance.
He also mentioned things such as limbed branches, removed deadfall, and said that anyone who has driven the road over the past few years could definitely recognize the upkeep that has gone on.
In an official statement, Raver discussed the Trail Blazers hopes for the road and expressed their thanks to the county for outlining what their process needed to be in order to get the road verified.
“The North Idaho Trail Blazers believe public property should be accessible to the public,” Raver said. “The road in question was put in place around 1910, and everyone from old-time miners to present-day off road recreationists have been using this road for over a century. We believe that the criteria for the county to claim the road has been met, and we’re grateful that the leaders of Shoshone County are working to validate the road. This road provides the only reasonable public access to vast areas of BLM land that has substantial recreation value. We look forward to the county’s completion of the validation of the road for public use, and then we plan to work with the BLM to increase access with the public’s support.”
As of Thursday night, the Shoshone Board of County Commissioners has not received a formal submission requesting the validation of the roads south of West Fork Pine Creek Road, however, a member of the North Idaho Trail Blazers has claimed the formal request will be submitted to the BOCC next week.
The Shoshone News-Press will continue to follow this story.