First FERTA easement nears completion

For a number of years, Crook County and the U.S. Forest Service have been working to create a map of the area that identifies ownership of particular roads and the entity responsible for their maintenance, a project that will ensure the public always has access to thoroughfares.

As the first of the FERTA easements needed to make that happen reaches completion, District Ranger Mike Gosse provided an update last week on what the project involves – and how it might be possible to speed up the process.

While there may be a “perceived lack of progress” on the long-running project, Gosse said, quite a lot has actually been happening. There are currently 41 identified easements on the list and “it’s a time-consuming process,” he said.

This is due to the sheer amount of mailing documents back and forth, Gosse explained. Once the Forest Service receives the request from the county, it must be entered into the special uses database and the legal easement created, which can be complicated due to the need for accurate legal information.

This is then sent to the forest supervisor for review, then to the land surveyor, then to the regional office in Denver for review.

“That document is being mailed a dozen times, I’d bet, back and forth,” said Gosse.

The first road on the county’s list was Rifle Pit Rd, which is now just awaiting a signature from the acting regional forest supervisor.

“That’s the last signature on the document,” Gosse said. Reynolds Rd, the second on the list, is halfway through the process.

It does take a while, said Gosse, but he offered a suggestion to help things go a little faster. It’s all the starting and stopping that eats up the time, he explained.

“What we would like to do is work on multiple FERTAs at once…from our standpoint it makes a little more sense to work on three or five at once and get three or five of them moving,” he told the county commissioners.

Tim Lyons, Growth & Development, acknowledged that this would be possible and agreed to look into providing the necessary information for three or four FERTA easements at a time, as his own workload allows.