Blocked wide-spread use of obscure 1866 Mining law provision, known as RS 2477, to open up public lands to motorized vehicles.  We blocked the use of RS 2477 to force incursion of motor vehicles into the Kalmiopsis Wilderness Area of the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon. In so doing we established the precedent that such claims must be asserted within 12 years of Congressional establishment of a Wilderness Area, effectively inoculating any Wildernesses created before 1995.

We also forestalled Grant County Board of Commissioners, Oregon, from enacting an ordinance “recognizing” an RS 2477 right-of-way through the middle of the North Fork John Day Wilderness Area in the Umatilla National Forest of northeastern Oregon.