LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.
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90 Landscape Architect and Specifier News I n f o r m a t i o n R e q u e s t # 7 0 9 On March 10, 2014, in Marvin Brandt Revocable Trust v. United States, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in favor of a Wyoming private landowner who was fighting to keep bike paths from being built near his house. At issue is a former railroad right-of-way (ROW) stretching 66 miles long and 200 feet wide, going south from Laramie, Wyoming, through the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest, to the Wyoming-Colorado border. The corridor within the Medicine Bow National Forest has a 21-mile rail-trail, which reportedly has been a significant boost to the state's trails tourism economy. The trail, however, has one disconnection point—a half-mile section that crosses through 10 acres of the Brandt property within the national forest. That section was "patented" (a form of land grant) to the Brandt family in 1976. The patent does specify a usage for any right- of-way abandoned by the railroad. A U.S. District Court previously ruled the family could not claim that portion of the ROW through their land, but the Supreme Court has now reversed that decision, with the eight-justice majority citing "basic common law principles." Previous to the Supreme Court ruling, the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy had filed an amicus brief with the high court, "defending the grand vision of our forefathers that explicitly held that these linear public spaces (e.g., abandoned railroad corridors) should remain of, and for, the people." Prior to the Supreme Court's decision, the Conservancy warned a ruling in favor of the landowner could "affect more than a century of federal laws and policies protecting the public's interest in railroad corridors created through public lands," and could "not only potentially block the public rail- trail providing access to Medicine Bow National Forest, but would also threaten rail-trails across America that utilize federally-granted rights-of-way." The Conservancy notes federal ROWs have been a key driver of the rail-trail movement, which has built some 1,400 bike and nature trails since its inception in 1983. This case, essentially, was about whether or not the federal government retains control over abandoned railroad ROWs. The Conservancy sees the court's decision as threatening thousands of miles of public bicycle trails. The family says it was granted the land with the railroad ROW on it in 1976 in exchange for turning over a larger piece of land to the government. When the Forest Service wanted to convert a 200- ft. wide and 10-acres long section of the ROW into bike trails, the family sued. The family has no objection if the railroad wants to use the ROW for a new rail line. Supreme Court Weights in on Former Railroad Right-of Way A 21-mile bike trail in Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming, is interrupted by a half-mile section of land granted to a Wyoming family that includes a former railroad right-of-way corridor. The family sued the Forest Service to keep the bike path off their land. 90-91.indd 90 3/25/14 4:04 PM