The Old Spanish National Historic Trail, winding off through the desert / NPS

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a federal lawsuit this week arguing that the Department of Interior has failed to develop a comprehensive management plan to preserve and protect the Old Spanish National Historic Trail. According to PEER, without such a plan, the National Trails System unit is threatened by development projects. 

The Old Spanish National Historic Trail was established as a unit of the National Trails System in 2002. By law, the Department of Interior must submit to Congress a management plan within two years of such a trail being established, but so far, no management plan has been provided. 

The trail is 2,700 miles long, and winds through parts of Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, and California. It has historic significance as a trail heavily used to ferry goods and people between Santa Fe and Los Angeles in the early 19th century, when the area was still ruled by Mexico. It was also a significant route in the Mexican-American War. 

Map of the Old Spanish Historic National Trail / NPS

Part of the delay in putting forth a management plan may be due to the Department of Interior delegating the assignment to both the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service. The agencies disagree on a number of management factors.

According to PEER, because the Old Spanish Trail passes through federal, state, and private lands, it can be impacted by any number of unrelated developments. For example, the BLM allows oil and gas drilling operations to encroach within 50 meters of the trail in some areas. There is also a series of large solar projects planned for Nevada's Pahrump Valley, which will dramatically impact the viewshed for trail users. 

With a comprehensive management plan in place, there would be a rigid, legal framework to protect the Old Spanish Trail from hodgepodge development impacts. 

"Each one of these projects chips away at the trail’s integrity, cumulatively eroding its landscape, historical, cultural, and natural tapestry, and intended public recreational opportunities,” said  Rocky Mountain PEER Director Chandra Rosenthal, in a release. “The combination of all these projects threatens to degrade these vistas into a patchwork of industrial scars, irreversibly diminishing the trail’s unique value.” 

“To disregard the critical need to ensure the protection of the Old Spanish Trail not only disrespects the public trust, it places the resources, stories, and vistas of the Trail at risk,” said Russell Galipeau, former NPS Superintendent and member of the Executive Council of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, in the same release. 

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, and Basin and Range Watch joined PEER as plaintiffs, as did two private citizens who are longtime trail advocates.