Carpenter worries about Landreth's impact on mediation

ELKO - A stern warning from the U.S. attorney against a rally at Jarbidge, Nev., on July 4 could undermine success being made in federal mediation over the threatened bull trout and a washed out Forest Service road, a state assemblyman says.

The mediation is scheduled to resume Tuesday at Sherman Station in Elko, but Assemblyman John Carpenter, R-Elko, sounded a sour note Friday when asked about progress in reaching a compromise.

''I thought we had an agreement and we were making progress. I think they (federal officials) changed their mind after talking to their higher ups'' in Washington, Carpenter told the Elko Daily Free Press.

U.S. Attorney Kathryn Landreth notified organizers of Elko County's Shovel Brigade that they will be in violation of a series of federal laws if they go forward with plans to reconstruct the road along the Jarbidge River in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest without the necessary permits.

But Shovel Brigade President Demar Dahl said the work project is going ahead as planned.

''It is our intention to remove the Forest Services roadblock on the South Canyon Road,'' Dahl said.

''It will be done on July 4, 2000 and I have heard that people from all parts of the country have made arrangements to be on hand to do their part,'' he said.

The all-volunteer grassroots citizens group was founded to organize a protest against the U.S. Forest Services closing of the short, gravel rural road in Jarbidge.

''We have the right to demonstrate,'' Carpenter said Friday.

''It seems to me we have just as much right to open that public road as they had to ruin it,'' he said.

U.S. District Judge David Hagen ordered the feuding parties into mediation last fall after a small group of self-styled ''road rebels'' attempted to unblock the road, but were rebuffed by a restraining order issued by Hagen on Oct. 7.

The talks have included a trip to the road itself in early May. After that on-site visit, the litigants expressed positive opinions that the talks were ''making progress.''