Photo: Tanja Thomas

Okanogan Open Roads Coalition just won big on behalf of the public’s right to access their public lands.

They need your donations to help pay for the attorney that made it possible.

Last week, the Washington Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Okanogan Open Roads Coalition (OORC) and Okanogan County that French Creek Road outside the town of Methow is a public county road. The precedent-setting decision comes 4 years after a private holding company filed a suit to claim and close a short section of the road to public access. MVCC has been an active, crucial participant and supporter of the OORC from the beginning. Lorah Super, MVCC Programs Director and OORC co-founder, has fought hard alongside many other concerned families, hunters, anglers, business owners and taxpayers throughout the Methow and Okanogan Valley to retain public access to our public roads. This access not only allows us to use our public lands, it also provides important escape routes during natural disasters (fires!).

Though the decision is a major victory, it does come with a cost: the Court declined to cover attorneys fees, leaving OORC with a large outstanding bill for their excellent attorney, Natalie Kuehler, who made the win possible. Donations to OORC’s GoFundMe to help pay for this historic decision are now being matched up to $5,000 by an anonymous donor.

More Gates are Closing Off Public Land Access

This victory comes as more and more backroads, used by the public for decades (or even a century), have been closed off with metal gates and “No Trespassing” signs. In this case, a 3.64 mile section of French Creek Road had been gated in recent years and claimed as a private access road by the adjacent landowner, Gamble Land and Timber and Cascade Holdings Group. Both the County and Department of Natural Resources (DNR), asked Gamble to remove the gates but they did not comply. The gating of the road prevented DNR from accessing 6,000 acres to carry out resource management and fire control.

In the final decision, the judges of the Court of Appeals ruled based on records from 1889 that show a public road following the same contours of French Creek Road.This established a right of way that predated any private ownership in the area by 16 years.

This case shows the importance of watchdog, citizen-run groups like the OORC who have donated hundreds of hours of time and energy to bring this case to court. Without pursuing and bringing this case to Court, the road would have remained closed because the County had little resolve to protect the public’s interest.

Read more about this case in this recent Methow Valley News article or read the full court opinion here.