Conservation groups have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleging the federal government has failed to protect the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.
The suit alleges that the U.S. Department of Interior, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management are nearly two decades late in creating a management plan for the trail, which runs from Santa Fe to Los Angeles.
The suit, by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, The Coalition To Protect America's National Parks, Basin and Range Watch and others, argues unregulated development has “chipped away at the trail’s value over the years.”
"The lack of a [management plan] and a designated right-of-way for the Old Spanish Trail has resulted in piecemeal development decisions that have been chipping away at the Trail’s integrity for decades," the suit reads.
The historic trade route dates back to the mid-eighteen hundreds when much of the Southwest, including northern Arizona and the Colorado Plateau, was still part of Mexico.
The Old Spanish Trail runs through the Four Corners, the Navajo Nation and parts of southern and central Utah before it heads west through Nevada and California.
