UDOT and the cattle drive
Text 
1 Comment [ View ]Every year an interesting, slow-moving, dangerous game of chicken is played on a major Utah freeway. Members of the Pentz family, which has been raising cattle in Morgan County for three generations, move their 400 head of cattle from ranch to ranch.
As Standard-Examiner reporter Mitch Shaw writes, "a portion of the 14-mile trek has the herd traveling on westbound Interstate 84."
For those drivers unfortunate enough to be behind the cattle, it can be a long wait. It also is not safe. The Utah Department of Transportation, you see, basically stays out of it. The cattle drive on I-84 takes about half a day, and the Pentz family does most of the traffic control, writes the Standard's Shaw.
That's quite dangerous. When large animals are spending hours on a public road, the chances for accidents increase. Factor in the potential of angry drivers and you have an enhanced possibility of road rage.
So why isn't UDOT involved with the cattle movement? Here's where the game of chicken begins. The Pentz family claims an historical right to use I-84. Their argument is they were moving the cattle long before I-84 was built, and UDOT should have long ago built a stock trail -- a fenced right of way parallel to I-84 -- that the cattle could use to travel.
But UDOT says no, insisting the Pentzes have no historical right to the road. "The Pentz family has maintained they have a prescriptive right, and we have disputed that," UDOT Region One spokesman Vic Saunders told the Standard's Shaw.
Lane Pentz accuses the state of trying to bully ranchers from their rights when I-84 was built, and says his family won't back down. In a 2005 column published in the Standard-Examiner, Pentz accused the state of being too stingy to protect I-84 during the cattle-moving.
Pentz wrote, "We assume that the state decided it was better to inconvenience and risk the lives of travelers on the highway, including those herding livestock upon their historical trail, than to expend money to protect our rights and the public safety."
Frankly, we don't know who has the better argument -- UDOT or the Pentz family. But we do know that the current situation is untenable. It is dangerous. Until a resolution is found, UDOT needs to provide full traffic-control services during the cattle drive. It's a right Utah taxpayers should insist on.
Fortunately, we may soon see a deal reached between UDOT and the Pentz family. Possible solutions include moving the cattle by truck or building the stock trail. We urge both sides to get to the table, give a little, and reach a fair solution.
Add Your Comment
If it were for the migration of some "endangered" species, the stock trail would have been built years ago!
-Spike
Please read our posting guidelines before reporting a comment.