Elko County's legal bills have exceeded $250,000 with no end in sight in a 16-year-old court battle with environmentalists and the U.S. government over control of a remote Forest Service road near the Nevada-Idaho state line.
Assistant District Attorney Kristen McQueary doesn't expect a judge to rule before the end of the year on conservationists' latest attempt to throw out a settlement agreement between the county and the Forest Service.
The Wilderness Society says the agency has no authority to cede control of the road running along the Jarbidge River, home of the threatened bull trout.
The parties spent two weeks in federal court in Reno this month gathering additional testimony and pouring over thousands of pages documents.
McQueary told the Elko Daily Free Press she expects whichever side loses to appeal.