Editor's note: This is the third in a three-part series.

Lack of public access to the old Ponderosa Way government fire-break in Amador County might trace to an organizational wrinkle in the state fire agency once known as the California Department of Forestry.

In a tale of two scenarios, Ponderosa in neighboring Calaveras County is a county-owned public right-of-way, deeded to Calaveras by CDF, now called CAL FIRE, in 1985.

But in Amador, a property owner around 1990 requested the road be gated by the fire agency because of recurrent poaching of beef cattle, and the agency complied, interviews and research indicate.

The reason for the differing fates of the roadway in two adjoining counties can't be pinned down firmly.

According to Jim Simmons, former regional fire chief, it's quite possible - even likely - that fire officials based in Amador never negotiated for outright ownership - but only for fire access - on Ponderosa Way. In Calaveras it was different, but Amador and Calaveras lie in separate fire agency regions, and separate agreements were negotiated around Ponderosa in the two counties, Simmons said.

"I don't believe they were deeded the right-of-way in Amador," Simmons said.

In that case, Ponderosa in Amador never has been public. But there has been plenty of public interest in it.

"There is a recognized whitewater run - the Ponderosa Run - from the CC Bridge to just above Electra Powerhouse," said Katherine Evatt, co-president of the nonprofit Foothill Conservancy. "During the re-licensing of the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. hydroelectric project on the Mokelumne, we, Bureau of Land Management and other agencies and nonprofits involved in that process took a look at the site and at BLM's parcel at the bottom of the Ponderosa on the Amador side."

Evatt added that her research showed the fire agency installed the gate after the state Department of Transportation declared the bridge to be unsafe - and the fire agency couldn't afford to fix it. With the gating of the roadway and the burning of the bridge, access to public land along the river on the Amador side has been lost.

The latest development around Ponderosa Way, a World War II-era government project, is a court-ordered divestiture of land in the Mokelumne River canyon by PG&E. According to Mary Adelzadeh of the Stewardship Council, which is handling PG&E land-management affairs, the utility has property interests that involve Ponderosa Way. Utility-owned canals known as "Old Standard" and "New Standard" run in the area of the road. If Amador County is selected as a landowner of PG&E tracts, the arrangement necessarily would forge a link between Amador and Calaveras counties, because some PG&E parcels span the Mokelumne.

Calaveras County Supervisor Steve Wilensky said the PG&E divestiture is a welcome catalyst, and that his county could move to repair its stretch of Ponderosa Way, possibly with PG&E assistance. Wilensky is a fan of a swimming hole in the Mokelumne right at the old bridge.

"There's no point in access unless we use some PG&E money in a 'use for public benefit' - for example, bathrooms, a landing, parking," Wilensky said. "Dialogue (between counties) should begin. There's all kinds of possibilities with landowners in Amador - for example, land swaps, things done to give buffers. We can't get to that until everybody sits down at a table, and says what they need."

He described general public needs as "respectful use, with some monitoring" and a route for fire evacuation. In case of fire, the gate could be unlocked, he said, and otherwise theoretically could be kept closed in a modified, no-motor-vehicles kind of public access, Wilensky said.

Ted Novelli, chairman of the Amador County Board of Supervisors, said, "I'd be willing to sit down. Any time there's more input, that's better."

One clear stakeholder in any future negotiations is a group of gold-mining claimants that includes Amador County resident Don Staley. With the bridge out, the group's only practical access is down Ponderosa Way through the 400-acre Cuneo-Marz parcel, Staley said. On a recent afternoon at the gate, two pickups could be observed parked with mining-claim documentation displayed.

Landowner Carole Cuneo Marz said, "I know about those guys. I've talked to them. They're trespassing. They think they have access because of the claim, but they don't."

Jim Eicher, an associate field manager for the BLM, says Marz is right - but adds the only legal mining access is from the Calaveras side, a practical impossibility.

"I understand the owners' concerns," Staley said. "Vehicle access had to stop if drinkers were going to mess with cattle. But people with legitimate reason should be able to go down that road."

Marz said the only idea her family has come up with so far is a buyout on the 400-acre parcel, with the family retaining grazing rights.