RENO, Nev. (AP) — A 15-year-old legal battle between a Nevada county, the U.S. government and environmentalists has resumed in Reno where Elko County officials are trying to prove a national forest road belongs to them — not the government — because it existed before the national forest was created more than a century ago.

Lawyers for The Wilderness Society called their first witness Monday in what's expected to be a weeklong evidentiary hearing.in federal court. They say there's no record of any road along the Jarbidge River before the area near the Idaho line was placed in reserve in 1905 and formally designated part of the Humboldt National Forest in 1909.

The case dates to 1999 when the Forest Service sued Elko County to halt reopening of the washed-out road for fear of harm to a threatened fish.

More From News Radio 1310 KLIX