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Pinal County and a collection of environmental groups are dueling over the use of a road that crosses the San Pedro River near Dudleyville in the southern part of the county.

The reason: The area is habitat for an endangered bird called the Southwestern willow flycatcher.

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Maricopa Audubon Society and the Tucson Audubon Society are the plaintiffs in a suit that names Pinal County and its three supervisors as defendants.

"The real problem is that it is an excellent place for birding," said Herb Fibel, of the Maricopa Audubon group, one of the parties in the suit. "The off-road vehicles have really torn the place up."

The groups' lawsuit alleges that a property owner who has since sold the land near Dudleyville granted the county access to the road after a nearby bridge that crossed the river was damaged by a flood in 1993.

The bridge was never repaired, according to the lawsuit.

New property owners revoked the public's use in late 2007, and they were not able to control the off-road vehicle "abuse" near the road, according to the groups' lawsuit.

Since then, Pinal County petitioned the court and was granted an order for the right to use the road for public use, according to the lawsuit.

Pinal County officials maintain the road, known as San Pedro Road, which is one of two links into and out of the small town of Dudleyville, which had a population of 1,300 people, according to the 2000 census.

The road allows for the most direct route across the San Pedro River into the town for fire and emergency medical providers.

Supervisor Lionel Ruiz, who represents the area, could not be reached Thursday because he was attending a conference in Washington.

In a news release issued last month, he said that the road was a "lifeline" for the county's residents.

"It is not our intent to try the case in the media," he said. "At the same time, we want the people of Pinal County to know that we will vigorously defend against false allegations. This road is a lifeline in the case of an emergency and we intend for it to stay open."

The environmentalists maintain that off-road vehicles are accessing the stream and the stream bed via the road, accelerating the erosion and destroying nesting habitat for the endangered bird.

The flycatcher has been considered endangered since 1995, and the lower San Pedro River has been designated critical habitat since 1997, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

A critical habitat designation can strictly limit the type of construction in an area.

The population of the endangered bird has declined in the last 100 years because of the loss, fragmentation and modification of river habitats, according to the survey.

Recent surveys show between 900 and 1,000 breeding pairs of the bird across its southwestern range. The lower San Pedro River, the Gila River and Roosevelt Lake are areas that support the largest numbers of the breeding pairs, according to survey statistics.