Declaring that Forest Service regulations “for too long … have stood in the way of public recreation access,” the Trump administration seeks to open some 6.2 million acres of public forest land in Wyoming to virtually unbridled motorized access, prompting widespread criticism from conservationists.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Mike Boren announced the plan Friday, saying that existing rules create “unnecessary barriers for Americans to enjoy the national forests and grasslands that they own.” The action, to be analyzed through an environmental impact statement, would increase access for motorized vehicles, e-bikes “and other mobility devices,” according to the agency.
Current rules would remain in place until updated at the local level, the announcement said.
A spectrum of conservation organizations criticized the plan, finding it galling that it came two days after the administration said it was removing protections for about 3.2 million acres of roadless national forest in Wyoming.
The Wyoming Wilderness Association warned the change would create “a greater free for all,” with “undue impact and unsustainable outcomes for our public lands.”
“I would argue that this is not in the public interest,” said Peggie dePasquale, national forest wildlands program director for the association.
National Forest visitors will see erosion, degradation of water quality, “loss of solitude for human-powered and quiet recreation types,” she said. “Hunting and fishing groups are saying that there stands to be impacts to those uses as well.”
Title 36 … Part 212 …
The plan would strengthen rural economies, maintain safe and sustainable transportation systems, and support working lands, the USDA said in the announcement. A new “uniform national policy” would presume that all “existing roads, trails, airfields, trailheads, and other access routes and points on National Forest System lands are open to appropriate public use.”
Areas and routes that would be closed must be “supported by specific, documented and justifiable reasons based on science-based resource conditions, public safety, conflicts among uses, or maintenance and administrative capacity.” National forest supervisors and their staffers would enact the new plan and seek input on what areas might be closed to engine-powered access, the announcement suggests.
That doesn’t sit well with conservationists.
“I would argue that this is not in the public interest.”
Peggie dePasquale
“The threat of changing the paradigm from closed-unless-designated-open to open-unless-designated-closed comes with the risk of widespread expansion of user-created motorized routes and a fear of significant damage to important habitat such as streams and wetlands,” dePasquale said.
Those who drive or ride over public Forest Service property aren’t out to be destructive, she said.
“When people are able to go wherever they want, it’s not always malicious,” she said. But, user-created two-tracks and single-track motorized trails, “can create a large impact that is irreparable in a short amount of time.”
Existing travel management plans were not put in place to limit access per se.
“The goal [of existing rules] is to create a better, more durable access plan that works for everyone and keeps public lands worth visiting,” dePasquale said.
“We can’t even imagine, because of the evolution in these technologies, where these motorized uses will go into the future,” she said.
WyoFile sought reaction from Wyoming’s State Parks, Historic Sites and Trails agency, which operates a trails permit system and publishes off-road vehicle maps of trails on state and federal land, but officials did not immediately respond.
While the proposal from the U.S. Forest Service’s parent agency is cloaked in layers of administrative jargon spread over a bureaucratic warren (Code of Federal Regulations Title 36 Chapter II part 212; Travel Management Subpart A — Administration of the Forest Transportation System), people who travel into national forests shouldn’t shy away from reading it for themselves, dePasquale said.
Understanding firsthand what the change could mean will be important, opponents of the paradigm shift argue, even if the administration ignores public opposition.
“We have to stay hopeful,” she said. “We have to recognize the importance of being able to show the public record to an administration down the road to breathe life back into these protections that so many Americans care about.”
There are 9.2 million acres of national forest in Wyoming, 3 million of which are designated as congressionally protected wilderness where motorized use is not allowed. That leaves about 6.2 million acres that would be affected by the proposal.
People can comment by Sept. 23 at the government’s website for the plan.
