The U.S. Forest Service is proposing major changes to the Travel Management Rule – the basic policy that determines where motor vehicles can travel on our national forests and grasslands.

For more than 20 years, the rule has provided a common-sense approach: local land managers work with communities and forest users to identify which roads, trails, and areas are open to motorized vehicles. The result is a clearly mapped system that provides dependable motorized access while protecting wildlife, clean water, cultural resources, hunting and fishing, quiet recreation, and other uses of our public lands.

Now the Forest Service wants to turn that system on its head.

The agency is considering an “open unless closed” approach that could presume national forests are broadly available for motorized use unless individual roads, trails, or areas are specifically closed. It could also force local land managers to repeatedly defend existing protections, eliminate longstanding requirements to minimize damage and conflicts, and create new pathways for expanded off-route motorized use.

That doesn’t create better access. It creates uncertainty and conflict.

The Forest Service already faces a $9 billion road maintenance backlog, a $300 million trail maintenance backlog, and a $229 million recreation backlog. Expanding motorized use without addressing the roads and trails already on the ground would put even more pressure on an overburdened system, increasing maintenance costs, erosion, water pollution, safety concerns, wildlife disturbance, and conflicts among hunters, hikers, horseback riders, mountain bikers, ranchers, permittees, motorized users, and others.

And this proposal is not happening in isolation. It comes as the Administration is also moving to repeal the Roadless Rule and weaken other longstanding protections for national forests and public lands. Taken together, these actions could dismantle decades of responsible public-land management.

Our national forests belong to everyone. Decisions about how they are used should continue to be made thoughtfully, locally, and with all forest users in mind, not through a one-size-fits-all mandate from Washington.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the Forest Service to abandon these proposed changes and keep the existing Travel Management Rule.

Comments are due September 23 and can be submitted through Regulations.Gov. 

Sample Comment Letter Please weave in specific examples.

Dear Secretary Rollins and Chief Schultz:

I strongly urge the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service to retain the existing Travel Management Rule and abandon the changes outlined in the Notice of Intent.

Travel management provides the rules of the road for our national forests and grasslands. The existing rule allows local land managers to establish clearly mapped systems of roads, trails, and areas that provide dependable motorized access while protecting wildlife, clean water, cultural resources, public safety, and the many other ways people use our public lands.

I am particularly concerned by the proposal to move toward an “open unless closed” approach. Reversing the existing system would create greater uncertainty, place additional pressure on local land managers to repeatedly justify closures, and increase the risk of unmanaged and off-route motorized use. It could also undermine longstanding requirements to minimize damage to natural resources and conflicts among recreational users, ranchers, permittees, and others.

The Forest Service already struggles to maintain its existing transportation and recreation infrastructure. Expanding motorized use without addressing billions of dollars in deferred road, trail, and recreation maintenance would only place greater strain on national forests and the people who manage them.

These changes also cannot be separated from the Administration’s effort to repeal the Roadless Rule and roll back other longstanding protections for national forests and public lands. Together, these actions would create more uncertainty and weaken the safeguards that have guided responsible forest management for decades.

Our national forests belong to all Americans. Please retain the existing Travel Management Rule and continue providing local land managers with the tools they need to balance sustainable motorized access with the protection of public lands and the interests of all forest users.

Sincerely,