Act Now: Tell the U.S. Forest Service to Scrap its Proposal to Gut the Travel Management Rule!

The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a replacement for the Travel Management Rule – the policy that requires off-road vehicles to stay on designated roads, trails, and areas and is critical for safeguarding wildlife.

The new proposal from the Forest Service would adopt an “open unless closed” approach which presumes national forests and grasslands are broadly open for off- highway vehicle travel unless individual routes or places are specifically closed.

Our forests are in danger. The Forest Service is currently taking public comments on its proposal, and it’s vital that we speak up right away!

Urge the U.S. Forest Service to scrap the proposal and retain the current Travel Management Rule!

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Defenders of Wildlife

Greetings,

The Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service should abandon this rulemaking and instead retain the current Travel Management Rule, which provides clearly mapped and dependable roads and trails for motorized recreation while ensuring that wildlife as well as hikers, cyclists, and other outdoor recreationists are not pushed aside by unmanaged off-road vehicles.

The proposed rule would presume national forests are open to motorized use. This will result in fragmentation and degradation of wildlife habitat as more and more routes crisscross habitats introducing disturbance, weeds, and unintended fire. In addition, the proposed rule would threaten hiking, birdwatching, horseback riding and other activities that people deeply enjoy in our national forests and grasslands.

I am especially opposed to the proposed rule’s presumption that the national forests are generally open for motorization. This approach, which is the opposite of the current “closed unless marked open on a map” approach, will not improve access for everyone and instead will lead to excessive confusion, chaos, and off-route travel. Even if the expectation is that forest visitors drive on established routes, once one user drives off the established route, other people will presume the route is valid and drive on it. The inevitable outcome is a spiderweb proliferation of routes through important habitats and areas intended for quiet recreation. This is exactly what we experienced before the existing travel management rule was put into place in 2005.

Further, I oppose removing the “minimization criteria” that have been in place since the 1970s and require the Forest Service to minimize impacts to wildlife, vegetation, soils, and other resources as well as other uses when locating motorized trails and areas.  Motorized vehicles are powerful and are designed to crawl up hillsides, through water, and travel off-road, and when they are used in the wrong places, they can cause substantial and long-lasting damage. Thus, it is very important that land managers plan for motorized use carefully and thoughtfully.

Finally, I am very concerned about the overlapping effect of this proposed rule and the proposal to rescind the Roadless Area Conservation Rule. I fear that the two rules together will result in new roads carved into remote backcountry forests from which networks of user-created routes will expand, eventually potentially leading to widespread ecosystem degradation. I feel very strongly that roadless areas should stay roadless to maintain wildlife habitat.

I value the fact that I can visit a national forest or grassland and have a wonderful experience watching wildlife and experiencing the sounds of nature. And even if I don’t often visit national forests, I am heartened by the fact that under the current travel management rule, wildlife habitats are conserved and not subjected to unmanaged motorized recreation.

For all of these reasons, I strongly oppose the proposed rule and ask that the U.S. Forest Service keep the current rule in place. The current rule works because it is fair to all users and requires thoughtful planning of motorized transportation systems.

Sincerely,
{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

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