Comment on the Travel Management Rule by Sept. 23rd
The US Forest Service has announced a deeply troubling plan that could fundamentally change where motor vehicles can go on national forest lands like the Badger-Two Medicine. Known as the Travel Management Rule, the existing policy provides clear direction and procedures to determine which roads, routes, trails or other areas should be opened to motorized vehicles, such as ATVs, dirtbikes or snowmobiles, and which should be set aside for hikers, stock, or bikes. Just as importantly, it provides strong guidelines that require the Forest Service to minimize damage to air, water and soils, disturbance to fish and wildlife, and prevent user group conflicts when making these decisions.
The result is travel management plans created through strong public involvement that strike a responsible balance between motorized access, recreational access for a wide variety of users, and resource protection.
Now the Forest Service wants to turn this thoughtful approach on its head. Under the new proposal, all roads, routes, trails and non-Wilderness areas would be open to motorized use unless explicitly closed. We need you to help stand up for responsible travel planning that protects wildlife, clean water, and quiet, backcountry recreational opportunities.
What’s at Stake
Together with the proposed repeal of the Roadless Rule, this proposed action would significantly dismantle responsible management policies that have protected our national forests for decades and led to better balance between motorized recreation, quiet recreation, and resource protection. The result will be more ecologically and economically damaging road building and industrial development, poorly managed recreation, user group conflicts, harm to fish and wildlife, and other avoidable natural and cultural resource damage.
While we at GTMA support dedicated spaces for motorized recreation on our national forests, we strongly oppose just throwing open all lands to motorized recreation. The impacts to hunters, anglers, wildlife populations, Endangered Species, backcountry outfitters, and the headwaters streams that provide our drinking water, would be severe and potentially irreversible. Please send in your comment opposing this rule change by September 23rd.
Defend a responsible, balanced approach to travel management
Tell the Forest Service to keep the existing Travel Management Rule
Comments due September 23, 2026
Suggested Talking Points
- Poorly regulated motorized travel can do serious, long-standing damage to wildlands and riparian areas. In the Badger-Two Medicine, for example, the legacy of poorly managed dirt bikes and ATVs is still visible in incised trails, mud wallows, and weed infestations nearly 20 years after the area was closed to motorized use. Keeping areas closed unless designated as open will limit potentially irreversible damage and unintended consequences to our lands and resources.
- Tell the Forest Service to keep the existing framework for determining motorized access. Roads, trails and off-roads areas should remain closed to motorized vehicles unless designated as open. This 20-year old framework has proven an effective way to manage recreational access for all user groups while protecting natural resources, and safeguarding fish and wildlife habitat and water quality.
- The existing Rule provides the Forest Service with the clear direction and standards necessary to determine where motor vehicles should be allowed to travel, including which roads, routes, trails or off-road areas. The required maps provide the public with clear information and predictability as to which modes of travel may be encountered while out on the land. Eliminating this framework will lead to greater uncertainty, conflict and significant damage to big game habitat and streams.
- Share why quiet, non-motorized recreational access matters to you. Perhaps you like the quiet, the predictability of not running into motor vehicles, the abundant wildlife, or the cleaner water you experience in areas without motor vehicles. Perhaps you and your family fish, hike, and hunt in areas without motor vehicles. Whatever your experience, the Forest Service needs to hear how the elimination of the Travel Planning Rule will affect you across Montana’s public lands.
- Existing travel plans, like the Badger-Two Medicine Travel Plan, reflect years of hard work by local communities, Tribes, the Forest Service, and other parties to manage recreational access responsibly. Though these plans would stay in place, for now, the proposal sets the stage for their elimination or modification by agency officials without a formal public process, which would undue years of hard work and sow conflict between user groups.
How to Submit Comment
Or by mail:
Director, Public Benefits
201 14th Street SW, Public Benefits Office
Washington, D.C. 20250
More Information About the Proposal
The proposed changes would upend 20-years of travel planning, rules that were put in place in response to widespread destruction of public lands caused by poorly managed motor vehicle use, especially off-road vehicles. The proposed revision would:
- Require that all roads, routes, trails and off-road areas (besides Wilderness) be open to motorized travel unless explicitly closed, the opposite of the current approach.
- Retain existing travel plans but require officials to consider modifying them annually with less public review, as well as opening other currently closed roads, routes, trails or areas.
- No longer require the Forest Service to minimize resource damage or user conflicts when making travel management decisions.
- Allow motorized class-1 e-bikes on every trail where non-motorized bikes are allowed.
- Establish conditions to expand backcountry airstrips.