Articles: Overlanding
Presidents have closed millions of acres to motorized use through national monument designations, with no vote in Congress. The LANDs Act (H.R. 10669) would limit new monuments to 640 acres and send larger withdrawals to Congress. Tell your members of Congress to support it.
New Jersey’s largest block of public land, Wharton State Forest, is down to 233 miles of open roads out of roughly 510 mapped. H.R. 8924 would add 23 river segments to a federal study that can bring permits, quotas, and added review for the crossings that reach the water. BRC breaks down what the bill does and why a state with this little public land cannot afford another layer of closures.
The 2025 Bears Ears Management Plan closes 591,185 acres to OHV use, caps group sizes, and bans most motorized events, and Congress now has a way to overturn it. BRC overwhelmingly supports the Congressional Review Act resolution that would void the plan and block BLM from reissuing it. Use BRC’s action alert to tell your members of Congress to vote yes.
BLM Director Steve Pearce signed the All Americans Outside Initiative in Moab and said it is personal, because his brother has used a wheelchair for 50 years. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance protesters showed up anyway, but the Outdoor ADA would lock that in by law instead of leaving it to one administration. Contact your representatives and tell them to support it.
More than 45 million Americans live with a disability that can depend on motorized access to reach public land. BRC took six advocates to Capitol Hill to make that case directly to lawmakers backing the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act. Meet the advocates who made the trip and hear why they made it.
Nearly 14,000 acres of free dispersed camping outside Zion National Park are set to close under the BLM’s SR9 decision. BRC has filed a formal appeal with the Interior Board of Land Appeals, built out of the agency’s own record and impact statements from our members and supporters. Here is what we argued and how you can support the legal fight.
The Forest Service’s decades-old Travel Management Rule that decides where you can ride across 380,000 miles of national forest roads is finally getting a revision. BRC backs the Forest Service’s plan to drop the minimization standard, recognize e-bikes, and fix the maps riders can’t trust. And the Forest Service wants to know what routes should be reopened. Comments are due September 23, 2026.
Grizzly populations in Yellowstone and the Northern Continental Divide recovered and expanded for three decades with the existing forest road network in place, which is the opposite of what road-density models predicted. BRC is asking the Fish and Wildlife Service to write the revised 4(d) rule around that record instead of around formulas from the early 1990s. Submit your comment before August 17.
The Bears Ears recreation restrictions were real, they were written down, and almost none of them had been enforced yet. That gap is what lets groups defending the 2025 monument plan claim it never restricted recreation. See what the plan actually said about hiking, OHV, mountain bikes, camping, climbing and dogs across 1.36 million acres of public land.
Trump’s OHV executive order rescinded the Nixon and Carter orders that agencies used to close trails for 50 years. There will be no free-for-all, but the minimization criteria that shut down 2,200 miles in WEMO and 317 miles in Moab is gone. Here is how the reopening will actually play out, and where BRC needs your comments and support.