DENVER — Significant swaths of Colorado’s public forests and hills could open up to motorized travel under a rule change proposed by the U.S. Forest Service.

The change, if approved, would upend a decades-old standard. Instead of closing roads and trails to motorized traffic unless otherwise noted, the new rule would open them to all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other machinery by default, unless they’re explicitly closed to such traffic.

The proposed change to the agency’s travel management rule would also eliminate a standard that requires federal land managers to minimize environmental harm and conflict between users when deciding whether to open a trail or road to motorized vehicles.

The rule is the framework Forest Service officials use when deciding which roads and trails should be open to motorized travel. The Forest Service is the largest public lands management agency in Colorado, where it oversees 11.3 million acres of land crisscrossed by thousands of miles of roads and trails. The land managed by the agency in Colorado spans more than 17,600 square miles — larger than the states of Maryland, Delaware and Rhode Island combined.

“Travel management sounds anodyne and wonky, but in many ways it’s how visitors are going to experience their national forests,” said Dan Hartinger, the senior director of policy advocacy for The Wilderness Society.

Environmental and wilderness advocacy groups have raised alarm about the proposed changes made public last month. But people who use motorized vehicles on public lands say the change could rebalance a planning process that tilted against them.

The change to the travel rule follows several other major policy shifts for the 200 million acres managed nationally by the Forest Service. Most notably, the agency is pursuing a repeal of its roadless rule, which banned logging and the construction of roads in vast swaths of wilderness, though the proposed rescission would not affect Colorado.

Forest Service leaders framed the changes to the travel rule as needed deregulation and an effort to increase access to public lands. The proposed change would make the travel-planning process “less burdensome, more efficient and timelier, and more responsive to recreational and other access needs on forests and grasslands across the country,” according to the notice published by the agency.

“The Forest Service administers more than 380,000 miles of road, exceeding the length of the U.S. Interstate Highway System by nearly eight times, and 165,000 miles of trails,” Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz said in a news release announcing the proposed changes last month. “This action provides the legal foundation to streamline and modernize the Travel Management Rule and align Forest Service policy with administration priorities to increase access and protect private and commercial interests, while conserving natural resources.”

The proposed rule would also open the door to using motorized vehicles off trails and roads to retrieve hunted game animals, collect firewood and camp. In addition, the notice proposes categorizing e-bikes as nonmotorized travel, which could allow them to be used on trails that allow non-electric bikes.

‘A free-for-all for trails and roads’

Conservation groups opposed to the proposed changes to the 2005 travel rule cited concerns that increasing motorized access would harm wildlife and ecosystems. It could also create conflict between motorized users and those who seek quieter experiences in nature.

“There will essentially be a free-for-all for trails and roads and anything that looks like a trail or road on Forest Service land,” said Tom Delehanty, a senior attorney with Earthjustice’s Rocky Mountain office.

There’s a tipping point at which road density begins to impact wildlife reproduction rates, especially in large mammals like elk, mule deer and bears, Hartinger said. An increasing number of studies also connect increased noise to negative wildlife outcomes, he said.

Increased motorized use could also increase wildfire risk, Delehanty said. More than half of wildfires in the western U.S. are ignited by people, according to data and research collected by the Forest Service. Increased access raises the risk, Delehanty said.

The proposed change would not apply to wilderness areas, Hartinger said, like the popular Indian Peaks Wilderness in the Front Range and the iconic Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness near Aspen. While wilderness areas are protected from motorized travel by law, the broader Forest Service land that surrounds them would become more open to motorized use.

Increased motorized access on trails and roads that lead to wilderness areas could result in more driving in the areas, whether those drivers are breaking the law intentionally or not, Hartinger said.

For Coloradans who use ATVs, dirt bikes and off-road vehicles on public lands, the proposed change is a welcome update.

“I think it’s needed and overdue,” said Marcus Trusty, the founder and president of Colorado Off Road Enterprise, a volunteer advocacy group working to keep trails open to motorized use. “What I anticipate is the new rule will make it more balanced.”

A paradigm shift welcomed by some

For years, if the off-roading community wanted to use a trail or road, it had to prove motorized travel would minimally impact an area.

The rule change would flip the burden of proof, Trusty said.

He challenged the concept of separating nonmotorized and motorized users of public lands. Most people use cars and trucks on Forest Service roads to access trailheads and rivers in national forests, he noted. While he loves off-roading, he also hikes, backpacks and climbs, he said.

“We don’t want unchecked, unfettered access and people destroying things on the national forest,” Trusty said. “We just want the opportunity for the public to enjoy places we like to go.”

It’s unclear how and when Forest Service officials will implement any changes on the ground if it amends the rule. The federal notice states that the rule change would guide future decisions “and would not itself change the legal status of any road, trail, airfield, trailhead, area, or other access route or point.”

But the notice also outlines a proposed new requirement that local Forest Service offices annually review trails and roads in their jurisdictions that may warrant consideration to open to motorized access.

It’s unclear how Forest Service offices — already understaffed and underfunded — will manage the additional work on top of an already massive backlog of trail and road maintenance work, Hartinger said.

“Coloradans have, in some ways, a lot of skin in the game because Colorado is home to two of the top 10 most-visited national forests in the country,” Hartinger said, referencing the White River National Forest and the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests.

The Forest Service is accepting public comment on the proposed rule change through Sept. 23. People can submit comments online through the Federal Register.

The agency intends to publish its preliminary analysis of the environmental impact of the rule change next spring and make a final decision in early 2028.

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