President Trump Rescinds Long Standing Executive Orders Designed to Conserve Wildlife and Federal Lands from Unmanaged Motorized Recreation

President Trump last Friday issued an Executive Order rescinding EOs 11644 and 11989 which guide the management of ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles, jet skis and other off-road motorized vehicles on federal lands. President Trump also ordered federal agencies to rescind or revise regulations that implement the prior EOs.

"This rescission is yet another loss for wildlife and natural places," said Vera Smith, director of national forests and public lands for Defenders of Wildlife. "Removing common-sense tools for managing all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles on public lands is reckless and nonsensical."

Background

The Nixon Administration put EO 11644 into place over 50 years ago to reduce impacts resulting from off-road vehicles to wildlife, water quality and other resources and to reduce conflicts with other federal lands uses. President Jimmy Carter later amended it with EO 11989.

The EOs require the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and other federal land management agencies - that collectively manage about 30% of the United State's land base - to locate off-road vehicle trails and areas to minimize harassment to wildlife or significant disruption of wildlife habitats, as well as minimize conflicts with other uses - e.g., bird watching, hiking, fishing and horseback riding.

These measures are significant for conserving wildlife such as desert tortoise, snowy plover, lynx and sage-grouse. Habitat loss, including from roads and off-road vehicles, is a leading threat to species. Off-road vehicles can contribute to species loss when routes are carved through wildlife habitat, fragmenting it into smaller and less functional tracts. Places with dense route networks are not as capable of providing suitable habitat for aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. For instance, bull trout typically cease to occur where road densities exceed 1.7 miles per square mile, and grizzly bears begin to leave places when densities rise over one mile per square mile.

In his EO, President Trump claims that operational and technological developments over the last 50 years have eliminated the need for EOs11644 and 11989. In fact, the opposite is true. Today's off-road vehicles are more powerful than those that existed 50 years ago and more capable of inflicting environmental damage absent thoughtful siting and planning for their use. President Trump also claims that other environmental laws and regulations are sufficient to manage off-road vehicles without EOs11644 and 11989 and related regulations. The claim is deceptive given that this administration is systematically weakening these laws and attempting to bypass their requirements under the pretense of energy, timber and border emergencies.

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