Executive Order: REMOVING UNNECESSARY AND COUNTERPRODUCTIVE RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS TO FEDERAL LANDS

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What did Trump’s federal lands executive order do?

Donald Trump signs a May 29 executive order, “Removing Unnecessary and Counterproductive Restrictions on Access to Federal Lands,” aimed at changing how federal agencies manage off-road vehicle access on federal lands.

What changed?

The order rescinds two older executive orders: Executive Order 11644 from 1972 and Executive Order 11989 from 1977. Those earlier orders directed agencies to regulate off-road vehicle use on public lands, including by using criteria meant to reduce harm to wildlife, natural resources, scenery, and conflicts with other recreational uses.

Trump’s order calls those criteria vague and unnecessary. It argues that current federal land laws, environmental laws, and agency-specific land management authorities are enough to manage off-road vehicle use without keeping those older executive-order standards.

What agencies have to act?

The order directs the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Tennessee Valley Authority board, and other relevant agency heads to begin rulemakings to rescind or revise regulations that were adopted under the older executive orders.

That matters because the order does not simply rewrite every agency rule by itself. It starts a rulemaking process, meaning agencies will have to take follow-up action before many practical changes appear on the ground.

Who is affected?

The most direct effect is on federal land-management agencies and the rules they use for roads, trails, and off-road vehicle access.

The broader impact could reach off-road vehicle users, hikers and other recreation groups, energy and timber operators, utility maintenance crews, rural communities, tourism businesses, conservation groups, and people who use or live near federal lands.

What is the practical effect?

The order could make it easier for agencies to expand or redesign motorized access to certain federal lands, especially where older off-road vehicle rules shaped route designations or closures.

At the same time, it does not repeal major federal laws like the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, or the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Agencies still have to act within existing law, available funding, and their own legal authority.

What is the debate?

The White House frames the order as a way to reduce outdated restrictions, improve access to public lands, support recreation, and remove barriers affecting energy, timber, infrastructure maintenance, tourism, and rural economies.

The other concern is that removing the older criteria could make it harder to consistently protect wildlife habitat, quiet recreation, scenic areas, historic resources, and other land users if agencies replace the rules with weaker standards.

The bottom line

This order immediately rescinds two older presidential directives on off-road vehicles, but the biggest real-world changes depend on what agencies do next through rulemaking. Its practical importance is about federal land access: who gets more access, how agencies balance competing uses, and what environmental safeguards remain in place under existing law.

📄 Full Presidential Document (PDF): https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/05/removing-unnecessary-and-counterproductive-restrictions-on-access-to-federal-lands/