Fifty years of rules keeping off-road vehicles on designated trails — GONE.
Lifted trucks, ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles.
Anywhere they want. On your public lands.
Nixon protected it. Carter protected it. Trump just erased both quietly on a Friday afternoon.
A grizzly bear will abandon its habitat when there's just one mile of road per square mile. One mile. Now there's no limit on where these vehicles can go.
In the Mojave, desert tortoises have already lost 96% of their population in some monitored areas - partly because off-road vehicles crush their burrows. A federal judge just ordered 2,200 miles of trails closed to protect what's left.
Then Trump signed this.
No designated trails. No boundaries. No framework at all. When vehicles go off trail they shatter habitat into pieces too small for wildlife to survive in. They destroy stream banks. They push predators toward humans. And when that happens, the animals always lose.
There was no vote. No public comment. Just a signature.
Now the agencies tasked with writing replacement rules are the BLM, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service - all under an administration that has spent months dismantling every protection they had.
The Interior Department, led by Doug Burgum, is in charge of most of it. The same Doug Burgum who has opened public lands to drilling, mining, and grazing at every turn.
Don't hold your breath.
When the last quiet place is gone, what do we tell the children who never got to hear it?
#DemsUnited
→ Backcountry hunters and anglers are sounding the alarm too - and when the hunting community and environmentalists are saying the same thing, you know something has gone very wrong. Outdoor Life breaks down exactly what was just erased and why it matters to everyone who loves wild places.
outdoorlife.com/conservation/o…
→ Just weeks before Trump signed this order, a federal judge shut down 2,200 miles of off-road trails in the Mojave to save what's left of the desert tortoise. The Spokesman-Review took you into that desert. What they found will stay with you.
spokesman.com/stories/2026/f…
→ "Reckless and nonsensical." That's what wildlife defenders are calling this. The Guardian has the full picture of what's at stake - every species, every ecosystem, every acre. And the quote at the end from the Forest Service will make your blood boil.
theguardian.com/us-news/2026/j…
→ For every vehicle now allowed anywhere on your public lands, see the infographic👇
The fight 💪 isn't over. Environmental groups are watching the rule-making process closely and will mobilize when public comment opens. Until then here are organizations on the ground protecting what's left:
Defenders of Wildlife - defenders.org
Center for Biological Diversity - biologicaldiversity.org
Backcountry Hunters and Anglers - backcountryhunters.org
Desert Tortoise Council - deserttortoise.org
The land is still there. The animals are still there. And so are the people fighting for them.
A few thoughts before I end this 🧵
These lands were here before us.
The tortoise, the grizzly, the sage and the stream - they don’t know who signed what or when. They only know whether they’re safe or they’re not.
That has always been on us.
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