President Trump on Friday rescinded two decades-old executive orders that restricted off-road vehicles on public lands, in a move that could lift prohibitions on their use in most national parks.
The first executive order, signed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972, established strict criteria for the use of off-road vehicles on federal lands, in an effort to minimize their environmental impact. The second, signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, authorized the government to immediately shut down off-road driving if it was causing ecological damage.
Both orders applied to a variety of vehicles designed to drive on unpaved surfaces like dirt, sand, gravel, mud, rocks and snow. That included all-terrain vehicles, dirt bikes and snowmobiles.
In a fact sheet, the White House called both executive orders “outdated and burdensome,” noting that they were issued before the advent of modern technologies that can help the government detect off-road vehicle tracks in sensitive ecosystems.
“President Trump believes the American people should be able to access and enjoy their public lands without being burdened by unnecessary and outdated regulations,” the fact sheet said.
It was the latest move by the Trump administration to prioritize recreation, oil and gas drilling, logging and mining on public lands and waters across the country. The Biden administration, in contrast, had prioritized their use for conservation and renewable energy development.
Last year, the Forest Service moved to open 58 million acres of national forests to road construction and development. And this month, the Bureau of Land Management proposed to repeal a Biden-era rule that allowed public lands to be leased for conservation purposes.
Kate Groetzinger, a spokeswoman for the Center for Western Priorities, a conservation group, sharply criticized the repeal of the executive orders.
“Rescinding guidance meant to reduce conflicts in the backcountry and protect wildlife habitat isn’t popular; that’s why Trump tried to bury it by putting this order out on a Friday evening,” Ms. Groetzinger said in an email.
Steve Bloch, the legal director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, another conservation group, said he worried that the repeal would lead to environmental damage on the state’s public lands, including in the red rock landscapes of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.
“The Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service all already struggle, frankly, to maintain order on Utah’s public lands and protect them from the damaging impacts of off-road vehicles,” he said. “Streams can be degraded; wildlife can be displaced.”
Under the Nixon-era executive order, off-road vehicles could not just drive anywhere in national parks. Instead, the National Park Service was required to designate specific trails and areas where their use would “not adversely affect their natural, aesthetic or scenic values.”
In response, the Park Service has generally prohibited off-road vehicles in most national parks, with some exceptions, such as for snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah and chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, last year introduced two bills that would open more areas in national parks to motorized vehicles. Mr. Lee said at the time that the measures would make the parks more accessible to people with disabilities.
Representatives for Mr. Lee and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Maxine Joselow covers climate change and the environment for The Times from Washington.
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