A Measurement Decides a Trail’s FateFifty inches. That’s the width of a bath towel laid out flat, or two dining chairs pushed together. It’s also the number a lawyer, not an engineer, chose twenty-five years ago to decide which off-road routes across 44 million acres of national forest are legally protected from repair and which ones aren’t. Twenty-five years.
The U.S. Forest Service just opened a rulemaking process that could reshape how motorized vehicles are allowed to move through national forests and grasslands nationwide.Not a proposed rule yet. Just the opening bell – and the window to speak up is now, before that proposal gets written.
Not every closure is a bad thing. I know – coming from me, that probably sounds surprising. But hear me out.
The San Dimas Experimental Forest, tucked into the hills north of Glendora in the Angeles National Forest, has been closed to public recreation since March 23, 2026 – and unlike some closures I could name, this one makes sense to me.
California State Parks purchases the NoraBella parcel for $2.415 million, adding ridged forest and creeks to California’s oldest state park.The acquisition — the park’s first acreage addition since Little Basin in 2011 — is a strategic move in the broader Reimagining Big Basin effort born out of the 2020 CZU wildfire. Planners see NoraBella as a natural approach to rebuilding a visitor experience: space for a welcome area at Saddle Mountain, room for shuttle access that keeps parking and buildings away from the most sensitive old-growth trees, and sites for operations that let the core groves heal while still welcoming visitors. California State Parks is advancing a facilities plan, general plan amendment, and environmental review to guide rebuilding. Continue reading
United States District Court Orders OHV Route Closures in the West Mojave DesertA federal judge has handed down a decision that will reshape how we use some of the Mojave’s most familiar dirt.
A January 2026 ruling against the Bureau of Land Management requires the closure of up to 2,200 miles of off-highway vehicle routes inside designated Desert Tortoise Critical Habitat unless and until the BLM completes a new route designation plan. The closures could begin as soon as March 2026. There are many hard conversations ahead.
