If you dispersed camp in a national forest, the regulation that decides whether you can legally drive to your site is being rewritten, and the comment window closes September 23, 2026. That is eight days from today.
Start with the part that matters most: nothing has changed. The proposal says it outright. “Existing motor vehicle use designations and maps would remain in effect until revised under the amended regulations.” Your forest’s MVUM still governs your trip this weekend. Under 36 CFR 261.13, read on eCFR September 15, 2026, once routes are designated and shown on a motor vehicle use map it is prohibited to operate a motor vehicle in that unit or ranger district “other than in accordance with those designations,” subject to a short list of exemptions that does not include finding a campsite.
What is being proposed
USDA published a proposed rule and a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement on August 24, 2026. It would revise 36 CFR parts 212 and 261, read September 15, 2026.
The core of it is a national presumption. The proposal would establish a policy that existing roads, trails, airfields, trailheads and other access routes “are open to appropriate public use unless closure or restriction is required by applicable law, valid existing rights, or another governing instrument, or supported by specific, documented and justifiable reasons based on science-based resource conditions, public safety, conflicts among uses, or maintenance and administrative capacity.” It would also require annual review of every route that is closed or highly restricted.
Then the part that touches camping directly. The proposal would “establish processes and conditions for authorizing limited off-route motor vehicle and other motorized equipment use for, among other things, downed big-game retrieval, firewood collection, dispersed camping, and for designating areas for over-snow and other motorized recreation.” The regulations would specify, for each use, whether it runs through a route designation, a written authorization, or a categorical exemption.
The catch worth reading twice
Two of them, actually.
First, the notice says commonly available public data, including aerial imagery, may be evidence that a route physically exists, but “would not by themselves establish that the feature is part of the forest transportation system, that the Forest Service has jurisdiction or sufficient legal access, or that it is open to a particular public use.” A two-track visible on satellite is not a legal route. That has always been true and the proposal says it again.
Second, the notice states that the presumption “would guide future decisions and would not itself change the legal status of any road, trail, airfield, trailhead, area, or other access route or point.” So even if this is adopted as written, no specific road opens the day it takes effect. Route status changes forest by forest, on the forest’s own schedule.
What to do this week
If you want a say, comment by September 23 through regulations.gov under docket FS-2026-0100. Mail works too, to the Director, Public Benefits, 201 14th Street SW, Washington, DC 20250.
If you just want to camp, do nothing differently. Pull the current MVUM for the forest you are heading to and follow it. We covered why that map is a designation and not a default in 36 CFR 212.51, and the national forests hub has the rest. The posted sign and the ranger district’s current guidance beat any website, ours included.