This bill, the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act, directs the Secretaries in charge of National Forest System land and Interior lands to update travel and motor vehicle use plans and maps. It defines "disability-accessible land" as each square mile that has at least 2.5 miles of authorized road for motorized or off-road vehicle use. The bill requires officials to count approved road length per square mile, to prioritize roads that give access to many kinds of recreation, and to work with Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments when identifying routes. Secretaries can revise routes and must keep roads that are subject to unresolved 2477 claims open until those claims are settled.
The bill limits when roads may be closed. For disability-accessible land, officials generally may not close roads if doing so would make the land lose its disability-accessible status, except for short-term emergency roads or roads that pose a direct threat to health or safety and meet specific procedures. For other public land, officials should consider reopening roads closed in the 10 years before the bill and generally should not close additional roads unless there is a direct health or safety threat and required procedures are followed. Roads used for fuels reduction, wildfire response, or search and rescue must not be closed. The bill requires notice and a public hearing on closures (which may happen after an emergency closure), allows nomination and establishment of replacement roads within one year of a closure, and creates a rebuttable presumption that roads remain open. Certain closures and new road establishments are categorically excluded from routine NEPA review unless extraordinary circumstances exist. The Secretaries may issue or revise regulations to carry out these rules. The bill also says it does not stop the development of new roads and does not create new roads in wilderness, inventoried roadless areas, congressionally designated primitive areas, or most units of the National Park System.
No publicly available information.
The bill directs agencies to keep and plan motorized access so that public land can meet a defined standard of "disability-accessible land," to prioritize roads that provide access to many kinds of recreation, and to work with other governments when identifying routes. It also emphasizes keeping roads open, providing public notice, and allowing new road nominations and replacements.
No publicly available information.