in effect
This is Executive Order 14408, signed May 29, 2026, which cancels two older presidential directives — Executive Order 11644 (1972) and Executive Order 11989 (1977) — that governed how federal agencies designate areas open to off-road vehicle use on public lands. It directs relevant federal agencies to begin formal rulemaking processes to remove or rewrite the regulations that were built around those two now-cancelled orders.
The two 1972 and 1977 orders required agencies to apply specific criteria when deciding where off-road vehicles could be used — such as minimizing wildlife harassment, limiting noise conflicts with other users, and protecting scenic values. Those criteria-based requirements are now eliminated at the presidential-directive level. Federal land management agencies — including the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture and the Tennessee Valley Authority — must now initiate rulemakings to scrap or replace the existing regulations that implemented the old orders. Until those new rules are finalized through the standard regulatory process, existing agency-specific rules remain in effect. Going forward, off-road vehicle use designations will be governed by existing statutes (such as the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act) rather than the additional criteria the cancelled orders imposed.
Recreational users such as off-road vehicle riders, hikers, and hunters who access remote federal lands may see expanded access if agencies open more areas under the new regulatory framework. Energy companies, timber producers, and utility operators that use federal lands and roads could face fewer designation-based permit delays. Federal land management agencies must undertake new rulemaking procedures to bring their off-road vehicle regulations into compliance with the revised direction.