Colorado Travel and Transportation

Rock Crawler in Kremmling.

Travel and transportation are an integral part of virtually every activity that occurs on public lands. The BLM uses comprehensive travel management to determine why and how to manage roads, trail systems and associated areas on public land to best meet transportation needs. Travel management looks at all forms of transportation including travel by foot, horseback and mechanized vehicles such as bikes, as well as all motorized vehicles.

Bike rider at Kokopellis Trailhead

We started assigning all public lands an off-highway vehicle designation in the early 1980s. Public lands may be open, limited or closed to motorized vehicles to best protect the land's important resources.

  • Open: All vehicle use is unrestricted at all times, anywhere in the area.
  • Limited: Vehicle use is restricted in certain areas, at certain times, or to certain types of vehicles.
  • Closed: All vehicle use is prohibited.

BLM Colorado manages 8.3 million acres of public land. Of these lands, 42 percent are open, 48 percent are limited and 10 percent are closed.

Point of Contact

Jack Placchi
303-239-3832
jplacchi@blm.gov

The Process

There are three main components of travel and transportation management: travel route inventory, land use planning decisions and implementation decisions.

Travel Route Inventory

A travel route inventory provides baseline data about all routes on BLM lands, including their existing conditions. Inventories result in detailed maps, photos and attributes of each travel route on public lands within the field office. The objective of the process is to accurately portray the existing transportation system, not to make decisions on its management.

Land Use Planning Decisions

Resource Management Plans provide direction for subsequent site-specific implementation decisions. This results in the designation of all BLM lands within a field office as open, limited or closed. These are area decisions, not travel route decisions.

Implementation Decisions

Final decisions on routes are made through travel management plans. When these plans are completed, they are implemented on-the-ground with signage, route reclamation, and route construction or reconstruction as well as with monitoring, enforcement and education.