Conservation & Disability Groups Denounce Senators Lee and Curtis’ Latest Deceptively-Named, Anti-Public-Lands Bill – 10.14.25

“Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act” is a Trojan Horse to blanket National Parks and other wild public lands with motorized vehicles

Contacts:
Laura Peterson, Staff Attorney, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA); (801) 236-3762, (laura@suwa.org)
Greg Lais, founder of Wilderness Inquiry, (612) 840-5844; (greglais11@gmail.com)
Syren Nagakyrie, founder of Disabled Hikers, (971) 352-1305; (syren@disabledhikers.com)
Anneka Williams, Policy Director, Winter Wildlands Alliance (208) 629-1986; (awilliams@winterwildlands.org) 

Washington, DC – Last week, Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced he had introduced a new, intentionally deceptively-named piece of legislation: the Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act. The bill is also sponsored by Senator John Curtis (R-UT).

This appears to be another case of elected officials introducing legislation in the name of disability access without consulting with a variety of stakeholders and outdoor recreationalists who have disabilities. There are already provisions in federal law that allow people with mobility disabilities to appropriately access public lands with other power-driven mobility devices (OPDMDs). 

Syren Nagakyrie, Founder and Director of Disabled Hikers, a non-profit organization that advocates for the disability community and justice in the outdoors, has previously denounced the legislation as a “blatant attempt to scapegoat disability as an excuse to build more roads.” Nagakyrie spoke more about this on KJZZ and on this episode of “The Landscape” podcast. 

Below are statements from conservation and disability groups and additional information about the legislation. 

“The notion that ATV’s and other motorized vehicles are necessary for people with disabilities to access public lands was debunked long ago after Utah Senator Orrin Hatch included Section 507 of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990,” said Greg Lais, founder of Wilderness Inquiry and author of several congressional reports and books on the topic of access to the outdoors. “If legislators care about people with disabilities, they will oppose cuts to Medicaid and vital services to the disabled community. The ‘Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act’ is nothing more than a ruse to use people with disabilities to open more public lands to ATV’s.” 

“The Americans with Disabilities Act is landmark civil rights legislation that disability rights activists fought for decades to achieve, and the principles of which Senator Lee has repeatedly voted against. In contrast, it appears that the “Outdoors Americans with Disabilities Act” does not have input from the broader disability community and prioritizes one type of access at the expense of all others,” said Syren Nagakyrie, Founder and Director of Disabled Hikers. “It is shameful that he would so blatantly use the disability community in his ongoing attempts to dismantle public lands, build and prioritize roads, and sell lands to the highest bidder. People with disabilities are not political pawns to be used while catering to special interests.”

“As a disabled person in America, I recognize this proposed bill for what it is: a Trojan horse using our bodies as justification for an agenda that endangers public lands through unchecked development and exploitation,” said Vasu Sojitra, Winter Wildlands Alliance Ambassador. “This administration has made its priorities clear; its pursuit of personal and political gain has eroded the trust of Americans with disabilities, especially after repeated attempts to weaken the ADA and slash Medicaid and Medicare support. Passing this bill would do nothing more than line the pockets of corrupt politicians.”

“There are tens of thousands of miles of paved and dirt roads and trails across public lands in Utah that are open to motorized users of all abilities,” said Laura Peterson, Staff Attorney at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA). “This bill puts a heavy thumb on the scale to open even more lands to this single use, while making it virtually impossible for federal land managers to close routes to protect other values like wildlife habitat and quiet recreation.”

“The proposed bill uses adaptive recreation as a scapegoat to further advance an agenda that favors development and unsustainable use of our public lands,” said Anneka Williams, Policy Director at Winter Wildlands Alliance. “Public lands are intended to balance multiple uses. This bill overemphasizes motorized use and road development at the expense of many other uses and values, including conservation protections and non-motorized recreation.”

“Great Old Broads for Wilderness was founded in 1989 in response to then-U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch’s claim that new roads were needed in a proposed Utah wilderness area for ‘the aged and infirm.’ We were offended that stereotypes about our age were being used as an excuse to carve roads into pristine areas. The newly-proposed ‘Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act’ from Sen. Mike Lee is a similarly cynical attempt to use stereotypes—this time of the disabled community—as an excuse to build or reopen thousands of miles of roads and prioritize motor vehicle traffic on federal public lands, regardless of the impacts on wildlife habitat, cultural sites, or non-motorized recreation,” said Reba Elliott, Executive Director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness. “This proposed legislation is not about increasing accessibility to nature for people with disabilities. It’s entirely about increasing accessibility for motorized vehicles to places where cars, trucks, and ATV’s shouldn’t be.”

The Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act would: 

• Prioritize motorized recreation at the expense of natural and cultural resources, requiring federal land managers to designate motorized vehicle routes regardless of impacts to cultural sites, wildlife habitat, waterways, natural quiet, and non-motorized recreationists. 

• Require federal land managers to revisit trail and road closures made over the past 10 years, with a thumb on the scale that those closures be reversed.

• Indefinitely prohibit federal land managers from closing tens of thousands of miles of state and county claimed rights-of-way in National Parks, National Recreation Areas, Wilderness and Wilderness Study Areas, and other wild public lands, no matter the resource damage or user conflicts created by motorized use. In Utah alone, that’s more than 12,000 miles of dirt roads and trails.

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Wilderness Inquiry was founded in 1978 by Greg Lais after the Minnesota governor tried to use disability as an excuse to allow motors in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. In 47 years of wilderness adventures, Lais and others have taken thousands of participants experiencing a wide range of disabilities into wildlands across the nation and around the globe. Today, Wilderness Inquiry’s mission is to connect people of all ages, backgrounds, identities, and abilities through shared outdoor adventures so that all people can equitably experience the benefits of time spent in nature.

Disabled Hikers is a nonprofit organization working towards a vision of an outdoor culture transformed by access, representation, and justice for Disabled and all other marginalized people. The organization is entirely Disabled-led and rooted in disability awareness, disability justice, and collective liberation. Based in the Pacific Northwest, with a nationwide network of disabled people and our allies, Disabled Hikers offer programs and services that create pathways for access to outdoor spaces, grow community and awareness, and work toward disability justice. Learn more at www.disabledhikers.com

The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) is a nonprofit organization with members and supporters from around the country dedicated to protecting America’s redrock wilderness. From offices in Moab, Salt Lake City, and Washington, DC, our team of professionals defends the redrock, organizes support for America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, and stewards this world-renowned landscape. Learn more at www.suwa.org.

Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA) is a national non-profit conservation organization representing the interests of human-powered winter recreationists. We work to inspire and empower people to protect America’s wild snowscapes. Our alliance includes 32 grassroots groups in 16 states, and has a collective membership exceeding 130,000. Learn more at www.winterwildlands.org. 

Great Old Broads for Wilderness is the only national environmental organization led by older women who preserve and protect the lands and waters we love and rely on. For more information, please visit our website at GreatOldBroads.org.