Land Use Primer
We often think of land in the United States as being either private or public. Which, broadly speaking, is correct, but public land falls under the jurisdiction of a myriad of government agencies at both the federal and state levels. When it comes to recreation on public land, the exact agency responsible for the managing of that land and its classification determines acceptable uses and our access to it.
The first step to understanding these restrictions is knowing which agencies govern their use and their classifications. The sections below cover each type of public land you're likely to run into, with a focus on winter recreation.
US Forest Service Land
When it comes to winter recreation, most of our time is spent on land managed by the United States Forest Service (USFS). The USFS manages National Forests under a "multiple use" mandate, meaning the land is expected to serve resource extraction and recreation simultaneously.
For recreation, this makes USFS land the most permissive of the federal categories. Backcountry skiing, dispersed camping, and (in designated areas) snowmobiling are generally allowed without a permit. Most lift-served ski resorts in the western US operate on National Forest land under special use permits, which gives the USFS some say in how they operate.
In the summer, a Northwest Forest Pass or the interagency/America the Beautiful pass is required at many trailheads. In the winter, trailhead parking often coexists with commercial ski areas or, here in Washington, is through state-run Sno-Parks instead (see the State land section below). In the spring, many summer hiking trailheads act as access points for backcountry skiing that is mostly inaccessible during the winter.
Interestingly, the USFS is under the umbrella of the US Department of Agriculture as opposed to the Department of the Interior. This is the source of some surprisingly different interpretations of laws between it and the National Park Service. More on that below.
National Park Service Land
The main government agency that most people associate with public recreation land is our National Parks. This land is managed by the National Park Service. Unlike USFS land, the National Parks are typically more actively managed and have better funding in exchange for entry fees. Park land is primarily reserved for recreation and conservation purposes rather than resource extraction as in the case of National Forests.
Access may also be more restrictive than USFS land. Some areas require daily entry fees, daily reservations (typically in the summer months), or seasonal passes. Overnight stays often require permits and some areas may only be open during certain times of day. These are all highly variable depending on specific location and time of year.
With regards to winter recreation, while there are three lift-served ski areas operating within National Parks (Hurricane Ridge in Washington, Badger Pass in Yosemite, and Boston Mills Brandywine in Ohio), the majority of winter recreation in National Parks is limited to backcountry access.
Wilderness Areas
Wilderness areas were created by the 1964 Wilderness Act. These are areas of public land that have been reserved by Congress for present and future generations. The Act defines wilderness as:
An area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain (Section 2(c))
As the Wilderness Act is currently written, these lands must remain in their absolute natural state. This means no road building, resource extraction, structure erection, or mechanized use (such as snowmobiles or bicycles) is allowed. In the winter they are often used for backcountry skiing, but typically access to this land is limited due to lack of infrastructure to access deeply into them during the winter.
Wilderness land can only be created, modified, or removed by an act of Congress. The underlying land may fall under the jurisdiction of various government agencies such as the USFS or the National Park Service, typically depending on who managed the land prior to the creation of a particular wilderness area.
The underlying governing agency has implications for exactly what is acceptable use within the wilderness area. For example, the Wilderness Act specifies that mechanical use is disallowed except "as necessary to meet minimum requirements for the administration of the area for the purpose of this chapter (including measures required in emergencies involving the health and safety of persons within the area)" (Section 4(c)). This is open to interpretation. For example, the National Park Service permits chainsaw use in wilderness areas for trail management, whereas the USFS considers this a violation of the Wilderness Act and does not permit them.
Regardless, wilderness areas are easily the most restrictive and protected type of public land. The Wilderness Act created strong and enduring protections for this land against any type of development or mechanized use now and indefinitely into the future.
Roadless Areas
Note: As of 2025, roadless areas are in flux due to the Trump Administration proposing rescinding the federal registry rule that created them.
To make matters more confusing, a roadless area is somewhat like a wilderness area, but with less restrictions. In 2001, one of the final acts of the Clinton Administration was to establish the 2001 Roadless Rule. This was done by creating a rule in the Federal Registry disallowing further development in established roadless areas. This made these areas into a sort of wilderness area-lite with similar usage restrictions, but flimsier protections.
However, unlike wilderness areas which were created through an act of Congress and carried the force of law behind them, roadless areas were created by executive action meaning any future President could modify or remove their restrictions with a simple stroke of the pen. This is what happened in 2025-2026 when the Trump Administration started the process to rescind the roadless rule.
What are roadless areas though? When the 1964 Wilderness Act was passed it created a few Wilderness Areas, but far fewer than currently exist today. The issue at the time was there was no nationwide inventory of undeveloped land that could be a candidate for wilderness areas. Thus, in the 1970s, RARE I and RARE II or the Roadless Area Review and Evaluations, were undertaken to inventory these lands (this process was beleaguered by court challenges and continued into the 2000s). Some of that land was Congressionally reserved as wilderness and the rest remained designated as roadless. It was only in 2001 when the Roadless Rule was established that these lands were granted the protections that we knew for the past roughly quarter century.
When it comes to winter recreation, many wilderness areas are surrounded by roadless areas and many of our ski areas in Washington are adjacent to roadless areas as well. Thus, a considerable amount of backcountry access is either in roadless areas or initially passes through roadless areas before reaching deeper wilderness areas.
National Recreation Areas
A National Recreation Area (NRA) is similar to a wilderness area in classification: It is created through an act of Congress and will be administered by some agency either the USFS, National Park Service, or Bureau of Land Management. The exact acceptable uses, however, will vary site-to-site.
Traditionally, the first NRAs were established around newly built dams and used to manage recreational boating on their reservoirs. The first being the Lake Mead NRA after the construction on the Hoover Dam. Here in Washington, a similar NRA exists within the North Cascades National Park with the Ross Lake NRA. This is why, despite being within the park and surrounded by wilderness areas, motorized boating is allowed on Ross and Diablo lakes.
Another notable NRA exists on Mt. Baker, appropriately named the Mt. Baker NRA. While most of Mt. Baker is classified as wilderness, the southern portion of it is an NRA. The image above shows the wilderness area shaded over Mt. Baker with a slice on the south face, covering Schriber’s Meadow, as the NRA. In the winter, this is what permits motorized snowmobile use up to fairly high elevations on the volcano.
State Land
Stepping down to the state level, state governments typically own some land of their own as well. This is public land, but will have different restrictions based on the values of the individual state.
Here in Washington, this is where the difference between the federal interagency/America the Beautiful pass (or Northwest Forest Pass) and the state's Discover Pass comes into play. Federal land requires the former whereas state land requires the latter.
In the winter, the main state-level offering in Washington for winter recreation is the Sno-Park program run by Washington State Parks. Sno-Parks are plowed parking areas that provide access to groomed and ungroomed winter trails for snowshoeing, XC skiing, and snowmobiles, depending on location. The Sno-Park program manages over 100 Sno-Parks throughout the state. Many of these sit either on USFS land directly or lead onto such land. In those cases, the state simply manages parking at the trailheads while the USFS manages the land beyond them.
BLM Land
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), part of the Department of the Interior, manages the largest share of federal land in the US. Most of this is in the interior West. Like the USFS, it operates under a multiple-use mandate and access is generally open without a permit.
In practice, however, BLM land matters little for winter recreation in Washington. What BLM land Washington has is scattered and mostly low-elevation in eastern Washington.
Private Land
Private land is, of course, not for public use, and there is no general right to cross or recreate on it. Landowners can restrict access, and trespassing laws apply even if unsigned. That said, Washington has a recreational use statute (RCW 4.24.200) that limits landowner liability when they allow the public to use their land for free, which is one reason some owners choose to leave access open to the public.
The main complication is that private land is often interspersed with public land. Inholdings within National Parks and National Forests, and parcels that sit between a road and a public trailhead, can make a seemingly public route legally off limits. In those situations, checking ownership with a mapping app that shows parcel boundaries before assuming a route is open is a best practice.
Timberland
A notable sub-type of private land is timberland owned by logging companies. Much of this land is a legacy of 19th-century railroad land grants, which gave the railroads alternating square-mile sections along their routes. The result is a "checkerboard" of private timberland and public land, especially along corridors such as Snoqualmie Pass.
Some logging companies allow for public recreational access, both motorized and non-motorized through the sale of yearly recreation passes. These are highly location and company specific. Access will change seasonally depending on conditions and logging activity.
Typically not much winter recreation happens on timberland since the terrain is not well suited for it. However, there are cases where timberland adjacent to public land creates access issues due to no public right-of-way to said public land. For example, access to the Sisters near Mt. Baker requires a recreation permit from Hampton Lumber for travel through their land before entering public land.
Reservation Land
Tribal reservations are sovereign lands governed by the tribal nations themselves and are therefore not public land. Access for recreation generally requires permission or a permit from the tribe, and rules differ from nation to nation.
In practice, this does not affect much winter recreation in Washington. One notable area is Mt. Adams, where the volcano is split roughly equally with the west side being public National Forest land and the east being Yakima Reservation land and closed to public use.
Why does this matter?
While public land may be public, not all public land is equal. The governing agency for a piece of land affects your recreation access to it and what you can do on it.
For our work here at Cascade Backcountry Alliance, understanding the different types of public land is critical for our advocacy work. The ownership of a particular piece of land fundamentally shapes how we look at it, which government agencies we engage with regarding it, and how we propose it be managed/accessed.
Exploring these lands
If all of this seems confusing (which it definitely is!), poke around on BLM's map of public lands or https://publiclandsatlas.com. Try taking some of your favorite recreation spots and see which type of land they are and who is responsible for administrating them!
Comments