Commercial enterprises, roads, motor vehicles, motorized equipment, motorboats, aircraft, aircraft landing facilities, airdrops, structures, and cutting of trees.
36 C.F.R. § 293.6
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01Except as provided in the Wilderness Act, subsequent legislation establishing a particular Wilderness unit, or §§ 294.2(b), 294.2(c), and 294.2(e), paragraphs (c) and (d) of this section, and §§ 293.7, 293.8, and 293.12 through 293.16, inclusive, and subject to existing rights, there shall be in National Forest Wilderness no commercial enterprises; no temporary or permanent roads; no aircraft landing strips; no heliports or helispots, no use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment, motorboats, or other forms of mechanical transport; no landing of aircraft; no dropping of materials, supplies, or persons from aircraft; no structures or installations; and no cutting of trees for nonwilderness purposes.
(a) Mechanical transport, as herein used, shall include any contrivance which travels over ground, snow, or water on wheels, tracks, skids, or by floatation and is propelled by a nonliving power source contained or carried on or within the device.
(b) Motorized equipment, as herein used, shall include any machine activated by a nonliving power source, except that small battery-powered, hand-carried devices such as flashlights, shavers, and Geiger counters are not classed as motorized equipment.
(c) The Chief, Forest Service, may authorize occupancy and use of National Forest land by officers, employees, agencies, or agents of the Federal, State, and county governments to carry out the purposes of the Wilderness Act and will prescribe conditions under which motorized equipment, mechanical transport, aircraft, aircraft landing strips, heliports, helispots, installations, or structures may be used, transported, or installed by the Forest Service and its agents and by other Federal, State, or county agencies or their agents, to meet the minimum requirements for authorized activities to protect and administer the Wilderness and its resources. The Chief may also prescribe the conditions under which such equipment, transport, aircraft, installations, or structures may be used in emergencies involving the health and safety of persons, damage to property, or other purposes.
(d) The Chief, Forest Service, may permit, subject to such restrictions as he deems desirable, the landing of aircraft and the use of motorboats at places within any Wilderness where these uses were established prior to the date the Wilderness was designated by Congress as a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Chief may also permit the maintenance of aircraft landing strips, heliports, or helispots which existed when the Wilderness was designated by Congress as a unit of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-36.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026