The Bush gave local managers the authority to decide where visitors can use off-road vehicles in national forests, a move that could reshape how Americans experience the country’s 155 forests and 20 grasslands.

Rather than specifying criteria for designating routes for motorized vehicles, the rules instruct local officials to base decisions on public input, with the aim of minimizing environmental damage and conflicts with other users. This approach drew praise from riders of motorcycles, four-wheel-drives and other off-road vehicles — whose numbers have risen from 5 million in 1972 to 51 million in 2001 — but drew criticism from environmentalists.

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